Having trouble viewing this email? Click here April 11, 2022 – 10 Nissan 5782

Desde hace varios años el nombre de Walter Arbib es un sinónimo de solidaridad e iniciativas humanitarias sin límites, como confirma la última operación que se ha llevado a cabo durante estas horas. Se han inviado más de cuatro toneladas de medicamentos a la población ucrania en sufrimiento y se han distribuido en siete hospitales diferentes. La Unión de las Comunidades Judías Italianas también ha participado en esta iniciativa proporcionando siete cajas llenas de material, a través de una coordinación emprendida entre el mismo Arbib y el vicepresidente UCEI Milo Hasbani. Arbib, de 81 años, cuenta: "Nos ha llegado una petición de arriba, del Ministerio de Sanidad de Kiev. Era una especie de lista de deseos en la que se enumeraba todo lo necesario, así que hemos intentado actuar de la manera más rápida y eficaz". El hombre nació en una familia judía de Trípoli y es el fundador de una sociedad especializada en situaciones de emergencias y misiones de paz que goza de un gran aprecio y de reconocimientos en todo el mundo.
Bajo la bandera de "Momentum" había también su hijo Stephen que le ayudaba en este compromiso. Se trata de una colaboración que se desarrolla de Canadá, donde Arbib reside desde hace varias décadas, a Italia judía, con la que las relaciones se han quedado intensas. El objetivo es el de llevar una esperanza, un apoyo concreto. Los medicamentos se dirigen sobre todo a los niños que se encuentran entre las primeras víctimas tanto de este conflicto, como de todos aquellos de los que se ha ocupado. El filántropo, que entre muchas honorificencias disfruta también del título de Comendador de la República Italiana, subraya con dolor: "A pesar de que no tengan ninguna culpa, en la guerra siempre pagan un precio atroz. Durante todos estos años mis ojos han sido testigos de cosas terribles: niños sin piernas, niños sin brazos".

Traducido por Diana Drudi, estudiante de la Escuela Superior de Intérpretes y Traductores de la Universidad de Trieste, pasante en la oficina del periódico de la Unión de las Comunidades Judías Italianas – Pagine Ebraiche.

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To make sure that nobody is left behind even for those with less chance to be able to celebrate the upcoming Pesach holiday in the best possible way, about 240 food packages were prepared last week under the auspices of the Union of the Italian Jewish Communities. The initiative, remarks UCEI Vice-president and councilor for social affairs, carries on what was realized in the past by former UCEI councilor Jacqueline Fellus. "In agreement with the councilor for religious affairs Rabbi Giuseppe Momigliano – he says - the parcels will be distributed to Jewish Communities, which will have them delivered by volunteers and social workers to families and people".
Every package includes eleven different products, along with a letter of good wishes. Hasbani's thanks "the young people of Hashomer Hatzair, who contributed to the preparation of the packages, as well as Elio Galante and Davide Hazan for supplying the products in a time of great shortages and delays in deliveries".

Above, from left UCEI Vice-president Milo Hasbani with a group of volunteers.

Hanna Sereni passed away last week at the age of 95. She was born in Rome on July 4, 1926. Her parents, Enzo Sereni and Ada Ascarelli, were among the symbols of Italian Zionism. In 1927, with Hanna still small, they decided to do the Aliyah. So, in 1927 the family moved to the then Mandatory Palestine, giving life to the famous kibbutz Givat Brenner. In 1944, at the age of eighteen, Hanna served as a telegraph operator in the Palmach, the Yishuv's regular fighting force.
In the same year her father Enzo was parachuted into Northern Italy to fight the Nazis and try to help the persecuted Jews. He was captured and deported to Dachau, where he was assassinated.
In those years, Hanna and her mother Ada continue their commitment to bring the Jews to safety in Eretz Israel. Hanna participated in the expedition of the ship Yehiam which in March 1948 managed to disembark hundreds of Jewish refugees to the port of Haifa. With the establishment of the State of Israel, she became the first telegraph operator of the Israeli Navy base in Tel Aviv.
After her military service, she chose to become a teacher and moved in 1965 to Tel Aviv. She lived there until her death. May her memory be for a blessing

Par Gadi Luzzatto Voghera*

La Vénérable Bibliothèque Ambrosienne a imprimé une précieuse édition d'un extraordinaire texte hébraïque médiéval, dont elle conserve une copie manuscrite décorée. Il s'agit du Meshal Ha-Qadmonì, composé par Yitzhaq Ibn Sahula à Guadalajara entre 1281 et 1284, un recueil de quatre-vingts fables anciennes. Le volume conservé dans la bibliothèque de Milan a été copié à Brescia en 1483 par le sofer Shmuel, appelé Zimlein, responsable de l'éducation des étudiants du rabbi Baruch ben Shemuel Mortara, et a été enrichi d'illustrations extraordinairement intéressantes.
Un objet qui, à mon avis, ne mérite qu'un seul adjectif ultime: merveilleux. Il est merveilleux pour plusieurs raisons. Tout d'abord, pour sa signification historique et culturelle. Conçu et composé dans la péninsule ibérique au XIIIe siècle, dans un environnement séfarade, le texte a eu une résonance particulière dans le monde ashkénaze, qui l'a valorisé et utilisé, en le transmettant au fil des siècles, comme témoignage d'une civilisation juive qui, bien que divisée intérieurement en groupes distincts, est clairement identifiable dans sa continuité historique et culturelle.

*Directeur de la Fondation CDEC
 
Traduction de Gianluca Pace et révision d’Alice Pugliese, étudiants de l’Ecole Superiore pour Traducteurs et Interprètes de l’Université de Trieste et stagiaires au journal de l’Union des Communautés Juives Italiennes.

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By Gabriel Ascoli*

"What’s the difference between a Jew and a Boy Scout?" a friend asked, with a broad grin on his face, as I sat down in my seventh-grade science class. "The Boy Scout comes back from camp!" He and everyone else at my table burst out laughing. Did my classmates even know what they were laughing about? Upset but unsure, I feigned a smile. I am ashamed to say I said nothing.
I grew up hearing about the Holocaust through the stories my grandfather, now 92, told about his perilous escape from fascist Italy as a teenager. He described the indifference he saw in the eyes of soldiers and civilians alike, the fear in his parents’ hushed voices as they planned to flee, how his heart pounded as he slid under a fence to reach Switzerland while holding his 3-year-old sister in his lap.
He escaped only hours before German soldiers showed up at his home in Milan to take his family to a concentration camp. It is a miracle that he survived and that I am here today. When I look into his eyes as he recalls his frantic getaway, I see him reliving the history my friend had so unabashedly joked about.
 
*This article was originally published on the Los Angeles Time on April 4, 2022.

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