Having trouble viewing this email? Click here August 29, 2022 – 2 Elul 5782 

“Every step that brings peace between people is blessed and desirable”. So rabbi Menachem Mendel Chitrik, Istanbul Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi and leader of the Islamic countries rabbinical alliance. “It is clear that if relations between Israel and Turkey improve, it will have a positive impact also on Jewish life in the country”, he pointed out a few months ago in an interview with Pagine Ebraiche. And in the recent successful negotiations, there is also his contribution.
Last December the alliance had a meeting with Erdogan in Ankara, at the request of the Turkish president himself. It was a first discussion on strategic issues, which was followed, in March, by Israeli President Herzog visit to Turkey. “There is Jewish life in Islamic countries”, said the Rabbi. “And it is not a façade presence, but something that we can touch. Of course, the situation differs from country to country, and of course there are still important obstacles and challenges to face. But this coexistence, the coexistence between Jews and Muslims, is not only possible but also necessary”.
It is a message he relaunched a few days ago to Pagine Ebraiche. “The hope – he said – is for the situation to progress even more, one step after another”.

Above, rabbi Chitrik with imam Osman Demirel and some Quran students.

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“Italy should not forget Ukraine”. It is the appeal of Anastasia Vendrov, a member of the Florentine Jewish Community of Ukrainian origin, protagonist of a series of humanitarian initiatives that recently have brought comfort to the civilian population in many ways. “Also thanks to the Italian electoral campaign, the media attention to the war has faded a bit. And this is a problem. It plays the game of Putin and his allies. It deadens the battle for freedom of a people who feel European”, she remarks.
The fear is that the more we go forward in this situation with no apparent way out, “the more this removal will take root”. With the ever more evident risk of losing sight of the central aspect of the question: “Ukraine is not only fighting for its own survival, but also for the whole West. Something that not everyone seems to have fully understood”.
Medicines, canned food, and personal hygiene products. From Anastasia house, in the Municipality of Tavernuzze, countless expeditions have left. It is a team effort that has seen her surrounded by many friends and associations that have contributed generously. “Today, the conflict has turned into something quite different from the first phase of the emergency. With stores reopening, this form of support has in fact become less necessary. But the chasm of humanitarian drama has only widened: a terrible situation”.

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On August 15, 2021, the Taliban seized control of Afghanistan when they walked into the country’s capital, Kabul. While the international commotion that accompanied the event has retreated, alarming news about attacks on women’s rights and independent media never stopped. Here's a reflection by social historian of ideas David Bidussa recently published by Pagine. It is a worrying intake and it has never been more of the actuality.

By David Bidussa*

A time of evaluation is opening its doors and I think it would be appropriate to find a way to retrace two scenes: the first scene concerns us in the present, so I will tackle it now. As soon as Kabul fell, there was talk of lists of unmarried women in the hands of the Taliban, women to take possession of. This scene is Afghanistan. What has gone wrong and what have we been pretending to tell each other over the past twenty years? Not only in the United States, but here, too.
Many blame Biden (and inevitably Obama). Gilles Kepel (Il ritorno del profeta, Feltrinelli 2021) invites us Europeans to make a serious self-examination without dodging any question. There will certainly be time to talk about this, but I would like to focus on the second scene instead.
On 18 August 2015 in Palmyra, Khaled al-Asaad, archaeologist and keeper of Palmyra, was tortured, killed, beheaded and his violated body was "shown to the world". And still, that image did not enter collective memory. 
I would like to mention that here. Because in the coming weeks, regardless of the anniversary, which has never entered our public rituality anyway, that scene will perhaps return to speak to our present due to the news that we are receiving from Kabul. I fear that if this happens, many will choose the less problematic side. That is why I insist on reflecting on this second scene.
Let me explain myself. The fact that Daesh kills Khaled al-Asaad is not only a result of some totalitarian dimension pertaining to it. The previous factor matters, of course, but it is not essential. The point is that Daesh chooses to violate Palmyra and display Kaled al-Asaad's body for a specific purpose.
As a matter of fact, Palmyra is not just a cultural world heritage that fanaticism has attempted to violate and almost completely destroyed. Palmyra is a symbol radically alternative to Daesh and, in a time of sovereignist movements, decidedly disliked and unpleasant to many, even here, where we live.

From top, an explosion in Kabul and Khaled al-Asaad, keeper of Palmyra.

Translation by Gianluca Pace, student at the Secondary School of Modern Languages for Interpreters and Translators of the University of Trieste, intern at the newspaper office of the Union of the Italian Jewish Communities – Pagine Ebraiche.

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By Emanuele Calò*

On 23^rd May 2022, the Italian newspaper La Repubblica reported: “‘To the synagogue you go pray/ I will always make you run away’. That was chanted loudly in the Ponte Milvio square in Rome during the pregame, then the chorus rose powerfully from the steps of the North stand, followed by the stands as well”.
Article 62 of the Internal Organizational Rules of the Italian Football Federation (Federazione Italiana Gioco Calcio) orders procedures in cases of “stadium chants, shouts and any other manifestation expressing discrimination on grounds of race, colour, religion, language, sex, nationality, territorial or ethnic origin, or constituting ideological propaganda prohibited by law or in any case advocating discriminatory behaviour”. Paragraph 14 of the aforementioned article states that “The non-start, temporary interruption and suspension of the match may not extend beyond 45 minutes, after which the referee will declare the match closed, reporting the facts that have occurred in his report, and the Sports Justice Bodies will adopt the sanctions provided for by Article 17 of the Sports Justice Code, without prejudice to the application of the other sanctions provided for by the Sports Justice Code for such facts”.

*Legal expert
 
Translated by Francesca Angelucci, revised by Maria Cianciuolo, students at the Secondary School of Modern Languages for Interpreters and Translators of the University of Trieste, interns at the newspaper office of the Union of the Italian Jewish Communities – Pagine Ebraiche.

By Shiryn Ghermezian*

Johnny Depp is set to direct a film about Jewish Italian painter and sculptor Amedeo Modigliani, marking his return to the director’s chair after 25 years, according to The Hollywood Reporter. The “Pirates of the Caribbean” star — whose feature directorial debut was 1997’s “The Brave,” starring him and Marlon Brando — will co-produce “Modigliani” with fellow actor Al Pacino and producer Barry Navidi. The film is based on a play of the same name by Dennis McIntyre, and will be adapted for the big screen by Jerzy and Mary Kromolowski.
The biopic will focus on 48 hours that changed Modigliani’s life in Paris in 1916 and turned the Italian Sephardic Jew into an artistic icon. Production is expected to start in Europe in the spring of 2023 and the film’s cast has not yet been revealed, The Hollywood Reporter noted.
 
*This article was originally published on The Algemeiner on August 17, 2022.

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