Having trouble viewing this email? Click here November 28, 2022 – 4 Kislev 5783  

What is the future of Jewish education in Italy? What are the critical points to be aware of, and what are the guidelines for growth and development? These are some of the questions that have characterized the work of the General States of Italian Jewry held in Rome between Sunday and Monday. From the choice of the mission for the schools to the modules for rabbinic training, from higher education courses to the provision of supplementary services: these and other pieces of a large mosaic animated the sessions of the two days of discussion organized by the Union of Communities Italian Jews.
“These are issues of absolute relevance for Italian Jewry. An opportunity to reflect on where we are going and what we are doing” remarked UCEI President Noemi Di Segni in her introductory speech. “Through the red thread of education – she added – these States General allows us an opportunity to understand our role as an institution, as educators, schools, families; as Italian Judaism outstretched in an effort declined both inside and outside our communities”. An appreciation in this direction came from the new ambassador of Israel in Italy Alon Bar. “In every city, the first meeting I have is with the representatives of the Jewish community. The Italian one - he said - is a very active community, even in schools and training”. The diplomat, who took office in September, focused on the complexity and articulation of the Israeli system. And on the possibilities “of a constructive contribution” also for the services provided by Italian Jewry. Italian Minister of Culture Gennaro Sangiuliano brought the greetings of the institutions. “Jewish culture is not separate from Italian culture, but it is one of its pillars. It is something closely connected and fundamental” he pointed out. In this regard, he then announced, “I will give my utmost support so that Jewish culture may have an important place in the country”.

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Mettre en œuvre le Dialogue interreligieux, faire en sorte que juifs et chrétiens soient des partenaires de plus en plus cohésifs dans la construction “d’un avenir meilleur”. C’est le défi de Kishreinu, terme hébreu traduisible par “Nos liens”. Un nouvel engagement promu par le World Jewish Congress y présenté récemment au Vatican dans la Salle du Synode. Le texte, dont il existe un premier brouillon, sera ouvert à des contributions supplémentaires et porté à l’attention du Pape François.
Ronald Lauder, le président du World Jewish Congress, a appelé l’initiative et la circonstance “historique”. Même en raison du lieu où elle a été annoncée. “C’est la première fois que le Vatican accueille la réunion d’une organisation juive”. L’objectif est celui de poursuivre dans la voie tracée par la Déclaration Nostra Aetate promulguée par l’Église dans le cadre des travaux du Concile Vatican II. “Cela nous a démontré que ce qui nous unit est plus fort que ce qui nous divise”, c’est la pensée de Lauder.
En ce sens, il est central “le refus de l’antisémitisme” qui s’exprime entre ses lignes “et que chaque pape a toujours souligné” dans ses interventions. Il faut travailler ensemble, a insisté Lauder. Il est nécessaire pour faire avancer un projet commun de “Tikkun Olam”, de réparation du monde. 
“Il est significative que hier nous étions ensemble au Grand Temple de la Capital et aujourd’hui au Vatican. Ceux entre juifs et chrétiens sont des rapports spéciaux. D’ailleurs, dialoguer avec le monde juif veut dire faire face à notre propre identité de chrétiens” ce sont les mots du cardinal Kurt Koch, qui est à la tête de la Commission pour les relations religieuses avec le judaïsme du Saint-Siège. Koch aussi a rappelé le tournant gravé par la Nostra Aetate. Selon le haut représentant ecclésiastique, cela aurait favorisé “une meilleure connaissance mutuelle et la consolidation d’une réconciliation”. Le lien et le renforcement d’un rapport de longue durée “est un défi également pour la communauté juive qui doit trouver le courage et la confiance de connaître la culture catholique, en lire sa pensée et son langage pour comprendre la pleine signification des changements accomplies et proposés”, c’est l’une des réflexions posées dans la Salle du Synode par la présidente de l’Union des Communautés Juives Italiennes, Noemi di Segni.

Traduction d’Erika Centazzo, révisée par Onda Carofiglio, étudiantes à l’École Supérieure de Langues Modernes pour les Interprètes et les Traducteurs de l’Université de Trieste, stagiaires dans le bureau du journal de l’Union des communautés juives italiennes – Pagine Ebraiche.

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2023 will be a year marked by several anniversaries. Among the most significant ones is the celebration of the 30 years from the signing of the agreement between the State of Israel and the Holy See. “It was a milestone, and it has already born fruit enjoyable by both parties. But what has been done is not enough yet. We need, for example, to bring up new topics”. This evaluation was made by Raphael Schutz, Israel's ambassador to the Vatican, who is just now celebrating exactly one year since presenting his credentials and taking office. We met with him in his office to make an analysis of these first twelve months of work and commitment, a very different experience from those that had distinguished his previous diplomatic career, with posts in Colombia, Spain and Norway.
 “It has been a very intense and stimulating year,” the ambassador said. “Overall, I'm happy with what we've done and built. However, I have been more and more convinced of the urgent need for the Dialogue to include issues that most of the time are overlooked. I am referring in particular to issues regarding the environment and the defense of the rights of every human being, from access to water and food, to the right to a decent life. These are universal challenges in which we can both have leading roles. If you think of the pope's encyclicals, they are very definitive and clear on the matter, and by retracing Israel's history, it's clear it has much to give to humanity as well. A shining example of this is its transformation from a country where water was scarce to an exporter of water resources”.

Translated by Annadora Zuanel, revised by Martina Bandini, 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.

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“Is it going to be the avant-garde of a future Israel or just a bubble, a gamble to be played between avant-garde and tradition, between cynicism and tolerance, or more simply a real challenge in a fortress country surrounded by unsolved conflicts?”. This is one of the questions which “Good Morning Tel Aviv” begins with, the documentary by Giovanna Gagliardo that debuted recently at the Rome Film Festival. Economists, architects, entrepreneurs, merchants, philosophers, filmmakers, artists, writers. There was a huge number of voices that were called upon to elaborate their own perspective on the White City, the largest open-air museum of Bauhaus architecture. In addition, they were asked to analyze its strengths and weaknesses, but also to imagine the Tel Aviv of the future and its role in Israel’s dynamic scenario.
A journey that begins in the office of the man who has uninterruptedly governed the city since 1998: Mayor Ron Huldai, now in his fifth term. “I am planning to pass down the lesson of kibbutz to the city, and therefore, to make sure that all the needed services are available in a defined and easily accessible space”, he explains. The nuances of Tel Aviv which were stated during the interviews were numerous, some even with well-known faces that agreed to speak up: from director Ari Folman to choreographer Ohad Naharin, to writers who are greatly loved in Italy too such as Ayelet Gundar-Goshen and Assaf Gavron. Moreover, among others, the former Israeli ambassador in Italy Ofer Sachs who, after setting aside the experience of diplomacy, is now protagonist in the field of the so-called “Start-up Nation”. And lastly, the Roman Tania Coen Uzzielli, director of the Tel Aviv Museum of Art, who has been recently included by the magazine Forbes among the fifty more influent women in the country.

Photo Stefano Cirianni
 
Translation by Martina Bandini, revised by Alida Caccia, 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.

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By Alison Abbott*

Microbiologist Salvador Luria was a man of firm political convictions. The day before he won a share in the 1969 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, he talked to state legislators in Massachusetts, attended a peace convocation at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Cambridge and joined a protest against the Vietnam War. The FBI had begun monitoring him a few years after he arrived in the United States in 1940, fleeing fascist Italy. The Nobel didn’t stop them.
Luria shared the prize with Max Delbrück and Alfred Hershey for research on bacteriophages, viruses that invade and often kill bacteria. This work tilled the ground for the fields of bacterial genetics, virology and molecular biology. Science historian Rena Selya distils his story in her well-researched Salvador Luria.

*This article was originally published on Nature on November 11, 2022

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