Having trouble viewing this email? Click here January 9, 2023 – 16 Tevet 5783
  

By Daniel Reichel

A patient reading of hundreds of letters that Ri – this was Rita Levi-Montalcini’s nickname as a child – sent to her family. In particular the correspondence with her father Adamo, an engineer who moved from Turin to Bari to design ice factories, but also the missives to her siblings Gino, Anna, and her twin Paola. A great heritage of documents comprising also pictures, report cards and newspapers of that period, items that tell a personal story and that constitute an important part of the history of Italy in the twentieth century. On the 10th anniversary of her passing, the scientist’s niece, Piera Levi-Montalcini, set to work on a way to honour aunt Rita. She went through all the documents, looking back at the childhood of the famous scientist and retracing the steps that took her from setting up an illegal Laboratory in Turin in the 1940s to making extraordinary discoveries and being the first and as of today only Italian woman to be awarded the Nobel Prize. 
The result is a book co-signed with Alberto Cappio, head of research at the Levi-Montalcini Archive, titled "Un sogno al microscopio. Il viaggio verso il Nobel di Rita Levi-Montalcini" (A dream under the microscope. Rita Levi-Montalcini’s journey to the Nobel). The book is aimed at young people, and it opens with some quotes that from the very beginning offer important lessons. "Those who study know they are never going to win, not even if they get a Nobel Prize. Yet they also know they cannot lose". And more: "The head. Some people bow to it, some hide it, some lose it. I prefer those who use it". Also: "I believe in ethics, without it, life has no meaning, and it is not even worth living". These aphorisms sum up the mind of, as the niece calls her, an artist of science about whom there is still much to discover. Piera Levi-Montalcini promotes this heritage by organising editorial projects, school activities and research initiatives.
How was it to go through the family archives?
It was a great journey. There are countless letters that the children sent to their father and to each other. The documents are about three thousand, dating from the 1920s to the 1930s, with the interruption of the war period. Going through them, I was able to piece together the history of that period and of my family. What emerges is the deep bond, affection and complicity between parents and siblings, that remained strong even despite the tough times and the violence of the Racial Laws and of the war.
Are there still things to discover from the letter archive?
Of course. I only went through part of it, but it should be studied and valorized as a whole. You can find out interesting facts, like aunt Rita sewing a blouse to graduate from high school. One can only imagine how that would be the final exam of a future Nobel Prize winner, and you can get a better sense not only of her figure, but also of the historical context of the period she lived in and the difficulties she had to face.

From the top, the siblings Paolo, Rita e Paola Levi-Montalcini and the cover of the book by the niece Piera and Alberto Cappio.
 
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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Even now that he is 96, the painter Piero Cividalli goes about his day tending to what is not just a job but a passion that did not fade through the years. "Of course, everything is a bit slower than in the past, and age starts to make itself felt. But painting is still an occupation in my daily life, a pleasant commitment that gives rhythm to my life" he says. A famous artist, whose work is now on display in Tel Aviv, Cividalli is also among the last survivors of the Jewish Brigade, the heroic body of volunteers arrived from the then mandatory Palestine (the nascent State of Israel) to free Italy and Europe from Nazi-fascism. Cividalli was born in Florence in 1926 to a Jewish family involved in literature and art - one of his forebears was the well-known Italian painter Vito D'Ancona. He left Italy in 1939 because of the racial laws, with his mother, siblings, and the father, Gualtiero, wanted by the regime for his opposition to fascism.
Resistance to fascism has been a part of his professional and personal life since his youth: "In 1936, the two brothers Carlo and Nello Rosselli, friends of my parents, were murdered in France," he says. "I knew Nello, who lived in Florence. I played with his daughters as a child, and this double crime made me a passionate opponent of fascism. Fascism led to destruction and misery. The false idea of glory is washed away by disaster upon disaster. We must learn how to live, not how to die on the battlefield".

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Half a century ago, on January 4th, 1973, the first episode of the television program dedicated to Jewish life and culture was aired by the RAI, the Italian national public broadcasting company. Realized in collaboration with the Union of the Italian Jewish Communities, Sorgente di vita (The source of life), as the series is titled from the Book of Psalms, was back then, along with a series dedicated to Protestantism, the first space of religious pluralism within Italian television, which until then was entirely focused on Catholicism. Sorgente di vita has now broadcasted 1300 episodes and over four thousand reporting exploring Jewish history, religious traditions, philosophy, and culture with interviews, reportages from Israel and the world, and coverage from the Italian Jewish communities. Its itineraries lead the viewers to discover the magnificence of the Italian Jewish heritage, while its insights on the Holocaust and the antisemitic persecutions contributed to raising awareness of the past and its complicated legacy.
For the Italian Jewish community, it has been a way to make itself known beyond stereotypes and prejudices. To celebrate the 50th anniversary of Sorgente di vita, a special event has been organized in Rome by UCEI with the participation of the Minister of Culture Gennaro Sangiuliano. On the 50^th anniversary, a special edition of Sorgente di Vita was aired. Here is the link. 

From the top, a beautiful image in black and white from the first airing of Sorgente di vita and the image of the opening sequence by the re-known artist and scenographer Emanuele Luzzatti.

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Bruno Di Porto, professor of contemporary history and great scholar of Italian Judaism, especially regarding the last two centuries, passed. Survived as a child to Nazi-fascist persecution, he had studied at the Roman high school Tasso and graduated in Literature and Philosophy with a thesis on religious minorities in the Risorgimento. Di Porto taught at the University of Pisa until his retirement and was the soul of the publication "Hazman Veharaion – Time and Idea" created thirty years ago to promote knowledge and debate around Jewish themes. He also served on the scientific committee of the Israel Monthly Review. He cultivated numerous interests, among which the history of journalism, the history of the democratic and republican movement and the events in Italy throughout the Risorgimento, which he addressed in many essays and articles that remain the living legacy of a multifaceted intellectual production. Among his most recent works must be noted the essay "The Reform movement in the context of contemporary Judaism. The presence in Italy", published by Angelo Pontecorboli Editore. "The progressive presence is small in Italy, but minorities also deserve to be known, especially since they are part of Italian Judaism, itself a minority", wrote Di Porto in the introduction.

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By Lazar Berman*

The 2019 film "The Two Popes" presents Francis as a warm, avuncular man of the people. His predecessor Benedict XVI, the pope emeritus who was laid to rest in the Vatican on Thursday, couldn’t be more different, at least in the movie’s telling. He is portrayed as a cold, harsh pontiff, out of step with the pastoral needs of the modern world. While the film offered a faithful representation of Francis, it missed the mark on Benedict, said Rabbi David Rosen, the American Jewish Committee’s international director of interreligious affairs. "I think it was unfair to Benedict precisely because it did not capture his humor and warmth." It wasn’t only in Hollywood where Benedict’s image was at odds with reality. From the beginning of his pontificate, Benedict — born in Germany in 1927 as Joseph Aloisius Ratzinger — was viewed by many Jews with some suspicion.
 
*This article was originally published on The Times of Israel on January 6, 2023 

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