Having trouble viewing this email? Click here March 20, 2023 – 27 Adar 5783


  

Italy's government will allocate ten million euros for the construction of a Holocaust Museum in Rome. A law decree to institute a "national museum" in the capital was approved last week during the last Council of Ministers to "contribute to keeping alive and present the memory of the Holocaust". The choice of Rome as the seat of this institution is "doubly symbolic", reads a note by the government, as the city is the capital of the country and "the place which is home to one of Europe's oldest Jewish communities and one of the most numerous in Italy".
"A Holocaust Museum is present in all major European capitals, and it seemed just right to me that it should also be created in our country", said the Minister of Culture Gennaro Sangiuliano. The issue had been often recalled in the last few months, also in the Minister's meetings with the Jewish world.
In one of his first public appearances, at the General States of Italian Jewry, last November, he announced his intention to "activate a table aimed at finding the economic resources needed to realize a Holocaust Museum in Rome". And in February, while inaugurating the new signs at the Shoah Memorial in Milan, he reminded that such a reality already "exists in major Europeans capitals and it is good that Rome has it too". Quoting Italian philosopher Benedetto Croce, he finally stated that "history is always a contemporary fact, not a tinsel of the past". Therefore, he said, it is a "toolbox where one can find the tools to interpret contemporary reality and maybe prefigure the future".
"This is an important effort by the government, and the commitment of Minister Sangiuliano is appreciated. As a contribution, these funds integrate the efforts already going on through the Foundation Museum of the Shoah of Rome, which is already responsibly committed to the path forward to the Museum's realization, for which important definitions of place should be assumed", pointed out UCEI President Noemi Di Segni in a communication to press agencies."The museum – she stressed - must be realized quickly and be integrated into the national network of memorial and sites, starting with the National Museum of Italian Judaism and the Shoah in Ferrara and the Shoah Memorial in Milan".

Above, the Casina dei Vallati, headquarters of the Museum of the Shoah Foundation.

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A dialogue open to civil society, to question what equality means today and how the principle brought about by Article 3 of the Italian Constitution "should guide the next choices that the country is called to make". This is the challenge of "Art. 3: different among equals", a project developed by the Union of Italian Jewish Communities in collaboration with Ferrara’s Museum of Italian Judaism and the Shoah during the 75^th anniversary of the Constitution. "Art. 3: different among equals", presented last week at the Constitutional Court’s headquarters, will see a total of six meetings that will be held in six Italian cities. It has a format which envisages a discussion between two scholars, an educational experimentation with children from 6 to 11 years old, and the preparation of a dossier consisting of written contributions and documentation that will allow a formative action.
This is a project "that I have looked at with great care" and that "has its own parallelism with the commitment just renewed by the Constitutional Court: the judges’ trip to the Italian schools to raise awareness regarding the functions that the Court performs", these are the words of welcome of President Silvana Sciarra. In wishing the project’s success, Sciarra also recalled Liliana Segre’s admonition in her speech at the Senate at the beginning of the legislature, during which, among other things, she recalled that the Constitution needs to be applied without wasting a single minute. 

Translated by Klara Mattiussi, revised by Annadora Zuanel, 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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"In Israel’s Declaration of Independence, the idea that it was a Jewish State to be founded recurs multiple times. In the following 75 years we have repeatedly asked ourselves what the meaning of this concept is, but with discussions that instead of focusing on the principles have often turned into quarrels between people. It is therefore important to remember, even in this context, that discussion is essential, but without ever losing sight of mutual respect and recognition". These are the words with which the Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi of Israel Rabbi David Lau, guest of the Rome Jewish Community, addressed the audience in the Great Synagogue, during one of the many meetings in which last week he was featured at some of the city’s synagogues and at the Italian Rabbinical College, where he gave a lecture on Halakha. Welcoming him to the Great Synagogue was the chant of children, who were singing Shir HaMaalot, one of the most representative songs of Jewish and Israeli identity. A melody that, as the Rabbi explained, led him to reflect on the meaning and the challenges that Israel has been called to face. Starting from November 1947, the day the United Nations voted in favor of a Jewish State, until today.
 
Translated by Laura Cattani and revised by Valentina Megera, students at the Advanced School 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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Die Ausstellung Il Giardino dei Giusti in Mostra. La Memoria Verde di Milano ("Der Garten der Gerechten zur Schau. Die grüne Erinnerung an Mailand") erzählt, wie der Garten der Gerechten auf dem künstlichen kleinen Berg Monte Stella, ein symbolischer Ort Mailands, auf den Trümmern der Bombardierungen des Zweiten Weltkrieges aufgebaut wurde. Die Ausstellung wurde in der Gedenkstätte Memoriale della Shoah eröffnet und sie kann bis zum 27. März besucht werden. Sie umfasst Tafeln und Bildern, um ein zwanzigjähriges Projekt zu erklären, das von der Vereinigung Associazione per il Giardino dei Giusti di Milano geführt ist, zu der die Stiftung Fondazione Gariwo, die Stadtverwaltung und die Vereinigung jüdischer Gemeinschaften in Italien (UCEI) gehören. Ein Rundgang vermittelt die Gewalt des 20. Jahrhunderts und des neuen Jahrtausends und den Mut derer, die dieser Gewalt widersetzten. "Wenn man aus der gestrigen Gleichgültigkeit, die vom Memoriale so gut dokumentiert wurde, holen will, muss man sich heute dazu verpflichten, die Vorurteile zu überwinden und sich dem Verhalten der gleichgültigen Menschen entgegenzustellen" behauptete Gabriele Nissim, Präsident der Stiftung Gariwos
Oben: Einweihungsgedenkstein des Gartens der Gerechten der Welt in Mailand
 
Übersetzt von Martina Bandini, durchgesehen von Sofia Busatto, Schülerinnen der Hochschule für moderne Sprachen für Dolmetscher und Übersetzer der Universität von Triest, Praktikantin in der Redaktion der Vereinigung der Italienischen Jüdischen Gemeinschaften – Pagine Ebraiche.

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Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his wife Sara toured one of the most important yet unknown Jewish sites in Rome during their recent visit to Italy. According to the studies, this is one of five Jewish catacombs built between 1500 and 2000 years ago, and in them were buried thousands of Jews. There are distinct Jewish wall decorations n the catacombs, such as Jewish names, a Menorah, pomegranates, citrons, depictions of a Torah and the Holy Ark, and others. The existence and locations of the catacombs in the heart of Rome were known throughout history but were eventually forgotten, in several cases even lost. Over the past few years, researchers and rabbis took a renewed interest in the catacombs to preserve them and properly honor the deceased as is required by the Halacha. 
 
*This article was originally published on Israel HaYom on March 13, 2023.

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