The Italian Synagogue, built in 1575, is one of the five synagogues in the ancient Venice Ghetto. It is a symbol of the Jewish-Venetian identity, recognisable also by the five windows that recall the Great German Synagogue and by the small Baroque dome above the apse. Not only is it a symbol, but it is also a heritage of the entire city. This is the spirit that started the process of restoring the Italian Synagogue to a “new life”, thanks to a contribution from the Save Venice organisation, that was part of the ongoing restoration work in the Jewish Museum complex. 
The event was celebrated by an official ceremony, with the participation of representatives of both local and national institutions. In the meantime, a press conference was taking place to mark the importance of this commitment, also on an international dimension, which was attended by many remarkable figures. President of the Jewish Community Dario Calimani outlined the development strategies for the Ghetto, Jewish Museum director Marcella Ansaldi represented the history and peculiarities of the Italian Synagogue, Melissa Conn from Save Venice introduced the organisation's projects and the long-lasting support offered to the Community, David Landau addressed among others the challenge of fundraising, and Alessandro Pedron was the director of works.

Translation by Martina Bandini, 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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On 5^th June 1948, dramatically strong anti-Jewish riots began in Libya. This was the moment the gradual exodus of the Jews from the country began, ending definitively in June ’67. After 75 years, the UCEI - Union of the Italian Jewish Communities and the Foundation for the Jewish Heritage in Italy (Fondazione per i Beni Culturali Ebraici in Italia) have recently organised a debate in the premises of the National Library of Italian Judaism in Rome.
It is the first step of a journey whose purposes are, among others, helping to strengthen general awareness and being a point of reference also in relation to “legal and political actions” to be taken, as highlighted Saul Meghnagi, coordinator of the UCEI Culture Commission. There are indeed several open issues, as explained by Meghnagi himself and the various speakers at the conference. The main historical and legal problems, intertwined with “citizenship rights still denied”, were the focus of the debate. It was later announced that the speakers had jointly expressed the desire to address this last topic also through a publication.
Among others issues, as remarked by the UCEI President Noemi Di Segni in her welcome issues, there are the recognition of the refugee status for those obliged to flee in the various migration flows with all the rights associated to this status, which also aims to certify the violent action of which the Jews of Libya were victims over time.

Translation by Francesca Angelucci, 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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The exhibition “Houses of life - Synagogues and cemeteries in Italy”, recently inaugurated at the MEIS - National Museum of Italian Judaism and the Shoah in Ferrara devotes a significant attention to events and testimonies of Jewish Rome. From the synagogue found in the archaeological area of Ostia up to the present time, it is an impressive historical and cultural legacy, which last week was the focus of a meeting at the Jewish Museum in the capital. Introduced by the director of the Jewish Museum Olga Melasecchi and the art historian Davide Spagnoletto, the event saw the participation of the curators Andrea Morpurgo and Amedeo Spagnoletto, who is also the MEIS director. It was an opportunity to present both the exhibition, which will be open until September 17, and its catalog. "Houses of life" covers over two centuries of history offering projects, designs, documents and objects, architectural features, rituals, and social features of both synagogues and Jewish cemeteries in Italy. "It is an exquisite and very beautiful exhibition", remarked the director of the Jewish Museum of Rome Olga Melasecchi. "Talking about it today is part of the project started a few years ago of an increasingly close collaboration between Italian Jewish museums, in the name of a spirit of collegiality". 
From the catalog of Houses of Life, published by Sagep Editori, we publish an excerpt by Asher Salah about the ways Italian cinema has portrayed Jewish places. 
 
By Asher Salah*
 
Films basically lack representation of the places related to the (Italian) Jew­ish experience despite a vast and available literature on the image of Jews in filmmaking and the growing influence in film studies of what has been called the ‘spatial turn’, with an increased focus on the ideological values of the representation of space. Specifically, the question is what role the images of ghettos, synagogues, and cemeteries have. This is also true for how certain characters, symbols, and objects, such as the Star of David and the menorah, are perceived in the figures and diegetic nature of filmmaking, including the synthesis of complex existential situations and how the contours of specific historical and social contexts are described.
My contribution reviews thirty-one Italian fiction feature films with sites with explicit Jewish connotations, bearing in mind the distinction between ‘place’ as a mere geographical definition, and ‘space’ as the meaning attributed to a place from a specific (film making) perspective, and the performative acts that take place there (De Certeau 2010). Given the prevalence of films that deal with the trauma of the Shoah and anti-Semitic persecution in the 20th century, the image of Jews has often found itself automatically associated with the barbed wire fences and barracks of the death camps (Marcus 2007; Minuz 2010). Here, however, here I shall focus on how Jewish architectural heritage has been represented on Italian screens. […].

*From the essay Jewish spaces in Italian filmmaking: ghettos, synagogues and cemeteries in Houses of Life – Synagogues and cemeteries in italy, edited by Andrea Morpurgo and Amedeo Spagnoletto (Sagep, 2023)

Above, the Jewish cemetery of Sabbioneta, Felice in the box, Ghila Valabrega, 2014.

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Ugo Foà conta a sua história nas escolas italianas há mais de quarenta anos. E em particular a história de quando foi repentinamente expulso de uma sala de aula sem possibilidade de recurso, uma sala não diferente daquela em que hoje os alunos ouvem as suas memórias juvenis. Ele tinha 10 anos quando o fascismo proclamou as Leis Raciais, que o baniram do sistema educacional e da vida em sociedade. Hoje tem 95 anos e não esqueceu nada daquele dia e das suas dramáticas consequências. “Ninguém se interessou por nós que fomos expulsos. Foi como se tivéssemos desaparecido”, explicou recentemente num evento na Cittadella della Pace em Rondine (Arezzo) que trouxe de volta às salas de aula oito ex-alunos judeus expulsos ou excluídos em 1938. É por isso que ele sempre lembra aos jovens que encontra de norte a sul da Itália não só a importância de "fazer Memória", mas também de se empenharem ativamente contra a indiferença. Um valor reafirmado no dia 27 de janeiro passado durante a cerimónia do Dia Internacional da Lembrança do Holocausto, um evento celebrado no Quirinal com a partecipação e intervenção do Chefe de Estado.

Traduzido por Annadora Zuanel e Martina Bandini, alunas da Universidade para Tradutores e Intérpretes em Trieste, estagiárias no escritório do jornal da União das Comunidades Judaicas da Itália - Pagine Ebraiche.

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Par Marie Dejoux*

Les Etats princiers furent-ils plus favorables aux minorités que les républiques ? Telle est la question qu’explore le nouveau livre de l’historien Pierre Savy, Les Princes et les juifs dans l’Italie de la Renaissance. Au XIV^e siècle, alors que les républiques de Venise, Gênes ou Florence refusaient de tendre la main aux juifs expulsés par les monarchies occidentales (Angleterre, France, Saint-Empire romain germanique…), les princes d’Italie du Nord, comme les ducs de Milan ou les Este de Ferrare, établirent en effet avec eux des condotte (des contrats d’installation) largement favorables.

* Cet article a été originellement publié sur Le Monde le 15 juin 2023

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