"U mi midbar mattanà u mi mattanà nachaliel… Du désert à Mattanà et de Mattanà au don divin" (Bemidbar, 21). Les commentateurs ont expliqué ce verset de la parashà de Balaq avec celle de Chuqqat, en le comparant à la condition du peuple juif tout au long de son histoire : le désert (midbar) est le lieu de personne (hefker). Ainsi, le peuple sorti d’Egypte, n’ayant pas encore une identité propre, se considère hefker (sans aucune appartenance). En revanche, avec le don de la Torah (mattanà), il devient "appartenant au Seigneur" (nachaliel). Cela l’amène spirituellement à la condition la plus élevée (bamòt) qu’un peuple ne puisse jamais atteindre. La Torah est appelée "mattanà – don divin" et c’est pour cela que chaque Juif a le devoir de l’établir comme point de référence, de l’honorer, de l’étudier et d’observer ses mitzvot. Chaque Juif a le devoir d’honorer la Torah et de lui rendre hommage : "Utnù khavod la Torah".

En Italie, dans chacune de nos Communauté, il y a des centaines de Sifrei Torah. Beaucoup d’entre eux sont mis de côté sans pouvoir être lus. Dans de nombreux cas, ils ne sont pas en conditions d’être utilisés parce qu’il sont pesulim (impropre à l’usage). Chaque Juif a le devoir de les remettre en état d’être kesherim, c’est-à-dire autorisés à être lus.
Je me souviens que, dès mon arrivée à Bologne, un vieil homme de la Communauté m’a exhorté à m’occuper des sefarim pesulim et de les corriger lentement, un par un, pour les ramener à leur état idéal. J’étais trop occupé pour me consacrer également à cette grande mitzvah. Cependant, j’ai toujours essayé de m’engager pour améliorer leur état. Il m’a dit : "N’oubliez pas que tous les Sifrei Torah, bien que contenant le même texte, contiennent l’âme de la personne qui les a écrits à l’époque, travaillant de toutes ses forces pour accomplir la grande mitzvah d’en écrire un. S’il n’est pas lu parce qu’il est pasùl et il n’est pas réparé, c’est comme si ce sofèr était oublié".

Lorsque je suis arrivé à Venise, j’ai remarqué que dans les merveilleuses synagogues qui se trouvent dans cette ancienne et importante qehilla sont placés des dizaines et des dizaines de Sifrei Torah qui appartenaient à des Maitres de l’histoire et de la tradition juive qui ont vécu ici au fil des siècles. 

Rav Alberto Sermoneta, rabbin de Venise

Traduction de Klara Mattiussi, révisé par Francesca Angelucci, 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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During the antisemitic persecutions, a particularly significant and touching story of salvation took place in the houses and convents of Assisi. A lot was written about those who provided help and the ones who benefited from it, but there is still much to discover. A new event, that recently came to light, leans precisely in that direction. It is a testimony from a parish in the municipality of Figline Valdarno, in Tuscany. In a hitherto unpublished document, there is a reference to the help offered to a Jewish couple (Moszkowicz being the husband’s surname, Bram's the wife’s) and their little son. The family was there upon indication of Elia Dalla Costa, whose name has been on the list of the "Righteous Among the Nations" for some years now. He was the archbishop of Florence and one of the leading figures who fostered unregulated immigration. The document states: "They came from Genoa, where Cardinal Siri had provided them with documents, forged ones, of course. I sent them to San Martino Altoreggi, but they stayed there for a short time, because the Germans were beginning to comb the area. They remained hidden in the convent of the Poor Daughters of the Holy Stigmata of St. Francis of Assisi and were provided food by the Liberation Committee, and in particular by Pellari.

Above, a school group visiting the Museum of Memory of Assisi.
 
Translation by Martina Bandini, 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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Historian and partisan Marc Bloch, one of the greatest intellectuals of the 20^th century, wondered: "In order to act reasonably, isn’t it necessary to understand first?". This is the question we find in the epigraph of the new book "La questione ebraica nella società postmoderna" (The Jewish Question in post-modern society) with subtitle "Un itinerario tra storia e microstoria" (An itinerary between history and microhistory), written by Emanuele Calò, jurist and director of the Enzo Sereni Observatory. Published by Edizioni Scientifiche Italiane, the volume takes up the challenge of delving into a clearly complex topic, going "beyond the sphere of the costume and of the single episode". A commitment to which Calò is passionately dedicated, exploiting both his legal knowledge and his abilities as careful observer of Italian Judaism and of Israeli society.
Divided into four sections, his reflections cover interconnected questions and worlds, with the idea that there is still much to say: "The Jewish question", "Zionism and anti-Zionism", "The Holocaust", "Israel, Palestine and anti-Semitism". The topics on which Calò focuses his attention are manifold, and they start from a careful study of the documents, such as the infamous papal bull "Cum nimis absurdum", from which sprang, in 1555, the establishment of a Ghetto in Rome.

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"The legacy of Professor Guido Sessa will continue to thrive through the seeds of curiosity he planted in the heart of countless students and through the invaluable contributions he made to science and agriculture". The Association of Italian Scholars and Scientists (AISSI) remembered scientist Guido Sessa, who died at the age of 59 in Israel, where he had moved from Italy in 1983. There Sessa obtained a first bachelor's degree from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, specializing in agriculture and earning a master’s degree and a Ph.D. from the prestigious Weizmann Institute of Science. Sessa then went on with his studies in the USA, and then he went back to Israel, where he was awarded tenure at the Tel Aviv University's Department of Plant Sciences, where he also became the head of the School of Plant Sciences and Food Security.

 Picture AISSI website
 
Translation by Martina Bandini, 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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By Roberto Cetera*

"I am truly honored to be invited to give this interview for L'Osservatore Romano. The reasons are twofold; the first is the prestige and long history of your newspaper, the other because my political history has always been intertwined with the themes of religious dialogue. Moreover, so has that of my family, whose relations with the Holy See go back several decades".  Isaac Herzog, 62 years old, lawyer, former leader of the opposition in the Knesset and president of the Jewish Agency, has been President of the State of Israel since June 2, 2021.  With this note of appreciation, he began the interview he granted us on a hot early summer afternoon in his presidential residence in Jerusalem. 

*This article was originally published on Vatican News on July 1, 2023.

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