Having trouble viewing this email? Click here  June 20, 2022 – 21 Sivan 5782

NEW SPACE INAUGURATED IN MILAN

Shoah Memorial and CDEC,
together for a new start 

In the heart of Milan, a place of Remembrance, to carry out historical research, teach, where to debate and reflect on our society. Last week, when new spaces were inaugurated and the new headquarters of the Centre of Contemporary Jewish Documentation (in Italian, CDEC) opened to the public, the Milan Shoah Memorial became such a place, even more than it was in the past. “The synergy between the two institutions aims to give a place back to Milan, renewed in terms of intent and prospects, where to experiment and offer cross-cutting contents, ranging from historical research to a debate on contemporaneity”, explained the Memorial and CDEC.
The words of Liliana Segre, Italian senator for life, summarise the meaning of this change: “Today, the Shoah Memorial - founded to remember indifference – changes shape and evolves, not only thanks to those who created this place architecturally and historically, but also thanks to all the youngsters and people who, after visiting it, began to remember. 
Now – said Segre - it is not only a place of history and remembrance, but also a place for studying and reflecting: a place that gives the opportunity to rediscover both the past and the future, rich in knowledge, wisdom, curiosities and answers. This is the hope of the few of us who are still here, who have lived this place and intensely desired it. A hope that, today, we see fulfilled in the candle of Remembrance and in that ray of future life that we have always longed for”. 
This is therefore a new chapter for the Memorial, for CDEC as well as for the entire city of Milan. The public is able, from mid-June, to access the new spaces designed by the Morpurgo de Curtis Architetti Associati studio: over 750 square meters that include the library, the educational hall and the Agora, a place for meeting and dialogue. Visitors also have access to the library of CDEC Foundation, which hosts 31,000 monographs in various languages, 700 dissertations and 2000 periodicals. 

Translation by Alida Caccia, revised by Maria Cianciuolo, 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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ITALIAN PRIME MINISTER DRAGHI VISIT IN ISRAEL

 "Italian Temple of Jerusalem,
symbol of the bond between our countries" 

“The Italian Temple represents the depth of the bond between our countries. The strength, the culture, and the history of this community are extraordinary. Thank you for your generous welcoming and your exceptional commitment”. These are the words of Italian PM Mario Draghi after meeting last week the Italian Jewish community in Israel, in Hebrew the Italkim, during his visit to Israel. 
On his first day in Jerusalem, PM Draghi met with the President of the State of Israel Isaac Herzog. Later, he visited the Umberto Nahon Museum of Italian Jewish Art and the Italian Synagogue, where he met with representatives of the Italian community which he warmly praised. “Your community’s story is an example to be looked upon with pride”, he said. 
“Your visit honors us deeply and sincerely - remarked Michi Raccah, president of Hevrat Yehudei Italia beIsrael - Especially here, in this place so special for Italian Judaism. A place of prayer, culture, history, of shared experience. Here where the Hevrat Yehudé Italia, an organization with a community imprint that has set itself the ambitious goal of spreading the tradition of Italian Judaism, carries out its main activities".
Draghi himself recalled the history of the Italian Temple. “This Temple has been a religious, cultural, and social point of reference for Italians in Israel for the last sixty years. As I have just learned, it was originally built in Conegliano Veneto back in the 18th century and was then dismantled, transported, and rebuilt here in Jerusalem. Today, it continues to be a piece of Italy in Israel, just as you all are”.

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Abraham B. Yehoshua (1936-2022)

Abraham B. Yehoshua has passed away at the age of 85, he was one of the biggest interpreters of Israelian literature and a multiple Nobel Prize candidate. Among his best-known titles we can find The Lover, A Late Divorce, Five Seasons, Mr. Mani, Open Heart, A Journey to the End of the Millennium, The Liberated Bride, A Woman in Jerusalem, The Tunnel. He was appreciated all over the world and had a special bond with Italy. A place he visited for decades during countless meetings and festivals, and which also served as a backdrop for some of his writings. Among others, published last year was the short novel, The Only Daughter.
“Italy – he recounted on an interview with Pagine Ebraiche – is undoubtedly that country in the world where my books are best received. I have long wondered about the possible reasons. The conclusion I came to is that the reason lies within the fact that for the Italian people as well, as for Israelis and in particular for me and my stories, the family is the key through which the world is interpreted. Unlike, for example, for France, where it is the relationship between man and woman, and Great Britain, where it is the class struggle”.
 
Translation by Maria Cianciuolo, 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 MEMORY OF CARLO ANDREA MORTARA 

 “Friendship of youth, friendship forever” 

Abraham B. Yehoshua's passion for Italy has ancient roots. The one who made him more familiar with it was, among others, a great friend: Carlo Andrea Mortara, an economist and advisor to various ministers, who was connected to him by a common militancy in Jewish institutions. Yehoshua was a Secretary General in Paris who worked for the World Union of Jewish Students, a post he held from 1963 to 1967. Mortara was the advisor to the Federazione Giovanile Ebraica d’Italia Fgei (Jewish youth federation of Italy), founded in 1948 to restart after the horror of war and persecution. “We were always delighted to welcome him to our home in Milan. We would talk about many topics, specifically Judaism and identity. At that time, he was fairly critical of the Diaspora Jews, as he believed that their place could be nowhere but in Israel. Over time, I think his opinion has softened”, Mortara tells to Pagine Ebraiche. Even then, above all, “there was a glimpse of an exceptional writing ability, an out-of-the-ordinary talent.”
There would be several anecdotes to tell. One of them concerns Florence, another city to which the writer was very attached. “Few people know it, perhaps none, as he was proverbially reserved, but it was in Florence that he lived through the dramatic experience of the flood. He was there on an assignment of the World Union of Jewish Students. He was startled by the events and forced to go back”. Soon he was rescued by Mortara coming from Milan and leading a group of students from the University of Milan in action as “mud angels”. An intense but also logistically formative experience, “to set up, just a few months later, a group of volunteers who rushed to Israel when the Six-Day War broke out. 

(Photo by Marco Caselli Nirmal)
 
Translation by Martina Bandini, revised by Maria Cianciuolo, 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 only daughter, side notes

By Gadi Luzzatto Voghera*

Reading The only daughter (Einaudi 2021), the last present that Abraham B. Yehoshua gave us, can't leave us indifferent. This short story was immediately translated into Italian by the talented Alessandra Shomroni. It couldn't be otherwise, given that the main theme seems to be the Italian Jews' identity during the second post-war period. It has been said and written that this is an affectionate homage to our country from the great Israeli writer, and it is probably true. I am not a literary critic, so I will not do an analysis of the text nor I will place it within the rich production of Yehoshua. 
The topics addressed in the story are many, from the only child status (in the title), to the illness of a loved one, to a consideration on social disparity and family dynamics (in Yehoshua's writing, the continuous reference, through many quotes, to the book "Cuore" by Edmondo De Amicis). 
Not being an expert, I do not intend to and will not delve into these subjects. However, I must intervene with regard to a passage that - even though it is part of the narrative fiction - risks providing incorrect historical information to the Italian readers. I am talking about the brief excerpt of few pages where is described the paradoxical meeting between the Jewish lawyer, protagonist of the book, and the old doctor from the Italian region of Alto Adige, who is said to have delivered him on Christmas Eve in 1943, hiding him and his mother in a mountain village throughout the entire war. 

Director of CDEC Foundation
 
The novel The only daughter by A.B. Yehoshua elicited many reactions among our contributors. Here the columns by Anna Segre and Alberto Cavaglion.

Translation by Alice Pugliese, revised by Gianluca Pace, 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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ITALICS

"La Fille unique" privée de crèche

Par Virginie Bloch-Lainé*

Quand une affaire juridique est délicate au point de représenter un danger pour l’ordre public, il arrive qu’on la dépayse pour la juger. C’est un peu ce que fait l’Israélien Avraham B. Yehoshua dans ce beau roman, la Fille unique, qui se déroule dans le Nord de l’Italie. Ce grand écrivain né en 1936 à Jérusalem milite pour la création, en Israël, d’un Etat binational. Dans la Fille unique, il ne s’agit pas directement d’un procès, et personne ici ne tranche rien à la manière d’un juge. En revanche le livre est une caisse de résonance de conflits identitaires dont le cœur est le Proche-Orient. Un peu de distance ne fait pas de mal. L’histoire se passe de nos jours, même si elle est nimbée d’un flou propre aux contes. Un jour, l’héroïne est habillée à la façon du Petit Chaperon rouge. Elle n’est pas initiée à la dangerosité du monde, mais à sa diversité et à l’impermanence des choses.
La Fille unique est le portrait, à un moment précis, d’une famille juive ashkénaze et aisée. Tout le monde n’est pas juif dans cette famille, il y a eu des mélanges. 

*Cet article a été originellement publié sur Libération le 5 juin 2022.

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Realizzato con il contributo di: Francesco Moises Bassano, Susanna Barki, Amanda Benjamin, Monica Bizzio, Angelica Edna Calò Livne, Alain Elkann, Dori Fleekop, Daniela Fubini, Benedetta Guetta, Sarah Kaminski, Daniel Leisawitz, Annette Leckart, Gadi Luzzatto Voghera, Yaakov Mascetti, Jonathan Misrachi, Anna Momigliano, Giovanni Montenero, Elèna Mortara, Sabina Muccigrosso, Lisa Palmieri Billig, Jazmine Pignatello, Shirley Piperno, Giandomenico Pozzi, Daniel Reichel, Colby Robbins,  Danielle Rockman, Lindsay Shedlin, Michael Sierra, Adam Smulevich, Simone Somekh, Rossella Tercatin, Ada Treves, Lauren Waldman, Sahar Zivan.
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