Having trouble viewing this email? Click here April 17, 2023 – 26 Nissan 5783

The Babylonian Talmud Translation Project celebrates a new milestone: the publication of Sukkah (Hut), the eighth tractate to be printed since the beginning of the collaboration between the Jewish, the scientific, and the Italian institutions. The tractate – curated by the  Rabbi Riccardo Di Segni, rabbi of Rome and chairman of the Talmud Project – focuses on the rituals and customs of Sukkot, the third "of the Three Pilgrimage Festivals prescribed by the Torah, in which it is repeatedly quoted, and it is referenced in other biblical books as well". A mainly technical tractate, but that also has "great historical importance as it reports the memories of the life at the heart of the ancient Jewish religious practice".
In an introductory text, the rabbi underlines the fact that Sukkot is placed at a particular time of the calendar, before the arrival of the highly anticipated rainy season and thus marking the end of the annual agricultural cycle. An appointment that is symbolic of "the link with the land and agriculture", but also "a generic historical reference to the period of dwelling in the desert". "The moment designated to reflect on the weakness and precariousness of existence" is therefore evoked in many aspects by the symbol of the hut itself. Almost paradoxically, however, the holiday is also an opportunity "to rejoice and celebrate, trusting in the divine protection". Sukkah was published, as the previous tractates, by Giuntina.

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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Il croyait qu’il allait rencontrer deux collectionneurs d’art intéressés à ses œuvres. C'était, tout au contraire, deux agents de la Gestapo déguisés qui ne perdirent pas l’occasion de mettre fin à sa clandestinité. Ainsi commença, dans le froid de décembre, le voyage sans retour vers Auschwitz du peintre allemand Rudolf Levy (1875 - 1944). Un nom oublié pendant longtemps, récemment redécouvert grâce à la déposition d’une pierre d'achoppement portant son nom intégré dans le pavement de Piazza Santo Spirito, au numéro 9, devant Palazzo Guadagni où il vécut et où le piège de la mort lui fut tendu. Pour se souvenir de lui, en continuité avec ce jour-là, l'exposition "Rudolf Levy (1875-1944). Son travail et son exil" a été installée à Palazzo Pitti grâce à l’initiative des Galeries des Offices en collaboration avec le Musée du Centre Documentation de la Déportation et Résistance de Prato. Camilla Brunelli, Vanessa Gavioli et Susanne Thesing ont recouvert le rôle du curateur. Parmi les œuvres exposées se trouve "Fiamma", le premier tableau de Levy à entrer dans la collection du musée, à la demande du directeur Eike Schmidt.
Levy naquit à Stettin en 1875 et étudia dans des écoles d’art à Karlsruhe et à Munich. Une décision essentielle pour son parcours fut celle de se déplacer à Paris, où il vécut pendant dix années et fit partie du groupe d’artistes du Café du Dôme et de l’entourage d’Henri Matisse (son premier point de référence). L’étape suivante fut Berlin, où il devint membre de la Sécession et eut succès dans des expositions individuelles et collectives. Du moins jusqu’en 1933, avec le régime nazi qui monta au pouvoir. A ce moment-là, à cause de ses origines juives, il fut obligé de quitter l’Allemagne pour migrer ailleurs.

Sur la photo, Fiamma (1941) le premier tableau de Levy à entrer dans la collection du musée à la demande du directeur Eike Schmidt.
 
Traduction de Margherita Francese, révisée par Alida Caccia, 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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Nobel laureates such as Franco Modigliani and Emilio Gino Segrè, famous writers like Alberto Moravia, mathematicians of the caliber of Guido Castelnuovo and architects and urbanists of the stature of Bruno Zevi. Many illustrious personalities figure on the list of more than two hundred members from Rome who were expelled from the Italian Alpine Club-CAI after the promulgation of the racial laws by Fascism. Eighty-four years later that infamous ace, the CAI recently has decided to exercise a "formal readmission" of those who were thrown out, presenting this act during an evening at the Jewish Centre "Il Pitigliani". This move follows by a few months a motion which was unanimously approved at the last national assembly in Bormio, when the CAI’s delegates agreed on the need for a "path of self-criticism, historical reflection and ethical re-elaboration" on that period and the related responsibilities. "After the war, it was often preferred to forget. The time has now come to remember, acting in the wake of this motion", this was the reflection posed by Livia Steve from Rome’s CAI, who organized the evening and conducted a biographical research on the number of the purges happened in the Capital, which could grow further.
 
Above, Adachiara Zevi receives her father Bruno's readmission certificate.
 
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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It is 1961 when Marina Piperno makes her debut as a film producer with a short film entitled "16 ottobre 1943":  its impact is evident from the beginning, and this work broke through the silence that was not allowing to spread the real history of the Italian Shoah and the responsibilities related to it. This film marked the beginning of a high-level successful career, a path that explored a variety of worlds and contexts, from documentaries to fiction. Proof of that, among her numerous accolades, the Silver Ribbon she was awarded in 2011. Her autobiography, "Eppure qualcosa ho visto sotto il sole" (Yet something I saw under the sun), published by All Around, is now available in the bookshops of Italy. Written with Luigi Monardo Faccini, the book retraces a life of passion and commitment.
The two writers went through the immense family / familial photographic archives "to gather the history, the identity, the constrictions, the fortunes and the sufferance" of a peculiar tale of Jewish diaspora, a reconstruction that also reflects on the meaning of a life and a path who brought the protagonist to make specific choices that still make the difference nowadays. A quality cinema who wants to "give voice to the ones who could not speak".

Translated by Onda Carofiglio and revised by Annadora Zuanel, 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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By Philissa Cramer*

The journalist who was arrested in Russia last month and the Biden administration’s antisemitism envoy are among the 10 Jewish members of Time magazine’s "100 most influential people of 2023." The magazine’s annual list, released Thursday, includes politicians, business titans, artists and innovators from around the world, from President Joe Biden to a YouTube sensation with 145 million subscribers. Each entry is accompanied by a short essay by another prominent figure. Here are the Jews who made the cut. 

*This article was originally published on Jewish Telegraphic Agency on April 14, 2023.

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