March 13, 2024 – 3 Adar II 5784

OCTOBER 7

Rome embraces Israeli women
Minister Roccella:
Let's make this a day against femicide

“You should not remain silent” in the face of Hamas rapes and violences against Israeli women. This message powerfully resonated at the marathon oratory organized in Rome on the International Women’s Day by the Setteottobre Association (October 7 Association). “We should not remain silent while Italian feminist movements forget the most heinous mass rape ever committed in the West since the Kosovo war. We should remain silent in the face of those who consider the rape of Israeli women, of Jewish women, less equal than others,” said the organizers of the demonstration.
In the audience, among the flags of Israel, several signs recalled the horror of five months ago. They recalled faces and stories of women kidnapped by Palestinian terrorists. One lady held a yellow piece of cloth on which the appeal reads in Hebrew, "Bring them home." On another it read, "Free the women from the slavery of Hamas."
The Israeli historian Tamar Herzig, from the stage read a message from Ayelet Levy Shahar, whose 19-year-old daughter Naama was kidnapped and brought to Gaza. The video of the young girl dragged away by her hair by terrorists has become a symbol of the horror of October 7. "Those images turned Naama into the daughter of us all. As a mother, I am powerless in the face of those moments of terror."

OCTOBER 7

Milan takes the streets against indifference

"Enough with indifference. A voice for Israeli women raped and slaughtered by Hamas." A large red banner punctuated the meaning of the demonstration that took place in Milan, in the central Piazza San Babila, on International Women’s Day. Dozens of people gathered wearing yellow vests to draw attention to the mass femicide carried out by Palestinian terrorists in Israel on October 7. As in Rome, the initiative denounced the silences of the international community and women's movements in the face of Hamas rapes and violence. "Feminists where are you?" was the question on some placards held by the protesters. On a small stage, voices from the Milan Jewish Community, local politics and culture recalled the horror of which dozens of Israeli women were victims. 

MILAN/ NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF ITALIAN PARTISANS

"Freedom is not saying whatever we want"
Cenati resigns from ANPI local leadership

"That's enough now. I do not agree with the line of the national ANPI (National Association of Italian Partisans), I do not recognize myself in the use of the term genocide for the humanitarian tragedy that is happening in Gaza. Genocide is something else and using this term has dangerous repercussions on the Jewish Community." Roberto Cenati sounds bittered and angry, while speaking with Pagine Ebraiche about his decision to leave the presidency of Milan's ANPI, a role he has held since 2011. He had been thinking about a possible step back for some time. Too many contrasts, too many internal attacks in an association whose primary task should be "the defense of freedom, not meant as the possibility of doing whatever we like. The freedom for which the men and women of the Resistance fought. The idea that we are free if we fight for our neighbors to be free as well."

BOOKS

Zohar, a photographic journey
through Jewish Italy

One day, a friend of Francesco Maria Colombo showed him some pictures of the synagogue of Casale Monferrato. “I was impressed by its beauty and by the fact that I had never heard of it before. I asked myself, as an Italian, how come I wasn’t aware of the existence of such a crucial architectural heritage for the artistic and spiritual shaping of my country”, said Colombo to Pagine Ebraiche. Six years ago, this question, together with his “love for Jewish culture,” propelled his exploration of Jewish Italy, with its synagogues, cemeteries and other places related to Judaism. Led by his eclectic nature — Colombo is a photographer, conductor, writer, music critic —, he documented his wandering with his camera, photographing the most solemn synagogues, like the temple of Vercelli, as well as the most secluded ones, like the synagogue of Senigallia. His pilgrimage resulted in “Zohar. A photographic journey through the places of Italian Jewish culture” (ed. Skira).

Above, the synagogue of Saluzzo © 2023 Francesco Maria Colombo
 
Translated by Marta Gustinucci, student at the Advanced School for Interpreters and Translators of the University of Trieste, trainee in the newsroom of the Union of the Italian Jewish Communities – Pagine Ebraiche.
ITALICS

‘Extraordinary’: Islamic and Jewish science
merge in 11th-century astrolabe

By Sam Jones*

Almost exactly a year ago, Federica Gigante was preparing a lecture and searching the internet for a portrait of the 17th-century Italian nobleman and collector Ludovico Moscardo when an altogether different image caught her eye. The historian’s gaze soon snagged on a photo of a metal disc with a ring at the top that was kept in the same Verona museum as Moscardo’s picture. Gigante immediately knew she was looking at an astrolabe – an instrument used to map the stars and tell the time – and an extraordinary one at that. 

 *This article was originally published on The Guardian on March 5, 2024.

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