Newsletter Subtitle
NEWS & NEXT
See reports on Giorno della Memoria on I-Italy and the Jewish Week. click here

The five programs Centro Primo Levi organized with the Italian Consulate General and the Italian departments at NYU, Columbia and CUNY to commemorate the European Remembrance Day succeded in further developping the interdisciplinary and intercommunal platform created around this commemoration to better understand history and its present implications. 

In his reflections on the Fascist Racial Laws, Rabbi Jack Bemporad discussed the responsibility of all institutions of learning vis-�-vis the spreading of prejudice. He emphasized that the image of the Jews controlling the world divulged by the Protocols of the Elders of Zion had a tremendous weight in the way in which the Italian society reacted with indifference or acceptance when 50,000 Jewish  citizens  were deprived overnight of their civil and human rights.

Rabbi Bemporad also remarked on the fact that Giorno della Memoria is ever more important because it is not a Jewish observance but an observance of the entire society which acknowledges that democracy and justice are frail systems and must be protected and nourished through the continuous work of all citizens. When one of these systems fails - Rabbi Bemporad  observed - although Jews may have been historically more likely to be attacked, no one can consider oneself safe in a society that begins to accept discrimination.  

This theme was fully articulated  in the program  of January 28 at New York University Casa Italiana  Zerilli  Marim�  where a film of the young Italian director Germano Maccione,  told the story of the massacre of an entire rural community in Emilia Romagna, which was perpetrated by the Nazi and Fascist troops as they withdrew North in 1944.  The film, based on the trial that was finally celebrated in 2007,  clearly shows that the hatred and murder machine that lead to the concentration camps were ready  and available  to attack any community that  did not fit the expectations  and needs of the Fasci-Nazi totalitarianism. 


The public program at Centro Primo Levi is made possible in part by the generous contribution of the Cahnman Foundation
in memory of Italian scientist and philantropist Gisella Levi.
JEWS, COMMERCE AND CULTURE 

FEBRUARY 9 | 6 pm
Center for Jewish History, 15 W 16 St.
Space is limited. Reserve now at rsvp@primolevicenter.org
See full program

THE ECONOMICS OF JEWISH LIFE IN EARLY MODERN EUROPE  Derek Penslar | University of Toronto

In an informal salon setting meant for a general and academic audience alike, Professor Derek Penslar, author of Shylock's Children: Economics and Jewish Identity in Modern Europe (2001), and Israel in History: The Jewish State in Comparative Perspective (2007) will  discuss the economic dimensions of Modern Jewish  history and try to contextualize its cultural, ideological, and  material aspects. Tracing the  shaping of the notion of a distinct "Jewish economic man," an image that grew ever more complex and nuanced between the eighteenth and twentieth centuries, Penslar will also provide sources and methodological perspectives to reconsider the rhetoric on money and Jewish power, which is increasingly reappearing today in old and new forms.

A joint series of Centro Primo Levi and the Herbert Katz Center for Advanced Judaic Studies at the University of Pennsylvania.
This is the third joint series presented in New York through which CPL AND the HKCAJS seek  to maintain a dialogue between  academics  and lay people  to ensure that each  can benefit from the critical  tools of the other. 

In the previous years the program explored the cultural intersections of Judaism and Islam and the parallel shaping of the Rabbinical tradition and early Christianity. This year it undertakes a difficult topic that has long been a centerpiece of anti-Semitic rhetoric and has more recently also entered the grammar of self-representation: Jewish society as mercantile,  transnational  and reliant  upon money as a source of power. The series will take an in-depth look at Jewish banking, trading, and economic thinking and discuss the dynamics that connected Italy in a strategic geopolitical position with Northern, Central Europe,  and the countries of the Mediterranean basin.

KAVANAH
Moni Ovadia and
the Ark� String Quartet

A Journey through
Jewish spirituality
and its myriad of intersections.

Part of the citywide festival  DivinamenteneNewYork

Actor, musician, writer, and public activist, Moni Ovadia is definitely one of the most original and creative personalities in Italian musical theater today.

As part of the citywide festival "Divinamente New York" curated by Pamela Villoresi, Ovadia with the Ark� String Quartet, will present "Kavanah" (intention and participation through a chant), a reflection on the Hebraic liturgical tradition and its complex maze of meanings and sources.

Moni Ovadia was born in Bulgaria in 1946 to a Jewish family that moved to Italy where he studied Political Science and then entered the world of theater. A memorable show. Only one performance! Not to be missed.

Center for Jewish History - February 25 at 6:30 pm
Admission: $20, $15 students, seniors, and members of CPL and the Italian Cultural Institute. www.smarttix.com
Free for "Friends of Centro Primo Levi". For groups and school discount inquire at info@primolevicenter.org.

About
Inspired by the humanistic legacy of writer and chemist Primo Levi, who survived Auschwitz and defined the place of memory in modern societies, Centro Primo Levi is dedicated to studying the history and culture of Italian Jewry, sharing beyond linguistic borders its current ferments and future perspectives.

The Center for Jewish History is one of the great public Jewish historical and cultural institutions in the world, having achieved recognition as a venue of unrivaled historical documentation and scholarship, imaginative exhibitions of art and artifacts, and vital public dialogue.