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May 20: Scola Nova Italiana

The itinerant Italian Synagogue in New York and the Jewish Community of Rome celebrate Qabbalat Shabbat on May 20th with Rav Alberto Funaro and Rav Umberto Piperno.  

The event is generously hosted by Mr. Peter Kalikow. Seating is limited. Advanced registration is required. Register 

 

Centro Primo Levi Thanks:
Viterbi Family Foundation,Cahnman Foundation, Peter S. Kalikow, Claude Ghez. Travel for our programs is provided by Alitalia USA.

May 22 | The Choir of Rome's Tempio Maggiore for the first time in New York  

Centro Primo Levi and the Museum of Jewish Heritage host Divinamente NYC Festival on the 150th Anniversary of the unification of Italy.

Sunday, May 22 at 2:30 pm

Museum of Jewish Heritage 

Edmond J. Safra Plaza 

36 Battery Place, New York, NY 10280  

 

Admission: $15 and $10 for MJH, CPL, ICI members 

Box Office: (646) 437- 4202 - www.mjhnyc.org

Welcome remarks by the Consul General of Italy Francesco M. Tal� and the Representative for International Affairs of the Jewish Community of Rome Giacomo Moscati.
Introduction by Francesco Spagnolo, Francesco Spagnolo, PhD, University of California, Berkeley

For the first time in the US, the Choir of the "Tempio Maggiore" conducted by the renowned tenor Claudio Disegni and featuring the hazan of Rome, Alberto Funaro, and organist Federico del Sordo, will expose the New York public to the unique flavors and variations of the liturgical tradition of the Jews of Rome. 

The concert will open with Giuseppe Verdi's "V� Pensiero," the Hebrew Chorus from Nabucco. This magnificent choral work, which has become a symbol of the unification of Italy, recalls the story of the Babylonian exile after the destruction of the First Temple. The program will celebrate unique examples of late 19th century compositions from the Jewish communities in Florence, Livorno and Rome as well as a 1920 version of Hatikv� by Armando Sorani based on the 17th Century ballade La Mantovana. Read

 

Printed matter
On the Music of the Jews of Rome

By Francesco Spagnolo

The history of Jewish music in Italy is long, fascinating, and filled with contradictions. Its length is due to the very history of Italian Jewry, whose origins go back more that two thousand years. Fascination stems from the meeting of the music of the Jewish Diaspora with Italian musical culture. The contradictions concern the thousand identities, visible and invisible, of the Jews of Italy. Read

Printed matter
The Musical Traditions of the Jews of Italy

By Leo Levi z"l (1955) 

The oldest minhag is the Roman-Italian, even though in the Rome of today, Sephardic influences prevail in the rite practiced in the Central Synagogue which, about fifty years ago, supplanted the five "Scole" - Sicilian, Catalan, Castilian, Italian and "Scola-Tempio". There, the Italian rite has generally prevailed although certain customs and especially the music tied to the Iberian rite seem to have triumphed over the original Italian, or minhag ben�-Romi. Read