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A Full House for Roman Jewish Music
Centro Primo Levi gratefully acknowledges everyone who participated in making the visit of the Choir of Rome's Tempio Maggiore (May 20-22) an unforgettable event. The beauty, evocative power and emotional impact of the music was a gift to all.
Over three days, the flavor, color and variety of the liturgical tradition of the Jews of Rome came alive in New York. It began on Friday with a Qabbalat Shabbat in the Roman rite and a dinner graciously hosted by Mr. Peter S. Kalikow and led by Rav Umberto Piperno (Scola Nova NY). A Shabbat service followed on Saturday graciously hosted by Rabbi Elie Abadie at the Safra Synagogue. It culminated with the Choir's sold-out concert on Sunday at the Museum Of Jewish Heritage, co-presented with Divinamente New York Festival.
The performance was introduced by Consul General Francesco M. Tal�, who placed the event in the context of the Jewish participation in the unification of Italy. There followed remarks and slide show by Giacomo Moscati, Vice President of the Jewish Community of Rome, featuring arresting images of some of the treasures from the Jewish Museum in Rome. Musicologist Francesco Spagnolo gave an informative talk tracing a brief history of Italian Jewish music.
The audience followed the concert with rapt attention and palpable emotion. According to the post-concert comments, this was true for both those for whom the Italian Liturgy brought back specific memories, as well as for those who heard it for the first time. Read
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June 2 | Stella Levi to be Honored at the Museum of Jewish Heritage
On June 2, CPL Board member, Stella Levi will be honored at the Museum Of Jewish Heritage's 19th Spring Women's Luncheon, at the Pierre Hotel. An Auschwitz survivor, Ms. Levi was deported from the Aegean Island of Rhodes, then under Italian rule. Read |
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June 12 at 2 pm | The Tree of Life
Center for Jewish History | 15 W 16 Street | NYC
Presented by CPL with the Jewish Genealogical Society of New York
For further information visit the JGS website
Alessandro Cassin, deputy director of Centro Primo Levi, will conduct the post-screening discussion. A personal family saga illuminates the fascinating history of the Jewish people in Italy. The Tree Of Life follows the Israeli-born director, an engineer in Los Angeles, as she struggles to come to terms with her father's death by traveling to Italy, the land of his birth, to trace the roots of his family tree. Beginning in the ancient Adriatic city of Ancona, Hava Volterra and her feisty 82-year old Aunt Viviana travel extensively through Italy, digging up rare historical manuscripts, interviewing an array of quirky historians, and discovering the astonishing and humorous stories of their ancestors, including the da Volterra family of bankers in Florence of the Medici; Ramhal, a Venetian rabbi and mystic involved in the Qabbalah; renowned scientist and mathematician Vito Volterra; New York City's legendary mayor Fiorello LaGuardia; and Luigi Luzzatti, Italy's Jewish prime minister in 1910. Read |
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June 27 at 1 pm | The Drowned and the Saved: Two Faces of Persecution in Fascist Italy
92Y | 1395 Lexington Avenue | NYC | Free admission
The vicissitudes of Italian and foreign Jews under Fascist rule have been the object of in depth studies but are still often presented as contradictory aspects of the same history. Today, thanks to a broad range of interdisciplinary research we are able to present a more cohesive picture of those years. Davide Rodogno and Donato Grosser will map the movements and fate of Jews residing in Italy and in Italian occupied territories between 1933-1945, examining the diverse levels of solidarity and persecution encountered. The conversation will have as points of departure the perspective of Italian civil and military authorities (D. Rodogno) and the work of Jewish relief organizations (D. Grosser). Read
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