Printed Matter
Centro Primo Levi's online monthly on the work of Primo Levi, Italian Jewish history, culture and current affairs. 
Giorno della Memoria

Holocaust Remembrance Day has been commemorated in Italy for 15 years. In Germany and France for almost 20. Other European nations and the UN adopted the observance 10 years ago. Its establishment, in the wake of that of the European Union, has been the topic of scholarly inquiry and public debate raising new questions on the relation between memory, history and politics.

The long and uneasy path that brought to the Italian law instituting this recurrence -as well as it's ambiguous formulation- are an indication of a divided historical consciousness among Italian political parties. In broad brushstrokes, one can think of the post war era as divided into three phases: a first period of prolonged silence about the Italian participation to the Shoah, a second period leading up to the establishment of Giorno Della Memoria, followed by a third period- the present time- when, according to some, the yearly ritual, high sounding rhetoric, and overexposure, risks robbing the commemoration of its intended meaning.

During years of programming on the history of the Shoah in Italy, Centro Primo Levi with Casa Italiana Zerilli Marim�, the Italian Cultural Institute, CUNY, the Italian Academy, under the auspices of the Consulate General of Italy have sought to bring new scholarship to general audiences and foster informed and balanced public debates.

Today, as we approach the commemoration of Holocaust Remembrance, we cannot turn our eyes away from the resurgence of political, religious and ethnic intolerance and the plight of millions of refugees on one side, and the crisis of national ideals and collective memory on the other.

This year's programs and the current issue of our online monthly, Printed Matter, address some of these themes: the politics of memory, the narrative of the Resistance and the role of the Church in post-war Italy as well as the resurgence of apologetic and revisionist trends in Italy and the US.

We are pleased to open the series on January 25th with a program dedicated to Primo Levi and his friendship with Bianca Guidetti Serra, antifascist, resistance fighter and lawyer who dedicated her life to the defense of civil rights.

Ceremony of the reading of the names


January 27 
9 am to 3 pm
Consulate General of Italy, 689 Park Avenue

Ceremony. Readings of the names of the Jews deported from Italy and the Italian territories. Opening remarks: Consul General Natalia Quintavalle and Alessandro Di Rocco (NYU and President, Centro Primo Levi)

Excerpts from Primo Levi's writings will be read during the ceremony by guest and by the students of the Italian high school Guglielmo Marconi. 


Names of the Italian Shoah  
Programs


January 25 
6:00 pm
Italian Cultural Institute, 686 Park Avenue

Book discussion: Primo Levi, The Friend by Bianca Guidetti Serra (CPL Editions, 2015)
Opening remarks: Giorgio Van Straten (Italian Cultural Institute). Guri Schwarz  (University of Pisa), Alessandro Cassin (Centro Primo Levi). Stella Levi (Centro Primo Levi) will read from the book.

January 26 
6:00 pm
NYU Casa Italiana Zerilli Marimo', 24 West 12th Street 

Film Screening: Oro Macht Frei (2013) by Jeffrey Bonna and Catherine Campbell. 
Opening remarks: Stefano Albertini. Post screening discussion: Catherine Campbell  

January 28
6:00 pm
John D. Calandra Italian American Institute, 25 West 43rd St, 17th Floor

Book discussion. Renzo De Felice, The Jews in Fascist Italy (Enigma, 2006, 2015)
Frank Adler (Macalester College), Stanislao Pugliese (Hofstra University), Alexander Stille (Columbia University), Guri Schwarz (University of Pisa), Ernest Ialongo (Hostos Community College)

February 1
6:00 pm
NYU Casa Italiana Zerilli Marimo', 24 West 12th Street  

Book discussion: Manuela Consonni, L'Eclisse dell'Antifascismo(Laterza, 2015)
Opening remarks: Stefano Albertini and Natalia Indrimi(Centro Primo Levi). Manuela Consonni (Hebrew University of Jerusalem) and Michael Livingston (Rutgers University)

February 4
5:30 pm
Italian Academy, Columbia University, 1161 Amsterdam Avenue 

Panel: Being a Child during the Holocaust
Patricia Heberer Rice (US Holocaust Memorial Museum, Washington DC) and Emily Langer (Washington Post)

These programs are free and open to the public
Visit our website for programs in other boroughs and cities  

CPL Editions

Books occupy a central role in Centro Primo Levi's activities, both as source and result of our programs. Through Printed Matter and CPL Editions, English translations of essays, memoirs, biographies, art and liturgical books become accessible to international readers and create an unprecedented cultural bridge to little known Italian and Jewish worlds.

This week's feature
 
Primo Levi, The Friend. 
An intimate portrait of Primo Levi in his native Turin by Bianca Guidetti Serra. 

"But I also want to mention here Primo the man, in his everyday life, the one who pushed many of us to seek him out, to talk, to communicate with him about the important things. Hence the endless conversations in his living room, the very room where he was born; but above all, the long walks in the mountains and hills - which became shorter over the years, but remained our favorite occasions for exchanging experiences and thoughts.

Many of us have kept memorable images from these walks.  

Primo, smiling, following with his index finger the groove traced by a small burrowing caterpillar on the bark of a tree; Primo, reaching out to pick a berry, wondering to what species it belonged, touching and sniffing it, opening it, tasting a small bite and beginning to venture hypotheses; Primo, bending down to collect a balled-up mixture of branches, feathers and small bones, crumbling them between his thumb and forefinger and saying: "This is the regurgitation of an animal that has devoured a bird"; Primo, teasing and rerouting with a stick the pine moths' procession across the road and describing its customs to us."

Browse our books 
Songs from Shylock's Venice

Save the date for our annual concert

February 10
7:00 pm
Museum of Jewish Heritage, 36 Battery Park Place

Buy tickets

On the 500th anniversary of the establishment of the Venetian Ghetto (1516 - 2016). 
In collaboration with the Embassy of Italy in Washington D.C. and the Italian Cultural Institute in NY

Shylock's Venice was a crucible of cultures and a magnet for immigration, where - in spite of pervasive prejudice - Spanish and German Jews joined their native Italian co-religionists who traced their presence on the Peninsula back to the Roman Empire.  Whether escaping repression or coming to find work as merchants or as Hebrew and Kabbalah teachers, Jews profoundly influenced the cultural crossover of 16th century Venice. Songs from Shylock's Venice conjures the sights and sounds of a day in the life of Shylock, in and out of the Jewish quarter, in the vibrant, colorful world that was Renaissance Venice.

Lucidarium is a noted Renaissance music ensemble based in Italy and Switzerland, known for its distinct sound, its musicological research and the use of original instruments. The concert will feature the singer and cantor Enrico Fink and a seldom performed repertoire in Italian, Hebrew, Yiddish and Spanish.  

Read more 


THANKS
Centro Primo Levi is the recipient of the endowment fund established by the Viterbi Family in memory of Achille and Maria Viterbi. CPL's activities are supported by the Cahnman Foundation, Peter S. Kalikow, Claude Ghez, David Berg Foundation, John Elkann, Charles Hallac z'l & Sarah Keil Wolf, Jeffrey Keil & Danielle Pinet.

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