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Irving Penn, "Ballet Society," New York, 1948. Corrado Cagli, Vittorio Rieti, Tanaquil Le Clercq and George Ballanchine Copyright@Conde Nast
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Book presentation Americordo:
The Italian Jewish Exiles in America
March 28
6:00 pm
NYU Casa Italiana Zerilli Marim�
24 West 12 Street. Reception
Speakers: Gianna Pontecorboli (author), Judge Guido Calabresi
Pontecorboli's book is a long overdue account of a lesser-known aspect of the anti-Jewish persecution in Italy: the exile of Italian Jews to America.
Forced to the US by the Fascist persecutions during
the 1930's and 1940's, roughly one thousand Italian Jews with their families continued their work in a wide range of fields, from mathematics and biology to medicine, music, banking, textile manufacturing, art and antiques.
Pontecorboli retraces the threads of their stories, personal recollections and historical background, their strategies to exit Italy and those to find a visa to the US. She reconstructs their first steps in the New World, their networks of mutual support, their successes and drawbacks, their encounters with fascism and antifascism in America, their different and at times conflicting choices of adaptation and survival.
Written in a fast paced journalistic style, the book is both a good read as well as an important contribution to cultural history, marking a starting point for a whole new field of inquiry.
Among the protagonists of the book are Tullia Calabi e Bruno Zevi, Max Ascoli, Giorgio Cavaglieri, Achille Viterbi, Amelia Rosselli, Silvano Arieti, Emilio Segr�, Franco Modigliani, Paolo Milano, Salvador Luria, Massimo Calabresi, Ugo Fano and Giorgio Levi della Vida. Probably the smallest national group among European exiles, the Italians distinguished themselves for their willingness and ability to create from the start bridges between Italy and their new country.
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