Angelo Fortunato Formiggini: An Italian Publisher
Born in Modena to a family of court jewelers who had maintained their private synagogue for generations, Angelo Fortunato Formiggini (1878–1938) was a publisher first in Modena (1908–11), then in…
Academia
Slavery and Conversion in Papal Rome
A conversation with Marina Caffiero. Your best known research focuses on the history of forced baptisms of Jews during the Inquisition era and on the institution of the House of…
The Persecution and Exile of Jewish Musicians in Fascist Italy
The disproportionate impact (despite all of today’s technology and social media) of the current pandemic on musicians and performers is a pale indication of what it means —creatively, financially, and…
For a Memory Culture Beyond Victims and Perpetrators
This essay appears an preface to the English edition of Valentina Pisanty’s book The Guardians of Memory (CPL Editions, 2021). Valentina Pisanty’s The Guardians of Memory opens with a paradox…
A Convert’s Tale
A Convert’s Tale: Art, Crime, and Jewish Apostasy in Renaissance Italy. Tamar Herzig’s meticulously researched and superbly written book offers an intriguing view into the dramatic life story of Salomone…
Concentrated Modernity
The Complete Lives of Camp People: Colonialism, Fascism, Concentrated Modernity. This introduction to the book by the same title published in 2020 by Duke University Press is reproduced here by…
From Fiume to Rio: Nora Tausz Ronai
Nora Tausz Rónai was born in Fiume (today Rjeka, Croatia) in 1924. She is a Brazilian architect, writer and swimming champion. In 1938, the promulgation of the racial laws tore…
From the Levant to the Tropics: The Saga of the Levy Family
It was from here, from the chaotic, sunny and tropical city of Rio de Janeiro, that most of the sources of Sarah Abrevaya Stein’s recently published book Family Papers: A…
Controlling Mobilities
H-Net review of: Stephanie Malia Hom, Empire’s Mobius Strip: Historical Echoes in Italy’s Crisis of Migration and Detention. Cornell University Press, 2019 Empire’s Mobius Strip unravels the historical and political reasons that connect the…
Current scholarship on Italian Fascist anti-Semitism in honour of Michele Sarfatti
Journal of Modern Italian Studies: On the 80th anniversary of the Racial Laws. Articles reflecting the current scholarship on Italian Fascist anti-Semitism in honour of Michele Sarfatti. Annalisa Capristo and…