The Doctored ‘Memoir’ of Edgardo Mortara
The Doctored ‘Memoir’ of a Jewish Boy Kidnapped by the Vatican Edgardo Mortara’s autobiography is roiling Catholic-Jewish relations—based on the false assumption that the text is accurate. After a century…
Essays
The “Aryanization” of Italian Musical Life
This article was originally published by the Orel Foundation and is republished with minor edits by permission. In Italy there is absolutely no differentiation between Jews and non–Jews, in all fields,…
Ghetto and Not
The Relationship between Jews and Christians. Toward a Redefinition of the Ghetto In Italy, during the past two decades, Jewish history has pervasively captured the attention of researchers – even…
The Jewish War and Rome’s Urban Renewal
This essay is published in connection with the Rome Lab and the exhibition The Arch of Titus: From Jerusalem to Rome and Back presented at the Center for Jewish History…
Surviving the Ghetto
Serena di Nepi, Sopravvivere al ghetto. Per una storia sociale della comunità ebraica nella Roma del Cinquecento, Viella, Roma, 2013 Serena di Nepi’s new book presents a vast, all…
The Music of the Jews of Rome
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…
History and Art as Means of Universal Dialogue
Among the always impressive roster of exhibitions on display in Rome, La Menorà: Culto, Storia e Mito (The Menorah: worship, history, and myth), stands out for its far-reaching symbolic, cultural…
Venice and its Minorities
Before dealing with specific minorities in Venice, it is necessary to clarify what is meant by a minority. As a broad working definition for this essay, I would suggest…
Devising Resistance
Donald J. Trump’s election, inauguration, first appointments, and presidential decrees, have caused extreme disquiet to those who foresee the country drifting toward authoritarianism and a systematic undermining of the democratic…
Yesterday and Today
The way our societies confront the plight of the millions of refugees from various areas of the world escaping famine, ethnic, religious and political persecution, hopelessness and war, will be…