Zvi Ben-Dor Benite will speak about the story of David Reubeni. R A reservation is required: rsvp@primolevicenter.org Arriving in Rome in 1523, a Yemeni Jew proclaimed himself the "Prince of the Lost Tribes" and leader of their 300,000-strong army. Pope Clement VII met with the enigmatic David Ha-Reuveni, who proposed an alliance against the Muslim Turks in exchange for the Holy Land, financial support, and a navy for the Jewish people. Why did so many Italians believe him, what transpired in ...

Sullaluna and Centro Primo Levi invite you to join a book club discussion of The Trunk, a novella by Alberto Vigevani (translated by Will Schutt), on May 8th at 6:30 pm. The event is free, and seats are limited. Please RSVP at this link. Copies of The Trunk can be purchased at Sullaluna or ordered from CPL Editions. Sullaluna, is an independent bookshop, Italian bistro, and cultural space in the West Village featuring classic drinks and a menu of mainly vegetarian and vegan dishes. Alberto...

Anna Ferrando will discuss her pioneering research on the origins of the Italian publishing house Adelphi is an innovative and promising approach to cultural and historical inquiry. Her Adelphi: Le origini di una casa editrice (1938-1994) was published by Carocci, in 2023.  Her work analyzes Italy's post-war culture, politics, and society through the practice of selection, translation, and publication of books. At a time when Italian publishing houses, reflecting society at large,  were deepl...

Celebrate language and our ability to speak, make poetry, sing, translate, invent sign systems, and follow languages as they pass through history and acquire a life of their own. Following the screening of a selection of Nurith Aviv's films, she will discuss them with translators, poets, linguists, text scholars, filmmakers, and all of you. Nurith’s films explore language and move lyrically through landscapes, collective myths, and intimate narratives that shape humans’ ways of being together...

Bookhouse: American Sephardi Federation, Centro Primo Levi, Dan Wyman Books, a cooperative initiative. Gil Anidjar, author of On the Sovereignty of Mothers: The Political as Maternal, Columbia University Press, 2024, will discuss the political dimension of the “maternal” in a series of finely woven meditations on slavery, sovereignty, and the social contract. Anidjar identifies a maternal sovereignty and a maternal contract, proposing that without motherhood, there could be no constitution, pre...

Bookhouse: American Sephardi Federation, Centro Primo Levi, Dan Wyman Books, a cooperative initiative. Join us for Judith Cohen's presentation and performance of little-known musical gems handed down through word of mouth, research, and the legacy of Alan Lomax's work. Introduction by Isabelle Levy (Columbia University). Dr. Judith Cohen is a Canadian ethnomusicologist, medievalist, singer, and storyteller. She teaches at York University in Toronto and is the editor and consultant for Alan L...

Bookhouse: American Sephardi Federation, Centro Primo Levi, Dan Wyman Books, a cooperative initiative. Jonathan Kaplan (Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions Fellow, Center For European Studies, University of Verona) presents his research in progress. The concept of “coming to terms with the past” has increasingly emerged as a central component in European postwar historiography. Moreover, starting in the early 1990s, the debates on memory and the historical past, totalitarianism, anti-Fascism, and...

Bookhouse: American Sephardi Federation, Centro Primo Levi, Dan Wyman Books, a cooperative initiative. New book roundtable with Bernard Dov Cooperman, Serena Di Nepi, and Germano Maifreda. Reservation is required: rsvp@primolevicenter.org Jews and State Building: Early Modern Italy, and Beyond. Edited by Bernard Dov Cooperman, Serena Di Nepi, and Germano Maifreda. Leiden-Boston, Brill: 2025 In 2019, two scholarly meetings (University of Maryland, Johns Hopkins, and University of Rome La Sa...