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3000 Whitehaven St, NW, Washington, DC 20008

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Actor Ronald Guttman Brings Hebrew Poet Immanuel of Rome to Life at Book Launch
Literary Works of Medieval Italian Jewish Poet Immanuel of Rome at the Dorot Jewish Division
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The Fortunate Foàs of Sabbioneta

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Snapshots from our event "Outside In", the oral hi

Snapshots from our event "Outside In", the oral history of Guido Calabresi.

“This book combines family memoirs, an account of Jewish integration in Italy and the United States, an account of successful immigration, of the formation of a famous intellectual, of a piece of history of a renowned American university, and an investigation into American legal culture… The reader can learn the extraordinary story of adapting a family to a different environment; about how “trespassing” between scientific disciplines can produce invaluable results; about how to teach, to manage a faculty and argue in court; about the importance of the mastering legal theory. All this is told with great sincerity, making frequent use of anecdotes and narration of what happens behind the scenes-all this with the depth and richness of observations of a book of philosophy and a study of sociology.” — Sabino Cassese, Justice Emeritus of the Italian Constitutional Court, Il Sole 24 Ore

A couple of shots from our evening at the New York

A couple of shots from our evening at the New York Public Library for a poetry reading with Ronald Guttman and literary scholar Fabrizio Lelli. Together, we embarked on a journey through the works of Immanuel Of Rome, a Jewish contemporary of Dante and Giotto, likely one of the most studied Hebrew poets in history as well as one of the most forgotten.

We just published a collection of his sonnets, which you can buy on our website: Mine is the Golden Tongue. The Hebrew Sonnets of Immanuel of Rome.

There was a time when humans were in awe of langua

There was a time when humans were in awe of language. They knew language was mysterious and powerful and could produce meaning and unfold realities that elude us at first sight. They thought that unknown treasures contained in a word could sprout from ingenious linguistic arrangements and that perhaps humans create them, but, more likely, they just come upon them by pursuing language like the most desired of lovers. ⁠
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Once, the Roman poet Immanuel set out to re-capture the secret chord played by King Solomon and King David. He knew this could not be done alone and sought out the literati of his time. Among them, much was going on; they were inventing a new world in verses, shortly before the invention of the first portable weapon would seal its destiny as one in which most of humanity would not belong. Immanuel felt compelled to get into their arena and brandished his poetry like a sword. He ended up entangled in a duel with language, the language he loved the most, whose beauty had kept her in a world apart, shielded from mercenary activities. He was a great poet, and she fell for his talent. When he realized that he had bent her to a small competition, he found her dead. He then descended to Tofet, the underworld, to bring her back. ⁠
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Poetry has long been present in everyday life. In the streets, at the market, in the classrooms, in people’s homes. Verses are memorized in school, but are also activated randomly by what Roman Jacobson saw as everybody’s “poetic function.” Where standardized languages fail and leave even a tiny slit open, meaning works its way through odd channels of daily life. The Freudian lapsus, all sort of "mistakes" and profanities are welcome or loathed companions in this game.⁠
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Sixty years ago, the birth of Eliza was proof that humans were still in awe of language. They were ready to own her mysterious power. Today, everything points to the possibility that our will to win the game may have outdone that awe. But Immanuel’s tale, written 600 years ago, still puzzles us and we should listen carefully.⁠
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Come to our event Mine Is The Golden Tongue on October 30th. Link in bio for more information!

In the 1930s, the young Italian artist Corrado Cag

In the 1930s, the young Italian artist Corrado Cagli was a rising star of the Scuola Romana, supported by the Fascist regime despite being Jewish and openly gay. Following the Racial Laws, he fled to the USA, where he remained until 1947. In this book, Raffaele Bedarida focuses on Cagli’s American exile.⁠
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While examining Cagli in the context of the artistic and intellectual migration from Europe to the US, Bedarida provides new insight into the specific plight of this Italian Jewish artist and the challenges of doing art across national boundaries: between cultural diplomacy and negotiation of identity.⁠
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The author combines biography, cultural history, and critical analysis in exploring a decisive period in the life and work of a painter whose complex personality and multifaceted work defy classifications. The book also provides thought-provoking, nuanced arguments on the ideologically based ostracism Cagli encountered upon returning to Italy. Because of his past as a regime-endorsed artist, his recent American success, and his participation in the liberation of Europe from Fascism with the U.S. army, Cagli did not fit into any of the factions of Italy’s post-war heated cultural disputes. Based on extensive original research and written with brio, Bedarida’s book is an essential contribution to the growing field of transnational modernism studies.⁠
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Please join the Center for Modern Italian art and Centro Primo Levi for the inauguration of the exhibition of Corrado Cagli curated by Raffaele Bedarida and the presentation of CPL Editions’ new volume Corrado Cagli: Transatlantic Bridges: 1938-1947.⁠
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October 17, 6:00 pm⁠
CIMA Center for Italian Modern Art⁠
421, Broome Street⁠
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TRANSATLANTIC BRIDGES: CORRADO CAGLI 1938-1948⁠
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RSVP: info@primolevicenter.org⁠
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More info at our link in bio

Do you subscribe to our newsletter "Printed Matter

Do you subscribe to our newsletter "Printed Matter"? Read essays, news and thoughts from Centro Primo Levi. Subscribe at our link in bio.

Join us: October 17, 6:00 pm⁠ CIMA Center for It

Join us: October 17, 6:00 pm⁠
CIMA Center for Italian Modern Art 421, Broome Street⁠
⁠
*TRANSATLANTIC BRIDGES: CORRADO CAGLI 1938-1948*⁠
⁠
Please join the Center for Modern Italian art and Centro Primo Levi for the inauguration of the exhibition of Corrado Cagli curated by Raffaele Bedarida and the presentation of CPL Editions’ new volume Corrado Cagli: Transatlantic Bridges: 1938-1947.⁠
⁠
In the 1930s, the young Italian artist Corrado Cagli was a rising star of the Scuola Romana, supported by the Fascist regime despite being Jewish and openly gay. Following the Racial Laws, he fled to the USA, where he remained until 1947. In this book, Bedarida focuses on Cagli’s American exile. While examining Cagli in the context of the artistic and intellectual migration from Europe to the US, he provides new insight into the specific plight of this Italian Jewish artist and the challenges of doing art across national boundaries: between cultural diplomacy and negotiation of identity.⁠
⁠
Read more at our link in bio!

*JOIN US* The voice of Immanuel of Rome, a Jewish

*JOIN US* The voice of Immanuel of Rome, a Jewish contemporary of Dante, reappears after 700 years in a staged reading of his sonnets by acclaimed actor Ronald Guttman with literary scholar Fabrizio Lelli. The occasion is the publication of Immanuel's Hebrew Sonnets translated into English by Yehudah Cohn, (CPL Editions, 2023). The program is free and open to the public.⁠
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When: October 30th, at 6:30⁠
Where: New York Public Library, Stavros Niarchos Foundation, 455 Fifth Avenue, at 40th Street, 7 floor stage. Free admission. Informations at www.primolevicenter.org,⁠
Reservations on the NYPL website.⁠
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A poet, biblical commentator, and satirist, Immanuel ben Shelomò or Manoello Giudeo, was a contemporary of Dante, who, recounting his ultramundane flight through Hell and Paradise in Hebrew, tied his name forever to that of the Florentine poet. In his most renowned book Machbaroth (tales), written in Hebrew, he combines the Arabic genre of the maqāma with the sonnet that — from Giacomo da Lentini and Dante and later Shakespeare — became one of the most beloved poetic forms in Western culture. ⁠
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More info at our link in bio!

WE WERE OUTSIDERS IN EVERY POSSIBLE WAY In this c

WE WERE OUTSIDERS IN EVERY POSSIBLE WAY

In this conversation Judge Guido Calabresi, a long time friend of Centro Primo Levi, shares stories of his family’s flight from Fascist Italy —from Milan to Yale— and the ways his childhood experiences have shaped his personal and professional life in the USA.

This spring, Calabresi has appeared as a panelist in our presentation of Giana Pontecorboli’s Americordo.The Italian Jewish Exiles in America, and of Patrizia Guarnieri’s Italian Psychology and Jewish Emigration under Fascism.

Guido Calabresi is a legal scholar and senior Judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. A former Dean of Yale Laws School where he has been teaching since 1959, he is now Sterling Professor Emeritus and Professorial Lecturer in Law. He has been awarded some fifty honorary degrees from universities in the United States and abroad, and has published widely on the Law and related subjects.

AC Unlike most Italian Jews who came to the US, fleeing the Italian racial laws, your father was an anti-Fascist and realized long before the discriminatory measures where Italy was going. You family’s decision was not so much a consequence of the laws but rather a political decision.

Read the full article on our site...

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