Sicilian Culture: The News: Italian Jews: Memory, Music, Celebration

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Italian Jews: Memory, Music, Celebration

Los Angeles, October 23-29, 2001 in collaboration with Istituto Italiano di Cultura of Los Angeles Center for European and Russian Studies, UCLA Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, UCLA Bess Lomax Hawes Archives, California State University Northridge Center for Jewish Studies, UCLA Hillel, UCLA and with the support of: Skirball Cultural Center; Sephardic Temple Tifereth Israel; Cultural Affairs, Consulate of Israel;
Slow Food Convivium of Los Angeles.
Please check Web site: www.iohi.org/pages/itjews.htm in early September for updates and registration information. Lecture abstracts may be consulted at this Web site today.
Tentative program
(arranged by theme)
314 Royce Hall, UCLA, October 28-29
I M E M O R Y
Alessandro Portelli, On the Threshold of the Genocide:
The Jews of Rome at the Vatican Border
Professor of American Studies, University "La Sapienza," Rome
Jessica Wiederhorn, Italian Jews:
Testimony from the Shoah Foundation, Visual History Archives
Manager of Academic Affairs,
Survivors of the Shoah Visual History Foundation, Los Angeles
Steve Siporin, The Jews of Pitigliano:
A Minority in Folklore, Memory, and Monument
Professor of Folklore, Utah State University, Logan
Guido Fink, Visible and Invisible Jews in the Italian Cinema
Director of the Istituto Italiano di Cultura, Los Angeles,
Professor of Am. Studies, University of Florence.
II M U S I C
Francesco Spagnolo, Feeling Italian and Singing the Bible:
National and Jewish Identity in the Music of the Italian Jews
Director, Center for the Study of Jewish Music, Milano, Italy
Hazanut: Authentic Voices from Italian Tradition
(featuring songs of Rome, Turin, Verona, Gorizia, Trieste, and Livorno),
Sung by Cantor, Rabbi Elia Richetti (Milano)
This special presentation will take place at the Sephardic Temple Tifereth
Israel,Thursday evening, October 25
James Westby, Castelnuovo-Tedesco:
An Italian Jew in Los Angeles
Professor of Musicology, Manager, Brown-Buckley, Inc., Los Angeles
III C E L E B R A T I O N
P o e t r y
Paula Matthews-Leos: Judeo-Italian: Linguistic Challenge, Cultural Treasure
C.Phil., Romance Linguistics & Literature Program, UCLA
Ann Signet, Readings from Judeo-Roman Poet Crescenzo del Monte’s
Works: Sonetti Giudaico-Romaneschi, Nuovi Sonetti Giudaico-Romaneschi,
Sonetti Postumi (in Roman dialect and in English translation)
F o o d
Skirball Cultural Center, Sunday, October 28, 11:30 a.m.
A Glimpse into the Food Culture of Italian Jews: The unique food
traditions of Italian Jews are explored by food writers, ethnographers, and
chefs. This program will provide a glimpse into the culinary history of
this little known cultural group and the delicious tastes of Italian Jewish
(kosher) foods themselves in a buffet lunch prepared by chef Evan Kleiman.
Panel discussion:
Evan Kleiman (moderator), Writer, Cucina fresca, Pasta fresca, Cucina
rustica (with Viana La Place), Angeli Caffè Pizza Pasta Panini; chef/owner
of Angeli Caffè; host “Good Food,” KCRW; convener of the Slow Food
Convivium of Los Angeles;
Joyce Goldstein, Writer: Cucina Ebraica, The Mediterranean Kitchen, Back to
Square One, Kitchen Conversations; Restaurant and Food Industry Consultant
Judy Zeidler, Writer, Master Chefs Cook Kosher, Thirty Minute Kosher Cookbook,
The Gourmet Jewish Cook; TV host, “Judy's Kitchen;” restaurateur
Steve Siporin,
Professor, Folklore Program, Utah State University;
Ethnographer of Italian Jewish folk cultures
Lunch: A selection of Italian Jewish foods will be served in a buffet
luncheon, immediately following the panel discussion. Consult Skirball for
program fee (reduced for IOHI members: see www.iohi.org for membership).
California State University, Northridge, date to be announced
Steve Siporin, Sfrati and Vino Kasher: Jewish Food Without Jews
F i l m
Istituto Italiano di Cultura, October 23-24
Feature and documentary films on the Italian Jewish experience
including: Rome and Roman Jews during the war years, as well as a look at
religious space and discourse, of community ritual in the places of worship
throughout the region of Piedmont, as well as religions in tension in a
newly-released film about the forced conversions of Jews during the
Inquisition.
T h e J e w s o f R o m e : T h e W a r Y e a r s
Tuesday, October 23, 2001

The Jews of Rome: 1938-1944, (video, in Italian)
Presented by Daisy Miller (Assoc. Dir. for Annual Development, Survivors of the Shoah Visual History Foundation, Los Angeles) and a hidden child survivor herself (in Italy).
On January 27, 2001, the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, some European countries observed their first official Holocaust Memorial Day. Italy commemorated il Giorno della Memoria with ceremonies around the country, including the opening of a unique exhibit in Rome. Located in a building that once housed a Gestapo prison, the Museo Storico della Liberazione di Roma (Historical Museum of the Liberation of Rome, also known as via Tasso, after the street where it is located) unveiled a permanent exhibit documenting Jewish life in Rome before the war, the Racial Laws, deportation and liberation. The centerpiece of the exhibit is a 45-minute videotape composed entirely of Shoah Foundation testimonies conducted in Italy. The reel includes excerpts from five survivors’ and two rescuers’ interviews. This was the first time Italian testimonies from the Foundation’s archives were made available to the Italian public. Interviewer, Elio Limentani, the grandson of survivors, who conducted two of the seven interviews said this:
I thought I was ready to hear anything. Interviewing camp survivors did not frighten me…morally, technically, or historically…Yet, watching my interview with Settimia Spizzichino again last night affected me deeply…and enlightened me on the real value of these testimonies.
L’oro di Roma (in Italian). Description unavailable at present.
R e l i g i o u s S p a c e s of C o m f o r t a n d C o n f l i c t
Wednesday, October 24, 2001
Confortorio (in Italian). Description unavailable at present.
Sinagoghe di Piemonte (in Italian). Description unavailable at present.
Program Organizer:
Luisa Del Giudice, Ph.D., Director
Italian Oral History Institute
PO Box. 241553
Los Angeles, CA 90024-1553
Telephone: 310/474-1698
Fax: 310/474-3188
Email: luisadg@humnet.ucla.edu
Website: www.iohi.org

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