On January 27, on the occasion of the Giorno della Memoria (International Holocaust Remembrance Day), the Consulate General of Italy will host the traditional ceremony of the reading of the names of the Jews deported from Italy and the Italian territories.
This initiative is part of a program of events promoted by the Consulate General, the Primo Levi Center, the Italian Cultural Institute, Casa Italiana Zerilli Marimò at NYU, the Italian Academy at Columbia University, the Calandra Institute at CUNY, the Scuola d’Italia Guglielmo Marconi, the Center for Italian Modern Art (CIMA) and Magazzino Italian Art to commemorate the victims of the Shoah and preserve the memory of those tragic events.
The reading of the names is an open, outdoor event that will take place in front of the Italian Consulate (690 Park Avenue between 69th and 68th street) from 9:00 am to 2:00 pm. The public is invited to take part in the reading. All participants will be required to wear a mask all the time and respect social distancing. Anyone interested can join the reading at any time during the ceremony.
The overall program of initiatives includes the following events:
From November 10, 2021
1849-1871. The Jews of Rome between Segregation and Emancipation
Italian Cultural Institute
Virtual tour HERE of “1849-1871. The Jews of Rome between Segregation and Emancipation”. Organized by the Jewish community of Rome and the Foundation for the Jewish Museum of Rome and opened to the public on November 10, 2021, the exhibition makes use of loans from the most important Italian museums of the Risorgimento and prestigious private collections, with the aim of making known and recounting the commitment and involvement of Italian Jews in the period of the Risorgimento, with particular attention to the role of the Jewish community of Rome.
From January 14
The Gardens of Finzi-Continis
Italian Cultural Institute
On January 14, the Italian Cultural Institute in New York, hosted a special preview, available HERE, of the new America Opera “The Gardens of Finzi-Continis”. The Opera, based on Giorgio Bassani’s 1962 novel, tells the story of an aristocratic Italian-Jewish family, the Finzi-Continis, who believe they are immune to change on the eve of World War II”. Produced by the National Yiddish Theatre Folksbiene (Dominick Balletta, Executive Director) and the New York City Opera (Michael Capasso, General Director). Music by: Ricky Ian Gordon – Libretto by: Michael Korie – Directed and choreographed by Richard Stafford – Conductor: James Lowe. On stage from January 27 to February 6, 2022 At Edmond J. Safra hall at the Museum of Jewish Heritage.
From January 27
The Judeo-Italian Elegy. La ienti de Sion
Italian Cultural Institute
Reading of the Judeo-Italian Elegy, one of the oldest and most moving text of Italian literature in the vernacular of the thirteenth century that focuses on the Jewish condition. Video Reading by Edoardo Ballerini, introduced by Fabio Finotti (Director of the Italian Cultural Institute in New York) and accompanied by images of the city of Jerusalem by photographer Alessandro de Lisi. From January 27, 2022 on IIC YouTube Channel HERE.
From January 27
The Venetian Ghetto: A Restoration Project
Italian Cultural Institute
A video dedicated to the restoration project of the Venice ghetto, also supported by the World Monument Fund, with Fabio Finotti (Director of the Italian Cultural Institute in New York) visiting the sites and talking about it with David Landau (art historian) and Marcella Ansaldi (Director of the Jewish Museum of Venice). From January 27, 2022 on IIC YouTube Channel HERE.
From January 27
Americordo. The Italian Jewish Exiles in America
Italian Cultural Institute
Online book presentation: “Americordo. The Italian Jewish Exiles in America” (CPL Editions 2015). The author Gianna Pontecorboli in conversation with prof. Vincenzo Pascale (Long Island University). Pontecorboli’s book is a long overdue account of a lesser-known aspect of the Italian anti-Jewish persecution: the exile of Italian Jews to America. From January 27, 2022 on IIC YouTube Channel HERE.
January 27
Emanuele Fiano on Activism against Oblivion — Interview with Barbara Faedda; Holocaust Remembrance Day 2022
Italian Academy at Columbia University
Europe and the United Nations commemorate the victims of the Shoah each winter on the date of Auschwitz’s liberation in 1945, and the Italian Academy marks Holocaust Remembrance Day annually with an exploration of issues of discrimination and crimes against humanity. Throughout the years, the Academy has broadened its focus to explore groups that were targeted in the racism and xenophobia of the Nazi and Fascist regimes, and that suffered and died along with the millions of Jews. Of particular concern recently is the wave of antisemitism, historical denialism, and misinformation, and the manipulating of social media to pursue neo-Nazi and neo-Fascist ideas.
January 31, 12:00 noon
Exhibiting the Holocaust and Strategies of Memory in Postwar Italy
Center for Italian Modern Art
Robert S.C. Gordon (Cambridge University, UK) and Raffaele Bedarida (Cooper Union, New York) will discuss their recent research on the memorialization of the Holocaust in the context of Italian public monuments and memorials. Prof. Gordon will examine the tensions and creativity that underpinned the creation of the Museo Monumento del Deportato in Carpi and the Memoriale italiano di Auschwitz, while Prof. Bedarida will focus on the Holocaust-related drawings by Corrado Cagli, a Jewish Italian artist who enlisted with the American army and took part in the liberation of the Buchenwald concentration camp. Register here.
February 1, 5:00 pm
The Garden of the Finzi-Continis: the novel, the film, and the opera
Casa Italiana Zerilli Marimò at NYU, Calandra Institute at CUNY, Italian Academy at Columbia University, Primo Levi Center
A conversation: Stefano Albertini (Casa Italiana Zerilli Marimò, NYU), Anthony Tamburri (Calandra Institute, CUNY), Bianca Finzi Contini Calabresi (Columbia University), Alessandro Cassin (Centro Primo Levi), Michael Korie (Librettist, The Garden of the Finzi-Continis opera).
Giorgio Bassani’s novel The Garden of the Finzi-Contini was first published in English in 1965 enticing a small number of high profile literary critics. However his lasting success began with the 1972 film version by Vittorio De Sica which was awarded the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language film. Only in the following decades with two more translations by William Weaver and Jamie McKendrick, the novel became one of the main literary references for American critics, scholars and the public at large, making increasingly clear the distance that separate the two works.
This year, the National Yiddish Theater and New York City Opera (Michael Capasso, General Director) present the world premiere of Ricky Ian Gordon’s new operatic version of Bassani’s masterpiece with a libretto by Michael Korie. The debut of a new chapter in the American fortune of the Bassani’s novel, through a much richer knowledge than what the American public had in 1972, will tell us more about how perceptions may or may not have changed in 50 years. Register here.
