Andrea Riccardi is a well-known Italian historian, one of the founders of the Catholic Movement “Comunità di Sant’Egidio.” He has published several essays on the Catholic Church in the 20th century. One of them, L’inverno più lungo. 1943-44: Pio XII, gli ebrei e i nazisti a Roma (Rome – Bari: Laterza, 2008) [The Longest Winter. … Continue reading “Discussion by Michele Sarfatti”
This volume of Quest offers to its readers a miscellaneous issue, with six research articles devoted to a variety of topics covering the eighteenth and twentieth century. There is no connecting theme, but some of the articles explore, from different angles, the issue of religious conversion. Indeed, the first essay, by Samuela Marconcini, studies the … Continue reading “Miscellanea 2022”
ABSTRACT
In the spring of 1936, during the war against Ethiopia, dictator Benito Mussolini began sending directives to Italian authorities in Africa against so-called “mixed unions,” from which “mixed-race” children were born. In the fall of 1938, the Fascist government permanently banned marriages of Italian citizens “of the Aryan race” with “Camites” and “Semites” of any citizenship. This essay tells the story of that course and documents the fact that the 1938 ban on “racially mixed marriages,” which unilaterally amended the Concordat, constituted a clear victory for Mussolini over the Holy See and the Catholic Church. It thus demonstrated the strength that fascism had at that time.
ABSTRACT
During 1938-1939, a large number of conversions of Jews to Catholicism took place in Trieste. It was not only Triestine Jews who converted, but also many foreign Jewish refugees, Austrian, German and Hungarian above all, in transit through the Adriatic port on their way to the Americas. The research has been carried on the basis of the documentation conserved at the Archiepiscopal Curia of Trieste, and has made it possible to analyze many individual paths, thus enabling the reconstruction of the personal motivations for conversion; the reactions of the Jewish community and those of the local Church. The essay also examines conversions in mixed marriages, also paying attention to gender roles in conversion paths. Special attention is paid to the mechanisms of the catechumenate and the correspondence between parish priests and the Curia, in order to understand the attitude of the city priests towards the racial laws.
ABSTRACT
During World War II, Jews in Libya faced persecution and adversity. In response, Muslim individuals often became aides to the Jews, driven by economic reward, shared benefits, and genuine empathy. Examining the manner Jews and Muslims interacted in these circumstances sheds light on the complex relationship between the two communities, influenced by factors such as religious affiliation, connections to the regime, and personal interests. The fascist regime’s differential policies towards the two communities over two decades also played a role in shaping this relationship, sometimes causing conflict between the communities, but also leading to a shared sense of opposition to the Italians following common experiences of persecution.
ABSTRACT
This article focuses on theater as a form of cultural, political and ideological training for aliyah aimed at Jewish displaced persons (DPs) in postwar Italy. Exploring the private archives of the Zionist emissary Zvi Aldouby, we intend to move beyond the traditional idea of hachsharah as a preparation for aliyah based primarily on physical and agricultural training. This analysis relates on a set of diverse sources, ranging from institutional reports, official and informal correspondence, personal notes, sketches, photographs and drawings. Adopting an interdisciplinary perspective, the article is divided in two parts. The first one frames Aldouby’s mission in relation to the rehabilitative programs and the political landscape within the refugee camps. The second part explores the birth of a dramatic circle founded by Aldouby and analyzes two theatrical plays directed by him, The Golem (Ha-Golem) by H. Leivick and This Land (Ha-Adamah Ha-Zot) by A. Ashman. Through the analysis of Aldouby mission, the article emphasizes the role of culture among Jewish DPs as well as the political motivations behind it. In this scenario, characterized by the Jewish DPs’ efforts to start a new life and the Zionist emissaries’ endeavor to organize their aliyah, theater became the stage to promote and discuss new understandings of home and identity.
Ten years ago, we published the first issue of our journal. Quest had been in the works for well over a year, the idea stemmed from the need of the Fondazione Centro di Documentazione Ebraica Contemporanea (CDEC) of Milan to equip itself with a scientific periodical. As a result of the discussions that took place … Continue reading “Ten Years of Quest“
This volume arose out of the 2015 conference “On the Margins of the Holocaust: Jews, Muslims, and Colonialism in North Africa during the Second World War,” held at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), and co-organized by the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (USHMM) and a number of research centers at the UCLA itself. … Continue reading “The Holocaust and North Africa”
Mussolini’s Children traces how, from 1922 on, Benito Mussolini and his Fascist State used the elementary school system – the scuola elementare, generally intended for ages six to eleven – and the language of racial superiority to forge “the New Italians of a New Italy” (p. 2). The system was tasked with “instill[ing] […] faith in the … Continue reading “Mussolini’s Children”
Cristiana Facchini (Editor in Chief) Alma Mater Studiorum, Università di Bologna, Italy cristiana.facchini@unibo.it Elissa Bemporad Queens College, City University of NY, USA elissa.bemporad@qc.cuny.edu Laura Brazzo Fondazione CDEC, Italy laurabrazzo@cdec.it Tullia Catalan Università degli Studi di Trieste, Italy catalant@units.it Guri Schwarz Università degli Studi di Genova, Italy guri.schwarz@edu.unige.it Gadi Luzzatto Voghera Fondazione CDEC, Italy direzione@cdec.it Dario … Continue reading “Editors”
