Gadi Luzzatto Voghera - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

Papers by Gadi Luzzatto Voghera

Esedra editrice, 2010

Ramhal \ue8 l'acronimo di Rabbi Mosheh Hayyim Luzzatto (Padova 1707 - Acco 1746/47), poeta, f... more Ramhal \ue8 l'acronimo di Rabbi Mosheh Hayyim Luzzatto (Padova 1707 - Acco 1746/47), poeta, filosofo e autore di componimenti morali. La sua vita \ue8 legata alle vicende del circolo di studi cabbalistici che egli guid\uf2 in et\ue0 giovanile a Padova e che lo port\uf2 a doversi confrontare con l'accusa di eresia. Ramhal sostenne di aver udito la voce misteriosa di un maggid, un'entit\ue0 divina rivelatrice di segreti celesti, che sarebbe divenuta la principale fonte di sapere che l'avrebbe guidato nel corso degli anni a produrre numerose opere di qabbalah successivamente messe all'indice dalle principali autorit\ue0 rabbiniche europee

... Page 8. Introduzione In uno scritto del 1815 Francesco Gambini escludeva la pos-sibilità di c... more ... Page 8. Introduzione In uno scritto del 1815 Francesco Gambini escludeva la pos-sibilità di concedere pieni diritti di cittadinanza agli ebrei a causa della loro irriducibile diversità «nazionale». ... Dedico la mia fatica a Talia, Daniel, Luca, Gaia ed Elisa, in ordine di apparizione. 12 ...

Le Centre Bibliographique de l'Union des Communautes Hebraiques Italiennes conserve l'arc... more Le Centre Bibliographique de l'Union des Communautes Hebraiques Italiennes conserve l'archive de Samuel David Luzzato (1800-1865), enseignant au college rabbinique de Padoue et principal representant de la Wissenschaft des Judentums en Italie. Parmi son imposante correspondance, certaines lettres concernent les evenements de 1848, en particulier les documents presentes ici : une lettre de Pesaro Maurogonato (1817-1892, qui fut ministre des finances de la republique venitienne de Daniel Manin, puis un des premiers senateurs du regne d'Italie, et une lettre de Luzzato, ecrite en hebreu.

Nuova Informazione Bibliografica, 2010

La Rassegna Mensile Di Israel, 2006

In their way of integration in the modern Italian society during Nineteenth and the beginning of ... more In their way of integration in the modern Italian society during Nineteenth and the beginning of Twentieth century, most of the Jews who maintained their link with the Tradition and the Jewish institutions choose "Israelitism" as a new form of connection to their past according to the challenge of the general trend of secularization. Although many Jews abandoned their faith and their community, the majority rejected the revolution of the Reform movement, did not give a lot of credit to the important elite movement of the Wissenschaft and - at the end - did not devoted himself to Zionism. "Israelitism" was an attempt of mediation between the faith in the God of Israel and the new role of the Jews in the modem world. Actually, "Israelitism" failed and left most of the Jews of Italy and Europe unprepared to understand the new dangerous challenge of Anti-Semitism.

In this paper the Author presents the beginning of a research devoted to the activity of Jewish d... more In this paper the Author presents the beginning of a research devoted to the activity of Jewish deputies and senators in Italy (1848-2000). Other works in this direction have examined the presence of Evangelic deputies inItaly and, more generally, of religious minorities in the Parliaments of European Countries (France, England, Austria, Germany). This work tries to shed some light on the presence of Jews in the institutions (specifically the Parliament) and hope to add some unknown elements to the history of Jewish emancipation and integration in united Italy. This is, by the way, a topical subject nowadays, when also in Italy the discussion about the widening of the rights of citizenship to new immigrants is very heated. After a general discussion about the question of the legitimacy of dedicating a research on "as Jews", the paper presents a first unfinished, but useful, list of Jews who were deputies and senators.

Quellen und Forschungen aus italienischen Archiven und Bibliotheken, 2017

Zusammenfassung Der Beitrag bemüht sich um eine Rekonstruktion der historiographischen Auseinande... more Zusammenfassung Der Beitrag bemüht sich um eine Rekonstruktion der historiographischen Auseinandersetzung mit dem venezianischen Ghetto und, allgemeiner, dem Verhältnis zwischen der Lagunenstadt und den Juden, die sie besuchten bzw. in ihr lebten. Es handelt sich dabei um einen historischen Streifzug, der auch auf die Entwicklungsprozesse eingeht, die im Verlauf des 20. und zu Beginn des 21. Jh. ein stetiges Anwachsen des Interesses für die Geschichte der Juden in Venedig auslösten.

La Rassegna Mensile Di Israel, 2003

Anna Foa, Elio Toaff, un secolo di vita ebraica in Italia, Zamorani, Torino 2010, pp. 57-66, 2010

Esedra editrice, 2010

Nuova Informazione Bibliografica, 2010

La Rassegna Mensile Di Israel, 2006

Quellen und Forschungen aus italienischen Archiven und Bibliotheken, 2017

La Rassegna Mensile Di Israel, 2003

Anna Foa, Elio Toaff, un secolo di vita ebraica in Italia, Zamorani, Torino 2010, pp. 57-66, 2010

Among the Jewish members of Rotary clubs in Italy in the '20s and '30s probably the most importan... more Among the Jewish members of Rotary clubs in Italy in the '20s and '30s probably the most important and well-known is Emilio Gino Segré, one of the "via Panisperna boys" who worked during the war period in the Manhattan Project, and eventually received the award Nobel Prize for Physics in 1959. In this book we didn’t want to include his biography because his figure remains somewhat anomalous compared to the Jews who we found enrolled in Rotary in Italy between the two world wars.
Belonging to the Club of Palermo since 1936, he did not have time to really get into the spirit of the Association because in 1938 the Racial Laws struck him while he was on a study trip in Berkeley, from where he wisely decided not to return. Interesting what he writes in his diary about the Rotary in Sicily:
In the meantime I had been asked to join the Rotary Club in Palermo. Italian Rotary Clubs are very different from their American counterparts. At Palermo, the club's membership was restricted to important local civic leaders. Furthermore, the club was definitely not Fascist. My father urged me to join, and knowing me well, strengthened his arguments by offering to pay the substantial monthly fee. At the Rotary Club I met several interesting and important persons, both visitors and local residents. I remember especially the inspired face of the composer Don Lorenzo Perosi, which could have served as a model for a sculptor representing "Genius." My election to the club was another sign that Sicilians liked and accepted me. One of the members was the excellent rector of the university, scion of an illustrious family of lawyers. We were friends, but not intimates. One day, however, at the Rotary Club, when I went to greet him with a handshake, he surprised me by embracing me with open arms, whispering in my ear: "Watch out. You have behind you the secretary of the Fascio"—the highest local Fascist authority. Mussolini had just forbidden shaking hands as an un-Fascist gesture.
A beautiful testimony, which should certainly be reported but that does not help to define the substance of the matter which I intend to discuss in this study. The major changes that characterized the Italian society in the years between the two world wars were accompanied, as we know, by the success of the first Fascist regime in Europe. The first experience of the Italian Rotary (1923-1938) was born in this context. And in the same context matured through several steps, the path that led to the traumatic end of the emancipation of Italian Jews. These two human itineraries would have remained strangers to each other without ever really cross. However, things went differently. On the one hand it is known that some of the Rotary clubs welcomed among their members many Jews (especially in Trieste and Milan, as well in Turin, Rome, Naples, Palermo, Genoa, Bergamo). And on the other hand it is known that the end of the first experience of Italian Rotary matured in the autumn of 1938, in striking coincidence with the enactment of anti-Jewish legislation. Scholars have begun to discuss this coincidence, trying to advance hypotheses and interpretations about a possible connection between the two events. The answers are not clear-cut, and documentation in this regard does not help in a particular way, in order to clarify definitively the core of the matter. Sources in Rotary are too reticent, and we found only few interesting documents on the topic.
I was therefore forced to broaden the historical vision, trying to experiment with new perspectives, convinced that only a proper contextualization can help to identify the underlying causes of a dynamic still somewhat unclear. Who were the Jews who participated in the life of Italian Rotary? What kind of relationship they had with their own religious tradition? In what economic or professional activities they were engaged? And what relationship they had with the political and economic Italian establishment? And - on the other hand - what kind of attention the International and the Italian Rotary devoted to the religious question? What kind of interest was manifested toward the Jewish component? To try to give at least partial answers to these questions I designed an agile path that starts from the deep dynamics of the Jewish emancipation and integration into European society after the age of ghettos, from the nineteenth century. A journey in which we shall understand how natural was for a sector of the Jewish social elite to adhere to the model of Service proposed by Rotary clubs and how they felt it as part of their concept of emancipation. This way we will find out that the Jews who entered Rotary were part of a professional and cultural well defined area. They were professionals, industrial or financial entrepreneurs who maintained only a weak contact with their religious tradition (many of them decided to convert, perhaps living the illusion to buy in that way a final ticket in order to be admitted into high society). People who were born feeling themselves as part of the Italian “Risorgimento” dream, demonstrating for this reason a deep loyalty to the institutions of the state (regardless of the Fascist or Liberal nature of it). In this context seems a little bit surprising the great indifference with which these Rotarians of Jewish faith look in general to their religious affiliation: virtually none of them maintains structural links with the Jewish communities, and the direct consequence of it seems to be that the very substance of the study presented here is a paradox. Actually, the fact of being or not being Jewish seems to have no direct relationship to the process of accession to the Rotary club. And in fact, one of the consequences of this evidence seems to be the lacking in the Rotarian documentation of direct references to religious affiliation of its members. And yet it is a story to tell, because the people we are going to deal with are really very important for the history of Italy. Deputies, ministers, owners of industries, men who have contributed in no small way to the government of Italian society in the years of Fascism. We therefore decided to add to the reflections typical of a historical path, some of the biographies that we consider most relevant. What emerged was an impressive fresco of an entire ruling class, and reading the biographies of the personalities of Jewish origin who have had a role in the Rotary Clubs of the peninsula, inevitably raises the most important question, linked both to the temporary closure of the Association in Italy, both to the promulgation and implementation of the Racial Laws: How was it possible that a so important ruling class, structurally related to the state apparatus and its economic, financial and industrial structures, has shown to be essentially voiceless when facing the events of 1938, choosing silence and succubus acceptance without trying in any visible way to propose alternative routes to the Fascist regime, which - if nothing else - would endanger with its political choices the national interests? As we know, we cannot write the history proposing hypothetical paths: “if..., then...”. Nevertheless I’m sure that, in front of a different reaction to the Racial Laws and to the instructions that led to the dissolution of Rotary in Italy, probably Emilio Gino Segré, our "anomalous" Rotarian, could return to Palermo from Berkley, and perhaps the story would follow a different path.

Quest. Issues in Contemporary Jewish History, 2019

http://www.quest-cdecjournal.it/reviews.php?id=143

The old-but always present-political ideology known officially since 1879 as Anti-Semitism is one... more The old-but always present-political ideology known officially since 1879 as Anti-Semitism is one of the most studied subjects in the field of contemporary history. Whole libraries have been dedicated to it, and in many countries (unfortunately not in Italy), Universities have also offered courses specifically dedicated to this topic that is justifiably considered one of the most problematic aspects of Modernity. In particular, scholars have often discussed its trans-political characteristics, aptly exemplified by the well-known Dreyfus affair, in which Anti-Semitism revealed its potential as an important shared political language, able to unify around political battle forces and groups seemingly incompatible. In this way intransigent Catholics worked side by side with their strongest enemies, the revolutionary trade unionists, and a similar experience engaged many Liberals, Socialists and Nationalists. Jean Jaures, the leader of French socialism, worked precisely on this issue in order to bring to fruition his important work of political rupture finally leading his political party to side in favor of Dreyfus in the name of the defense of the supreme value of Justice (considered fundamental basis of the French Revolution) and in the name of the defense of Truth. Jaures personally worked on a philological deconstruction of Dreyfus's so-called "confessions", and proved them to be false. As Pierre Vidal-Naquet reminds us in one of his writings, " when the historian shows the reality of facts and reconstructs the actual concatenation, he can only be Dreyfusard ". In his new novel Umberto Eco wants to open a debate concerning the concept of Truth and Propaganda and introduces the reader to this discussion, proposing it as a fundamental part of Modernity. Let's briefly present the plot of a rather confused (and at times boring) story. Simone Simonini (the main character, whose name reminds us of one of the best known " victims " of a blood libel in Trento 1475) and his alter-ego abbot Dalla Piccola are remembering in a continuous flash back, some of the most important historical events of the second half of XIX century Europe. Living near Turin in the dark atmosphere created by his Jesuit tutors, Simonini later becomes a master forger of documents and attracts the attention of the Piedmontese Secret Service. As a spy, Simonini is sent to Sicily in the wake of Giuseppe Garibaldi and his thousand heroes. In the next few years he moves to Paris where he works for the French counterintelligence, and where he begins to manufacture a fake document, first directed at discrediting the Jesuits, then at discrediting the Jews. The document reveals a supposedly secret meeting of the most important chief rabbis of Europe held during a night in the old Jewish cemetery in Prague. During this meeting they share their plans for world domination and the destruction of Christianity. As scholars know, this is also the plot of The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, the false pamphlet produced by the Czarist intelligence service Ochrana in 1905-a mix of different stories written during the XIX century by Maurice Joly (Dialogues in hell between Machiavelli and Montesquieu) and by Hermann Goedsche (Biarritz). By telling his story, Simonini remembers his involvement in many other plots including revolutionary anarchist projects, the terrible days of the Paris Commune, the Freemasons' operation organized by Leo Taxil, and the Dreyfus affair. At the same time, to add to the general textual confusion, the book elaborates an open declaration of love for good food and includes many old Italian and French recipes. Due to Simonini's language and his focus on almost every classical aspect of the Anti-Semitic stereotype, Umberto Eco has been accused of helping the diffusion of this prejudice. I don't think this is the point and Eco openly repudiates this dangerous interpretation. In an interview in the Italian magazine L'Espresso he tells us that he " wrote a novel. It's a novel, which rather than an essay, doesn't come to conclusions, but allows the contradictions to remain. Just as I put on stage the two aspects of the Risorgimento, the anti-garibaldini and the enthusiasts, I did with the birth and development of anti-Semitism. From Barruel onwards hundreds of books and magazines with anti-Semitic stereotypes have been published. I'm interested in recounting how through the

La necessità che spinge gli storici a sperimentare diversi registri di scrittura è giustificata d... more La necessità che spinge gli storici a sperimentare diversi registri di scrittura è giustificata da un progressivo complicarsi del panorama dei lettori. I più snob potranno utilizzare il termine "divulgazione", con un fare di malcelato disprezzo a fronte di ponderosi volumi carichi di note che giustificano (quando usate con raziocinio) ogni singolo passaggio logico offrendo indicazioni di fonti e riferimenti storiografici. È il mestiere dello storico, ma è anche un buon modo per lasciare che casse intere di volumi non letti giacciano nel magazzini delle case editrici o delle librerie. Viviamo in una società che legge poco, e quando legge vuole essere vezzeggiata. Per generazioni gli storici sono stati insensibili a questa esigenza, a cui si è sempre guardato dall'Areopago di una cultura considerata "alta", ma che ha fatto un'infinita fatica a comunicare le proprie intuizioni al grande pubblico, rinunciando di fatto a mettersi in contatto con quel mondo le cui radici storiche si pretendeva di voler interpretare. Anna Foa, autrice di numerosi importanti saggi di storia moderna e particolarmente attenta alle dinamiche dell'intreccio culturale e sociale fra minoranza ebraica e maggioranza cristiana in Europa, ha deciso di tentare di rompere quella impalpabile barriera di incomunicabilità tentando nuovi percorsi narrativi 1 . Il tema scelto è affascinante e nel medesimo tempo problematico. Una casa -il cosiddetto Portonaccio che si affaccia su via Portico d'Ottavia 13, nel ghetto di Romaviene eletta a protagonista di un racconto critico della retata del 16 ottobre 1943. Diciamo pure che la lettura del volume è piacevole: Anna Foa conosce il suo mestiere e conduce il lettore in un viaggio nel tempo attraverso la lente di un luogo capace di trasmettere il senso del passaggio della storia, e di tanti drammi umani. La ricostruzione delle vicende legate all'edificio, che era posto al di fuori delle mura del ghetto di Roma, ci offre il senso dello scorrere del tempo su pietre apparentemente immobili ma che ci possono raccontare i pro-

Sembrano riaffiorare carsicamente temi oggi tipici, come la convinzione di Lombroso che la truffa... more Sembrano riaffiorare carsicamente temi oggi tipici, come la convinzione di Lombroso che la truffa e il malaffare politico rappresentino una trasformazione "evolutiva" del delitto; o il riapparire di quella attitudine "papiniana" di non pochi intellettuali italiani fattisi predicatori moralisti da giovani antisistema quali erano stati nella loro trasgressiva giovinezza". 1 Era fatta così Luisa Mangoni, (Marisa per gli amici). Capace di scrivere reprimende politiche amare e durissime, con il garbo dell'intellettuale raffinata, sempre fondando il suo pensiero su una solida base documentaria. Ho incontrato Marisa Mangoni per la prima volta all'inizio degli anni '80, quando frequentavo il Dipartimento di Storia di Ca' Foscari. Si viveva all'epoca una stagione per certi versi straordinaria in quelle aule piuttosto approssimative dal punto di vista logistico. Si guardava con una certa naturale deferenza a figure di indiscusso spessore come Marino Berengo e Gaetano Cozzi, che avevano voluto raccogliere a Venezia (non senza contrasti e incomprensioni) docenti di altissimo profilo che promettevano di dare al dipartimento un grande appeal attirando numerosi studenti. Si potevano all'epoca seguire le lezioni di storia incentrate in maniera a volte quasi ossessiva sulle vicende della Serenissima Repubblica (indiscussa protagonista della ricerca storica in quegli anni e in quegli ambienti, a cavallo fra mito e ripensamento critico), frequentando i corsi di maestri come Giovanni Scarabello, Gherardo Ortalli e Reinhold Mueller. Ma si poteva anche dedicarsi ad altro, ai complicati nessi fra storia e contemporaneità, seguendo gli straordinari corsi di storia della Chiesa curati da Giovanni Miccoli, lavorando con puntigliosità sugli epistolari di Machiavelli o sulle memorie delle Guerre Giudaiche di Flavio Giuseppe sotto la guida di Enzo Cervelli, oppure inoltrandosi nell'affascinante percorso della storia intellettuale italiana ed europea fra Otto e Novecento sotto la guida di Marisa Mangoni. In quel periodo si discuteva, all'interno del mondo universitario, dell'introduzione dei corsi semestrali, che venivano visti con un certo sospetto da chi era abituato a costruire un percorso di insegnamento molto lungo, articolato in decine e decine di ore fatte di incontri e seminari nei quali veramente si poteva aspirare a formare una nuova classe di ricercatori storici, fornendo loro gli strumenti elementari per potersi muovere fra documenti d'archivio, cataloghi di biblioteche, repertori nazionali e internazionali, fonti di diversa natura. Si viveva un momento di grande passione per l'insegnamento, che si incontrava con un entusiasmo ricambiato da parte di studenti che erano ben disposti in generale ad affrontare anche surplus di studio e di impegno universitario per approfittare al meglio dell'esperienza in atto. Fu in quest'ambito che conobbi Marisa Mangoni: Giovanni Miccoli aveva organizzato un seminario "gratuito" sull'antisemitismo nella stampa cattolica italiana della seconda metà del secolo XIX. Allora c'era lo spazio -intellettuale e di tempo -per realizzare questi momenti di approfondimento: il docente preparava e proponeva una serie di incontri che non si concludevano con alcun tipo di valutazione. Formazione pura, a cui si accompagnavano momenti di dibattito e di confronto. E tuttavia si trattava di esperienze che lasciavano il segno: furono numerose le tesi di laurea che scaturirono da quel seminario, e io stesso ho scritto il mio primo saggio proprio grazie al lavoro di ricerca effettuato in quel contesto. Quel seminario fu organizzato e vide la partecipazione anche di Marisa, che io imparai così a conoscere come una studiosa attenta e vivace, che si muoveva come un pesce nelle acque spesso complicate della produzione culturale degli anni a cavallo fra i due secoli. Arrivando a Venezia da Trieste aveva preso casa assieme al marito Enzo Cervelli in un moderno appartamento un po' appartato a Dorsoduro. Andare a trovarla diventò un'abitudine piacevole quando decisi di fare la tesi di laurea con lei. Frequentando le sue lezioni avevo imparato progressivamente a sganciarmi da certi stereotipi culturali, affrontando la complessità del discorso intellettuale anche in epoca

Angelo Ventura, Il fascismo e gli ebrei. Il razzismo antisemita nell'ideologia e nella politica d... more Angelo Ventura, Il fascismo e gli ebrei. Il razzismo antisemita nell'ideologia e nella politica del regime, Donzelli, Roma 2013