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The volume investigates the interconnections between the Italian Jewish worlds and wider European and Mediterranean circles, situating the Italian Jewish experience within a transregional and transnational context mindful of the complex set of networks, relations, and loyalties that characterized Jewish diasporic life. Preceded by a methodological introduction by the editors, the chapters address rabbinic connections and ties of communal solidarity in the early modern period, and examine the circulation of Hebrew books and the overlap of national and transnational identities after emancipation. For the twentieth century, this volume additionally explores the Italian side of the Wissenschaft des Judentums; the role of international Jewish agencies in the years of Fascist racial persecution; the interactions between Italian Jewry, JDPs and Zionist envoys after Word War II; and the impact of Zionism in transforming modern Jewish identities.
List of contents
1. Introduction;Francesca Bregoli, Carlotta Ferrara degli Uberti and Guri Schwarz.- 2. Rabbi Abraham Rovigo's Home as a Center for Traveling Scholars; Matt Goldish.- 3. La Puerta de la Franquía: Livorno and Pan-Jewish Networks of Beneficence in the Eighteenth Century; Matthias Lehmann.- 4. Elia Benamozegh's Printing Presses: Livornese Crossroads and the New Margins of Italian Jewish History; Clémence Boulouque.- 5. Claiming Livorno: Citizenship, Commerce, and Culture in the Italian Jewish Diaspora; Alyssa Reiman.- 6. Living in Exile: Wissenschaft des Judentums and the Study of Religion in Italy (1890s-1930s); Cristiana Facchini.- 7. Under Observation: Italian Jewry and European Jewish Philanthropic Organizations in 1938-1939; Tullia Catalan.- 8. Jewish DPs in Post-War Italy: The Role of Italian Jewry in a Multilateral Encounter (1945-48); Arturo Marzano.- 9. Young Italian Jews in Israel and Back. Voices from a Generation (1945-1953); Marcella Simoni.- Index.
About the author
Francesca Bregoli is Associate Professor of History and Joseph and Oro Halegua Chair in Greek and Sephardic Jewish Studies at Queens College and The Graduate Center, CUNY, USA. She is the author of Mediterranean Enlightenment: Livornese Jews, Tuscan Culture, and Eighteenth-Century Reform (2014).
Carlotta Ferrara degli Uberti is Lecturer in Italian History at University College London, UK. Previous publications include Making Italian Jews: Family, Gender, Religion and the Nation, 1861-1918 (Palgrave, 2017).
Guri Schwarz is Associate Professor of Contemporary History at the University of Genova, Italy. He is Editor in Chief of Quest: Issues in Contemporary Jewish History. Previous publications include After Mussolini: Jewish Life and Jewish Memories in Post-Fascist Italy (2012).
Summary
The volume investigates the interconnections between the Italian Jewish worlds and wider European and Mediterranean circles, situating the Italian Jewish experience within a transregional and transnational context mindful of the complex set of networks, relations, and loyalties that characterized Jewish diasporic life. Preceded by a methodological introduction by the editors, the chapters address rabbinic connections and ties of communal solidarity in the early modern period, and examine the circulation of Hebrew books and the overlap of national and transnational identities after emancipation. For the twentieth century, this volume additionally explores the Italian side of the Wissenschaft des Judentums; the role of international Jewish agencies in the years of Fascist racial persecution; the interactions between Italian Jewry, JDPs and Zionist envoys after Word War II; and the impact of Zionism in transforming modern Jewish identities.
Additional text
“This highly stimulating collection of essays, … unravels different Italian Jewish networks that emerged and evolved over long stretches of time from the 17th until the 20th centuries, within the larger Mediterranean and European framework. … Italian Jewish Networks offers new perspectives and materials, innovative research, and novel analyses that allow for further reassessment of complex and—geographically and chronologically—widely cast histories.” (Evelien Chayes,Reading Religion, readingreligion.org, April 24, 2019)
Report
"This highly stimulating collection of essays, ... unravels different Italian Jewish networks that emerged and evolved over long stretches of time from the 17th until the 20th centuries, within the larger Mediterranean and European framework. ... Italian Jewish Networks offers new perspectives and materials, innovative research, and novel analyses that allow for further reassessment of complex and-geographically and chronologically-widely cast histories." (Evelien Chayes,Reading Religion, readingreligion.org, April 24, 2019)
