Italian Jews from Emancipation to the Racial Laws

216 Pages·2010·2.846 MB·English

by  Cristina M. Bettin (auth.)

Italian and Italian American Studies
Stanislao G. Pugliese
Hofstra University
Series Editor
This publishing initiative seeks to bring the latest scholarship in Italian and Italian Ameri-
can history, literature, cinema, and cultural studies to a large audience of specialists, general
readers, and students. I&IAS will feature works on modern Italy (Renaissance to the present)
and Italian American culture and society by established scholars as well as new voices in the
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Studies by reemphasizing the connection between the two. The following editorial board con-
sists of esteemed senior scholars who act as advisors to the series editor.
REBECCA WEST JOSEPHINE GATTUSO HENDIN
University of Chicago New York University
†
FRED GARDAPHÉ PHILIP V. CANNISTRARO
Queens College, CUNY Queens College and the
Graduate School, CUNY
ALESSANDRO PORTELLI
Università di Roma “La Sapienza”
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edited by Gary P. Cestaro, July 2004
Frank Sinatra: History, Identity, and Italian American Culture
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edited by Ruth Ben-Ghiat and Mia Fuller, July 2005
Mussolini’s Rome: Rebuilding the Eternal City
Borden W. Painter Jr., July 2005
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Carlo Tresca: Portrait of a Rebel
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Carl Ipsen, April 2006
The Empire of Stereotypes: Germaine de Staël and the Idea of Italy
Robert Casillo, May 2006
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Aliza S. Wong, October 2006
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edited by Penelope Morris, October 2006
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edited by Stephen Gundle and Lucia Rinaldi, October 2007
Piero Gobetti and the Politics of Liberal Revolution
James Martin, December 2008
Primo Levi and Humanism after Auschwitz: Posthumanist Reflections
Jonathan Druker, June 2009
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edited by Luisa Del Giudice, November 2009
Italy’s Divided Memory
John Foot, January 2010
Women, Desire, and Power in Italian Cinema
Marga Cottino-Jones, March 2010
Gregory Hanlon, March 2007
The Missing Italian Nuremberg: Cultural Amnesia and Postwar Politics
Michele Battini, September 2007
Assassinations and Murder in Modern Italy: Transformations in Society and Culture
edited by Stephen Gundle and Lucia Rinaldi, October 2007
Piero Gobetti and the Politics of Liberal Revolution
James Martin, December 2008
Primo Levi and Humanism after Auschwitz: Posthumanist Reflections
Jonathan Druker, June 2009
Oral History, Oral Culture, and Italian Americans
edited by Luisa Del Giudice, November 2009
Italy’s Divided Memory
John Foot, January 2010
Women, Desire, and Power in Italian Cinema
Marga Cottino-Jones, March 2010
The Failure of Italian Nationhood: The Geopolitics of a Troubled Identity
Manlio Graziano, September 2010
Women and the Great War: Femininity under Fire in Italy
Allison Scardino Belzer, October 2010
Italian Jews from Emancipation to the Racial Laws
Cristina M. Bettin, November 2010
Italian Jews from Emancipation
to the Racial Laws
Cristina M. Bettin
italian jews from emancipation to the racial laws
Copyright © Cristina M. Bettin, 2010.
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2010 978-0-230-10476-1
All rights reserved.
First published in 2010 by PALGRAVE MACMILLAN® in the United
States—a division of St. Martin’s Press LLC, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York,
NY 10010.
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world, this is by Palgrave Macmillan, a division of Macmillan Publishers
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ISBN 978-1-349-28936-3 ISBN 978-0-230-11437-1 (eBook)
DOI 10.1057/9780230114371
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To my parents
Contents
Introduction 1
1 Background of the Jews in Italy 9
2 Assimilation or Integration of the Jews in Italy 47
3 Jewish Youths in Italy 79
4 Italian Youth Movements and Jewish Youth Movements 97
5 Jewish Youths and Jewish Identity 139
Conclusion 153
Appendix A: Program for Venetian Jewish Schools 159
Appendix B: Letter from the President of the Jewish Community
of Venice to the Director of Education in Venice 163
Appendix C: Statute of the Venetian Zionist Group 165
Appendix D: Letter to the Zionist Federation of Italy
Regarding the Inauguration of Hebrew University 171
Appendix E: Letter to the Zionist Organization
Regarding Group Activities 173
Notes 177
Bibliography 193
Index 205
Introduction
At the beginning of the twentieth century, the numerous
existing Jewish youth movements, cultural societies, and
newspapers in Italy aimed to encourage the rebirth of Juda-
ism and to attempt to define its “essence.” This aspect of Ital-
ian Jewish history is still largely unfamiliar to the American
and English public. To date, there are only a small number
of studies about Jewish youths in Italy, and these have been
published mainly in the Italian language. With the exception
of the translation to English of Mario Toscano’s essay “Italian
Jewish Identity from the Risorgimento to Fascism 1848–1938”
(2005), the works published in recent years in English on Ital-
ian Jewish history have not taken into account the initiatives
of Italian Jews; their origins, motivations, and aims; and their
relations with the gentile world and the culture from the time
of the Emancipation to the advent of the racial laws in 1938.1
All of these factors contributed to the so-called rebirth of Ital-
ian Judaism. It is for this reason, Toscano argues, that the his-
tory of Italian Judaism, especially in the age of Emancipation,
is perceived by most historians2 as the complete assimilation
of the Jews into the Italian nation.
According to such renowned historians as Guido Bedarida,
Andrew Canepa, Bruno Di Porto, and others,3 the process
of Jewish integration or assimilation in Italy began with the
Emancipation and continued with the process of Italy’s unifi-
cation, when Jews began to take an active part in the political
and public life of Italy. In 1869, 87 of the 14,108 officers in the
Italian army were Jewish, as were three hundred of its 170,000
soldiers. These numbers are extremely high, particularly
if we consider the fact that at this time Jews living in Italy
2 ITALIAN JEWS FROM EMANCIPATION TO THE RACIAL LAWS
numbered 30 thousand out of an overall population of 25
million. By 1900, the number of Jewish officers in the Italian
army had risen to 163 out of a total of 14 thousand.
In 1901, 18.7 percent of Italian Jews belonged to the liberal
professions or were employed as civil servants, compared with
6.4 percent of the rest of the population. In 1919, 6.3 percent
of all university professors were Jews (61 out of a total of 965).
By 1930, Jewish professors constituted 8 percent of the educa-
tional sector. In 1861, Giuseppe Finzi and two other Jews were
elected to serve in the first Italian Parliament, and in 1874, 11
Jews served as deputies.4 In 1927, of a total of 352 senators, 17
were Jews. During Mussolini’s first year in power, the position
of Jews remained ostensibly much as it had been before, and
their place in Italian life was hardly affected; they were not yet
persecuted and were allowed to work in public offices and to
join the Fascist Party like other Italians.5
If with the Emancipation we see the process of Jewish inte-
gration into the nation on the one hand, we also witness the
beginnings of the process of Judaism’s rebirth, realized by
the formation of Jewish youth movements, cultural move-
ments, and newspapers, on the other. Beginning in 1861,
two newspapers, L’Educatore Israelita, founded in Vercelli by
Giuseppe Levi and Esdra Pontremoli, and Corriere Israelitico,
founded in Trieste by Abram Morpurgo, were published for
a Jewish population of 39,202. By 1911, there was a total of
five Jewish newspapers for a population of 46,878 Jews, and in
1937, seven newspapers served a Jewish population of 55,605.
These newspapers aimed to promote Jewish culture in Italy
and to disseminate its values as instruments of Jewish educa-
tion among Jewish youths.
In 1907, the Pro-Cultura society, designed to promote
knowledge of the history and culture of Israel, was founded
in Florence by Shemuel Zvi Margulies. The first Jewish youth
meetings, held in Florence in October 1911 and in Turin in
December 1912, had the same aims in mind. Two years later, a
third meeting took place in Rome. These meetings all resulted
INTRODUCTION 3
in a significant increase in Jewish awareness of the issue of
Judaism; it was largely due to these societies, their meetings,
and their activities that many Jews became aware of their rich
cultural and historical identity. In 1913, a Jewish youth group
and Jewish newspaper, Giovane Israele (Young Israel) were
founded in Milan, and a Jewish youth association, also called
Giovane Israele (FGEI), was founded in Florence by Alfonso
Pacifici. At the end of 1916, the Jewish Youth Roman Asso-
ciation (AGIR) was established in Rome. Additional branches
were opened in 1917 in Genoa and Pisa, although compared
with the Milan and Rome branches their activities took place
on a smaller scale. In 1919, the Fascio Giovanile Ebraico (Jew-
ish Youth Fasce) movement, promoted by Ciro Glass, was
founded in Trieste. From 1922 to 1924, additional Jewish youth
groups were founded, among them Avodah (Labor), estab-
lished in Florence and Rome through the initiative of Dante
Lattes, Moshe Beilinson, and Enzo Sereni. In 1924, the fourth
Jewish youth meeting was held in Leghorn. It differed from
previous meetings in that it was directed at promoting Zionist
politics in Italy. In 1922, and later in 1925, the teacher Angelo
Da Fano established a Jewish youth movement in Gorizia and
Modena and organized recreational activities and educational
projects for the young people of Gorizia. In order to reflect
the Zionist nature of the movement, Da Fano encouraged the
teaching of Hebrew songs, stories about the land of Israel,
and the activities undertaken by the Keren Kayemet (Jewish
National Fund). Jewish Activities included games, parties, and
frequent hikes in the mountains. Da Fano’s aim was to encour-
age the concept of a “total Judaism,” or “a greater sense of self
awareness of being Jewish and feeling Jewish.”6 The practical
result of this approach was further played out in the Jewish
camps promoted by Leo Levi, one of Da Fano’s students.
Two of the phenomena characteristic of Italian Jewish
youths in the 1930s were the camping experiences, which
enjoyed great popularity, and the hachsharot (agricultural cen-
ters). Camping vacations, held twice a year until 1939, were