(JTA) — Since the 1980s the Italian Jewish actor Moni Ovadia has garnered a popular following with stage productions and cabaret acts largely based on Yiddish, klezmer music and Jewish jokes and legends. Born in Bulgaria, Ovadia, 67, came to Milan as a small child and attended the Jewish school there. Arguably Italy’s best known…
Italian actor Moni Ovadia resigned from the Milan Jewish community with accusations that it is a “propaganda office” of the Israeli government. The announcement by Ovadia, 67, in an interview published last week in the daily Il Fatto Quotidiano sparked a row in the Italian Jewish world. “I don’t want to stay in a place…
Chabad in Milan is preparing to launch what is said to be the first kosher soup kitchen in Italy. Sponsored by the Milan branch of Chabad’s educational organization, Merkos l’Inyonei Chinuch, it is expected to begin operation at the end of the summer. The initiative will be a canteen providing free take-away meals to needy…
Krakow’s Progressive Jewish community has received its first Torah scroll, which was donated by a sister community in Milano. The Torah scroll arrived in Poland and at the Beit Krakow community on Oct. 5 along with several members of Milano’s Beth Shalom Jewish Reform Congregation, according to Magda Koralewska of Beit Krakow. Rabbi Leigh Lerner…
Italy’s Jewish leadership mourned the death of Cardinal Carlo Maria Martini, 85, who was known in part for forging closer relations between Christians and Jews. Martini, the archbishop emeritus of Milan, died Friday in that city after a long battle with Parkinson’s disease. In a statement, Renzo Gattegna, the President of the Union of Italian…
Does the Coen Brothers’ “True Grit” draw on ancient Indo-European myth? Forward contributor Zackary Sholem Berger translates two poems, “My Pedigree” by Moyshe Nadir and “Herring Barrels” by Dvoyre Fogel, in the latest issue of Eleven Eleven. Israeli musician Avi Avital has become the first mandolinist to be nominated for a Grammy award in the…
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