Israele - in Primo Levi, ed. by Alberto Cavaglion

The Wound and the Hope: Primo Levi's Troubled Relationship with Israel, 2015

How did Primo Levi come to terms with what the historian Enzo Traverso has called ‘the end of the Jewish modernity’? How did he react to the fading out of that tradition which, between the Enlightenment and the Second World War, saw the European Jews playing a central role in the critical consciousness of the Western world? What was his relationship with Zionism? Did he ever acknowledge the Nakba? To address these questions, my article analyses the different positions that Levi took on the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, the awkward coincidence of the publishing of Se non ora, quando? and the 1982 Lebanon War, and what his tormented and passionate relationships with Israel reveals about the Italophone Jewish experience. Much has been written on Levi’s Jewish identity, but his complex attitude toward the question of Palestine/Israel is relatively underexplored. Starting from Levi’s writings and interviews on the subject, my essay will therefore investigate the impact that this thorny question had on the Italian Jewry. I will structure my essay as follows: first, I will give a brief account of how the changing historical circumstances, like the foundation of Israel, the Eichmann trial, and the Six-Day War, have shifted the geopolitical position of the Jewish intelligentsia (both inside and outside Italy); second, I will analyse Levi’s struggle to find a position within this shifting scenario; finally, I will study how Levi’s public interventions fed back into Italian Jewish community.

2017

How did Primo Levi come to terms with what the historian Enzo Traverso has called ‘the end of the Jewish modernity’? How did he react to the fading out of that tradition which, between the Enlightenment and the Second World War, saw the European Jews playing a central role in the critical consciousness of the Western world? What was his opinion of Zionism? How did his multifaceted identity (Italian, Jewish, Holocaust survivor) shape his troubled relationship with Israel? And how did his public statements on the Jewish State influence the position of the Italian Jewry? To address these questions, I will give a chronological account of Levi’s tormented and passionate relationship with Israel and discuss what the latter reveals about Levi himself and the Italian Jewish community at large. My contention is that Levi’s preoccupation with the orientation and fate of the State of Israel, and its repercussions on world Jewry, can be best understood if located at the intersection of the interrelated spheres of Auschwitz (and Holocaust commemoration), Turin (and his local circle of influences), and the Diaspora (the alternative “centre” of Judaism). By analysing the interplay between Levi’s Jewish and Italian identities through the lens of Israel, my paper aims to discuss how one of the most representative figures of Italian Jewry engaged with other forms of Jewish culture. This will in turn offer the opportunity to examine the tensions and ambiguities of Italian Jewish identity, which I will do by drawing on the work of researchers like Stefano Levi Della Torre, Carlotta Ferrara Degli Uberti, Nancy Harrowitz, and Judith Butler.

2023

I am going to divide my talk into three parts. In the first, I will outline the idea of 'Levi Beyond Levi'. In the second, I will provide a brief overview of Levi's troubled relationship with Israel. Finally, building on Levi's ideas, I would like to offer some thoughts on the terrible events currently unfolding in Palestine/Israel. It is an extremely difficult time for people who have any connections with Palestine and Israel, and before starting my presentation I would like to express my sincere solidarity with all Jews, Muslims, Israelis, and Palestinians, who are suffering during these difficult moments, and condemn any acts of anti-Semitism and Islamophobia. Later on in my talkfollowing the spirit of the project 'Levi Beyond Levi'-I will try to connect Levi's work to the current situation in Palestine/Israel. But before we start, I would like to express a hope and set the tone for the conversation that will follow. I am aware that the question of Palestine/Israel tends to be divisive, but I hope that we can have a respectful and constructive conversation, whatever our position on the matter. Let me then start by explaining the idea of 'Levi Beyond Levi'.

Journal of Near Eastern Studies, 2019

Book review of Mark Leuchter, The Levites and the Boundaries of Israelite Identity. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2017. Published in Journal of Near Eastern Studies 2019: 174-176.

Journal for the Study of the Old Testament, 2018

Digest of Middle East Studies, 1997

2014

The ‘Focus’ section of this edition of ‘Quest’ is composed of very diverse contributions, authored by both junior and senior scholars. The articles cover a wide range of topics, time periods and geographical areas. We open with the Greek Islands, considered from very different points of view: Cristina Pallini and Annalisa Scaccabarozzi offer us a study of urban history, analyzing Salonika’s lost synagogues, while Varvaritis presents the ‘Cronaca Israelitica’ – the first Jewish newspaper in the Ionian Islands – and the discussions of Jewish emancipation in the late XIXth century. Then we move on to Finland, with a contribution by Tarja Liisa Luukkanen that presents the 1897 discussion concerning the legal condition of the Jews that took place within the Finnish Diet, and in particular within the clergy, illustrating the role of antisemitism and the reception of Adolf Stoecker’s ideology. From the Baltic Sea we move back to Southern Europe, with an essay by Bojan Mitrović dedicated to the forms of social integration and of nationalization of Serbian Jewry as seen through a peculiar case study. Udi Manor’s article makes us leap to the North American continent, and to Jewish New York in particular, discussing Jewish 'identity politics' through the prism of the “Jewish Daily Forward” in the early XXth century. The last three articles concentrate on the second half of the XXth century. Rolf Steininger presents the figure of Karl Hartl, the first Austrian diplomat in Israel, and his perception of the country. Michele Sarfatti carefully reconstructs how foreign (non-Italian) historiography interpreted Fascist antisemitism between 1946 and 1986. Finally, the ‘Focus’ section is closed by Anna Baldini’s attentive depiction of Primo Levi’s role in shaping Italy’s memory of the Shoah.

Webmosaica, 2009

WebMosaica revista do instituto cultural judaico marc chagall v.resumo Este trabalho apresenta algumas reflexões sobre a emergência do sionismo herzliano, à luz das discriminações e do antissemitismo vigentes na Europa no final do século XIX, examinando suas transformações ao longo do tempo. Mostra a oposição inicial dos judeus ortodoxos e, após o final da Segunda Guerra Mundial, quando milhões de judeus foram dizimados, o reforço à tese sionista pelo processo de descolonização dos países do norte da África e pela consequente expulsão das comunidades judaicas para Israel. O sionismo não conseguiu resolver a questão judaica com o estabelecimento do Estado de Israel há 60 anos, uma vez que os mecanismos ideológicos antissemitas que continuam a culpar os judeus por algo que não cometeram não perdem vitalidade; os judeus da diáspora vêm sendo associados ao Estado de Israel e aos desígnios de sua política como se fossem responsáveis pela mesma. Desde seus primórdios, o movimento Sionista e o Estado de Israel se confrontaram com a questão da população árabe. Seis décadas após a independência, a integração e normalização de Israel no Oriente Médio depende em grande parte da sua inserção na região, da sua aceitação e legitimidade para ser um Estado Judeu e da pacificação de suas relações com o povo palestino e da resolução das questões vitais e pendentes do conflito.

Mediations, 2019

This chapter charts the growth of Israel studies from 1985, when it emerged as as a distinct field of academic scholarship in the United States, to its present international position. From the self-examination of Zionist settlers to academic writings during the Mandate period and the early years of the state, the subject has taken root in the last three decades particularly in Israel and the United States. The development of what is legitimately considered Israel studies began decades earlier, primarily in Israel. During the formative period essential characteristics were established, especially a proclivity toward comparative perspectives that were first anchored in European academic culture but increasingly became American oriented after World Waw II and Israel’s independence. More recently the globalization of the field and its growing interest among non-Israelis and non-Jews promise innovative inquiries in a discourse that is often contentious, not only in relation to the Israeli-Arab conflict but also to many internal topics. Keywords: Israel studies, Association for Israel Studies, David Ben-Gurion, S. N. Eisenstadt, Alfred Bonné, comparative studies, revisionism, parallel narratives