Foto Friday – The Italian Synagogue
Filed under: Art, Foto Friday, History and Culture, Life, Profiles, Travel
The Conegliano Synagogue in Jerusalem is the heart and soul of the local Italian Jewish community. The building, formerly a German Catholic school for girls, houses a museum, a restoration center, research and educational center, and a chapel, magnificent though modest in size, whose interior was rescued from destruction and brought to Jerusalem imported from Italy after World War 2.
The Italian synagogue, or Minhag Bnei Roma (the Roman rite), also serves to protect the Jewish prayer rituals not only of Rome but of communities from all over Italy, the roots of which date back all the way to the Second Temple period. According the Jerusalem Italian Jews Association website: “It is still possible to identify some traces of that ancient rite in the present Italian rite, such as the special Shema blessings on the eve of Shabbath “asher kila ma’asav beyom hashevi’i” – “emet ve-emunah bashevi’i kyamta” and the Hebrew “kol nedarim” on Yom Kippur night, instead of the Aramaic one “kol nidre’” which is said in other rites.”
The synagogue itself, however, is far less classical Ancient Rome and way more fabulous over-the-top Baroque. The womens’ section has elements of a balcony at the opera…
I should point out that the Italian rite is traditionally open to influences — there is no one Italian ritual, with Northern Italian communities having a more Ashkenazi rite, central Italian communities having a more Sefardi one and all of Italian Jewry now being influenced heavily by Chabad — and Bnei Roma has an informal sort of gender-neutral area outside the main hall where men and women pray alongside one another. Definitely worth visiting on any Saturday morning – check the website for details. And if you can’t get there right away, take the virtual tour.
I also want to mention that the photos were taken by Jonathan Sierra; a sensitive and imaginative photographer, he is also my beloved life partner who suffered a sad loss this week when his father, Professor and Rabbi Sergio Joseph Sierra, passed away at the age of 85. Rabbi Sierra was a great scholar who, together with wife Ornella, reconstituted the Jewish community of Bologna after the war. He also researched, wrote and edited books and essays on medieval Jewish scholarship (he translated a good portion of the commentator Rashi into Italian), was Chief Rabbi of Torino (Turin) and, after coming to Israel a decade ago, continued as an active member of the Italian Jewish community in Jerusalem until Alzheimer’s cruelly stepped in and vanquished his mind and spirit.
This week, as the family mourns, the entire Italian community has gathered to pay tribute – whether physically at the shiva, or virtually through emails, instant messages and even Facebook – and to pray in the Italian rite.
Young Underwater Archeologist, Beverly Goodman, Wins National Geographic Explorer Prize
I first “fell in love” with Beverly Goodman, when I dropped in to see the marine research station where she works in Eilat. Hoping to score some research material for my next series of articles, Goodman, a young Canadian-Israeli researcher working there, would go on to give me exciting details about her work in underwater archeology. Not before going through a long list of other marine research, some linked to climate change, happening at the research facility, known as the IUI.
Goodman, I would learn, had been interviewed about her work for a National Geographic program. She’d been collecting core samples from the seabed off the coast of the Roman city Caesaria. After inventing her own method for extracting the cores (she explains it’s practically impossible using traditional methods), Goodman would dive down to the seafloor and pull up layers of sediment to read back into history and find clues about what might have caused the destruction of Caesaria.
You can read all the deets on ISRAEL21c, which I’ve made handy for you here — Israel’s Freshest Face in Archeology Works Underwater — but her story goes like this:
Goodman’s research may give science new clues about the coastal environment in the context of global warming. Are the seas rising? Could a melting glacier break off and create a tsunami? Will storms and floods increase as the earth warms? Goodman’s questions might be more local in nature, but her work has global significance by adding to the information science holds about earth events and climate change.
Sifting through broken shells and sediment from coring samples, she has determined that at least three ancient tsunamis struck Israel’s port of Caesarea in the past. Concurrently, she also works in the Red Sea’s Gulf of Aqaba to determine how local flood cycles and sea levels have changed over time.
I’m apparently not Goodman’s only big fan. Our editor Nicky, at ISRAEL21c and ISRAELITY, sent me a notice she’d received from National Geographic this week. It went on to state that Beverly, was awarded awarded $10,000 by National Geographic and is one of the media mogul’s Emerging Leaders, “one of 10 visionary young trailblazers from around the world,” the magazine/news channel writes.
The program recognizes and supports uniquely gifted and inspiring adventurers, scientists, photographers and storytellers making a significant contribution to world knowledge through exploration while still early in their careers. Introduced in this month’s issue of National Geographic magazine, you can also see a web feature of Goodman and her cohorts at http://www.nationalgeographic.com. A few months ago she appeared on a Nat Geo program, too.
“National Geographic’s mission is to inspire people to care about the planet, and our Emerging Explorers are outstanding young leaders whose endeavors further this mission. We are pleased to support them as they set out on promising careers. They represent tomorrow’s Edmund Hillarys, Jacques Cousteaus and Dian Fosseys,” said Terry Garcia, a rep from Nat Geo.
Goodman deserves it and I look forward to reading about her new advances: She knows about water and the forces of nature. She grew up on the shores of Lake Superior at Whitefish Bay in Canada, 17 miles from where the legendary freighter, the Edmund Fitzgerald, floundered and then sank.
She told me poetically, in the ISRAEL21c article: “As much as I love the shipwrecks of the Great Lakes, Israel is different,” she says. “Israel has been a crossroads forever. The time scale is so long. We can get a historical and pre-historical perspective from a long view, while being connected to well-known historical events.”
Read all about Goodman, and her great work on underwater archeology, here at ISRAEL21c.
More Israeli award winners:
Waltz With Bashir Gets Oscar Nod
Israeli Singer Shiri Maimon Wins MTV Prize
Israeli Film Students Come Out As Prizewinners in International Student Film Festival
Foto Friday – From the Antiquities Authority
Filed under: Foto Friday, General, History and Culture
A 2,000 year old gold earring inlaid with pearls and precious stones was discovered in the excavations at the car park adjacent to Jerusalem’s City of David. This makes me sad both for the lady who lost it 2000 years ago and for the truly lovely silver earring I lost last year at the Reading parking lot in Tel Aviv. (If anyone has found it, please contact me at c/o ISRAEL21c). On the bright side, there are treasures aplenty to view at the Israel Antiquities Authority’s website. A few choice items:
Left: Assemblage of cosmetic products, Late Roman period; Right:
The Akeldama tombs, gold earrings from Cave 1, the Late Roman period (1st-4th centuries CE)
Above: Decorated and red-painted stone ossuary from Tomb 3, the Second Temple period; Below: Large glass bowl, the Late Roman period
and, of course, 2,000 Year Old Gold Earring, Inlaid with Precious Stones, Discovered in Excavations in Jerusalem
More collections and sites and finds are on view at the Antiquities Authority site.
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