A rather amazing community, the Jewish Italian one. Never numbering more than 50,000 since emancipation, they've nevertheless produced 4 Nobel Prize winners, 2 Prime Ministers, 6 Strega Prize winners (the most prestigious Italian literary award) and countless others amazing individuals (Modigliani, Pontecorvo, Olivetti). This in the country that had once invented the word ghetto.
2 Prime Ministers of Italy were Jewish? Wow, never knew that, which ones were they?
Interesting side note, it's been said that Mussolini, while certainly no "saint", and Italy in general, was a little better toward the Jews during the Holocaust than neighboring European nations (Pope Pius's silence on the matter notwithstanding).
I had found that hard to believe, but note that many Italian Jews like Rita Levi-Montalcini seem to have survived it obviously.
A rather amazing community, the Jewish Italian one. Never numbering more than 50,000 since emancipation, they've nevertheless produced 4 Nobel Prize winners, 2 Prime Ministers, 6 Strega Prize winners (the most prestigious Italian literary award) and countless others amazing individuals (Modigliani, Pontecorvo, Olivetti). This in the country that had once invented the word ghetto.
ReplyDelete2 Prime Ministers of Italy were Jewish? Wow, never knew that, which ones were they?
ReplyDeleteInteresting side note, it's been said that Mussolini, while certainly no "saint", and Italy in general, was a little better toward the Jews during the Holocaust than neighboring European nations (Pope Pius's silence on the matter notwithstanding).
I had found that hard to believe, but note that many Italian Jews like Rita Levi-Montalcini seem to have survived it obviously.
Alessandro Fortis and Luigi Luzzatti. Expect a related profile soon...
ReplyDelete