Ruth Ellen Gruber
Italian Jews launch new Jewish newspaper — for non-Jews
When Italy’s first national Jewish newspaper launches this month, Italy will get what few Jewish communities around the world offer: a Jewish newspaper geared toward non-Jews.
Sponsored by the Union of Italian Jewish Communities, or UCEI, the umbrella organization that links Italy’s 21 established Jewish communities, the newspaper and an online Jewish information portal launched last year are part of a multi-dimensional media offensive aimed at bolstering the Jewish voice in Italy and creating a constructive dialogue between Jews and non-Jewish Italians.
“Italian Jews are very representative of Italian society in general,” said journalist Guido Vitale, who directs the newspaper, Pagine Ebraiche (Jewish Pages), and the Website, Moked.it. “I want to construct a piazza, an agora, where they can interact with each other and with Italian society.”
Pope’s visit to Israel fraught with potential minefields
ROME – The official Israeli government Web site for Pope Benedict XVI’s upcoming trip to Israel and the west bank promotes the May 11 to 15 visit as a “Bridge for Peace.”
Others, however, describe it as a potential minefield where various factions may try to exploit the pope’s presence for political gain.
“Both Jewish and Muslim ideologues are determined to stop the pope crossing that bridge,” wrote Catholic religion journalist Damian Thompson in his blog for the U.K. Telegraph, “either by smearing him as an anti-Semite or by making his visit to a Palestinian refugee camp look like a politically motivated reproach to Israel.”
Is Pope Benedict good for the Jews?
ROME – Always uneasy, the relationship between the Vatican and the Jewish community took another sour turn recently when Pope Benedict XVI announced he was rescinding the excommunication of a bishop who denies the Holocaust.
While the pope managed to smooth things over somewhat by distancing himself from Bishop Richard Williamson’s Holocaust denial and, at a meeting last week at the Vatican with Jewish representatives, announcing plans to visit Israel in May, the uproar of the past few weeks raises significant questions about the goals of Benedict’s papacy.
