“Usually, in a conflict, the Other is not taken into account. The Other doesn’t exist, or if he does, he is faceless, emotionless, dehumanised, in order not to feel guilty. I will never forget the faces of those Egyptian soldiers…” Not many people can say they have lived such an intense, tormented and torn life as Marina Ergas. When she is twenty years old, Marina leaves her home and her well-off life in Milan to go to Israel, pushed by her courage and the will to change the world. Her family settled in Italy after centuries of nomadism, like every Jewish family. At a certain point, Marina feels the irresistible need to visit the Promised Land, to help “her” peaceless people. During her peace crusade, however, she witnesses an escalation of illogical and uncontrolled violence, where “the Other” continuously takes different shape and ethnicity, as in a crazy roulette. Jews, Israelis, Syrians, Jordanians, Palestinians, Russians, Japanese. Everyone represents “the Other” to someone else, and the “Other” must be killed pitilessly. The author of this upsetting book spends thirty years chasing a political, social and religious ideal, which collapses under the blows of different attacks and massacres that kill, among others, thousands of youths. What remains is an overwhelming sorrow, a sense of emptiness and helplessness. Miraculously alive, disenchanted and embittered, Marina decides to leave the Promised Land.
“Usually, in a conflict, the Other is not taken into account. The Other doesn’t exist, or if he does, he is faceless, emotionless, dehumanised, in order not to feel guilty. I will never forget the faces of those Egyptian soldiers…” Not many people can say they have lived such an intense, tormented and torn life as Marina Ergas. When she is twenty years old, Marina leaves her home and her well-off life in Milan to go to Israel, pushed by her courage and the will to change the world. Her family settled in Italy after centuries of nomadism, like every Jewish family. At a certain point, Marina feels the irresistible need to visit the Promised Land, to help “her” peaceless people. During her peace crusade, however, she witnesses an escalation of illogical and uncontrolled violence, where “the Other” continuously takes different shape and ethnicity, as in a crazy roulette. Jews, Israelis, Syrians, Jordanians, Palestinians, Russians, Japanese. Everyone represents “the Other” to someone else. The author of this upsetting book spends thirty years chasing a political, social and religious ideal, which collapses under the blows of different attacks and massacres that kill, among others, thousands of youths. What remains is an overwhelming sorrow, a sense of emptiness and helplessness. Miraculously alive, disenchanted and embittered, Marina decides to leave the Promised Land.
“Usually, in a conflict, the Other is not taken into account. The Other doesn’t exist, or if he does, he is faceless, emotionless, dehumanised, in order not to feel guilty. I will never forget the faces of those Egyptian soldiers…” Not many people can say they have lived such an intense, tormented and torn life as Marina Ergas. When she is twenty years old, Marina leaves her home and her well-off life in Milan to go to Israel, pushed by her courage and the will to change the world. Her family settled in Italy after centuries of nomadism, like every Jewish family. At a certain point, Marina feels the irresistible need to visit the Promised Land, to help “her” peaceless people. During her peace crusade, however, she witnesses an escalation of illogical and uncontrolled violence, where “the Other” continuously takes different shape and ethnicity, as in a crazy roulette. Jews, Israelis, Syrians, Jordanians, Palestinians, Russians, Japanese. Everyone represents “the Other” to someone else. The author of this upsetting book spends thirty years chasing a political, social and religious ideal, which collapses under the blows of different attacks and massacres that kill, among others, thousands of youths. What remains is an overwhelming sorrow, a sense of emptiness and helplessness. Miraculously alive, disenchanted and embittered, Marina decides to leave the Promised Land.
“Usually, in a conflict, the Other is not taken into account. The Other doesn’t exist, or if he does, he is faceless, emotionless, dehumanised, in order not to feel guilty. I will never forget the faces of those Egyptian soldiers…” Not many people can say they have lived such an intense, tormented and torn life as Marina Ergas. When she is twenty years old, Marina leaves her home and her well-off life in Milan to go to Israel, pushed by her courage and the will to change the world. Her family settled in Italy after centuries of nomadism, like every Jewish family. At a certain point, Marina feels the irresistible need to visit the Promised Land, to help “her” peaceless people. During her peace crusade, however, she witnesses an escalation of illogical and uncontrolled violence, where “the Other” continuously takes different shape and ethnicity, as in a crazy roulette. Jews, Israelis, Syrians, Jordanians, Palestinians, Russians, Japanese. Everyone represents “the Other” to someone else, and the “Other” must be killed pitilessly. The author of this upsetting book spends thirty years chasing a political, social and religious ideal, which collapses under the blows of different attacks and massacres that kill, among others, thousands of youths. What remains is an overwhelming sorrow, a sense of emptiness and helplessness. Miraculously alive, disenchanted and embittered, Marina decides to leave the Promised Land.
Challenging traditional historiographical approaches, this book offers a new history of Italian Jews in the early modern age. The fortunes of the Jewish communities of Italy in their various aspects – demographic, social, economic, cultural, and religious – can only be understood if these communities are integrated into the picture of a broader European, or better still, global system of Jewish communities and populations; and, that this history should be analyzed from within the dense web of relationships with the non-Jewish surroundings that enveloped the Italian communities. The book presents new approaches on such essential issues as ghettoization, antisemitism, the Inquisition, the history of conversion, and Jewish-Christian relations. It sheds light on the autonomous culture of the Jews in Italy, focusing on case studies of intellectual and cultural life using a micro-historical perspective. This book was first published in Italy in 2014 by one of the leading scholars on Italian Jewish history. This book will appeal to students and scholars alike studying and researching Jewish history, early modern Italy, early modern Jewish and Italian culture, and early modern society.
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