July 21, 2014

Students Use City as Classroom in Encounter with Italian Jewish Culture

“To see how Italian Jews used the European artistic tradition to enhance Jewish ritual objects, to make them especially beautiful, was fascinating,” explained student Hadas Ofir. Soncino Machzor, according to the Roman rite, 1485-86. From the U. Nahon Museum of Italian Jewish Art website.

On Friday morning, students were treated to a tour of the Museum of Italian Jewish Art, which houses a sixteenth-century synagogue painstakingly relocated to Jerusalem from the village of Conegliano Veneto after World War Two. Its contents, whose rich ornamentation is typical of Italian Jewry’s unique aesthetic sense and highly developed technical skill, were a hit among students. “Here in Israel, you just don’t have many opportunities to see Rococo art and architecture outside of books,” explained student Hadas Ofir. “To see how Italian Jews used the European artistic tradition to enhance Jewish ritual objects, to make them especially beautiful, was fascinating.”

To round out their encounter with Italian Jewish culture, students then met with the Milanese-born chef Gionatan Ottolenghi, whose grandmother was among Italy’s first generation of post-ghetto Jews. Over a pasta-and-pizza tasting and discussion of the flavors, scents, and colors that characterize authentic Italian Jewish cuisine, Ottolenghi, the owner of Jerusalem’s beloved restaurant Agas v’Tapuach (“Pear and Apple”), demonstrated the other talent for which he is known: opera singing. The catch? He only sings in Italian. “Hearing chef Ottolenghi sing was a pleasure on so many levels,” said Ofir. “Not only does he have a gorgeous voice, but after an intense week spent reading, writing, and speaking only in English, sitting back for a few moments and listening to melodious words that I wasn’t expected to understand—that was a pleasure equal to his amazing pomodoro sauce,” she concluded.

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