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4 minute read
Looking forward to seeing you soon
Marina Berkovich, JHSSWF President
I promised to share a couple stories from my European trip. I visited old Jewish ghettos in every Italian town, each unique and important. I’ll just mention two.
Ferrara is home not only to Renaissance magnificence, but a Jewish one as well. Isacco Lampronti, rabbi, physician and author of rabbinical encyclopedia “Pachad Yitzchak,” lived there in the late 17th and early 18th centuries. The ghetto in Ferrara is fi lled with Jewish prayer on Shabbat.
Padua is home to the fifth oldest surviving university in the world, where Galileo taught and the first-ever female university graduate got her education and degree. Padua has 1305 Giotto frescos in Scovegni Chapel, Palazzo Zukermann, a museum gifted to this city by a wealthy Jewish industrialist in the early 20th century. It is located near its Jewish ghetto, the largest square of Europe, Piazza Della Pace, which now also bears the name of Yitzhak Rabin, to honor the Jewish connection many Italians feel. With international travel back in style, hopefully you’ll visit there, too.
There are many reasons why we all need to return to normal. The primary of them, in my book, is that prolonged cloistering shortens lives. I miss the freedom to socialize without restriction, like we practiced in the not-too-long-ago pre- COVID-19 days. I am looking forward to returning that feeling, especially to our elderly members. Not all of them came through these trying times unscathed and some of them are now gone forever.
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On Sept. 16, 2022, we lost Eugene Goodman, a dear friend of The Society, who passed away at the glorious age of 106. May we all be as blessed as Eugene. We will repeat our Southwest Florida
Jewish Pioneers original production, “The Song Meister,” a half-hour documentary film on Wednesday, Dec. 14 at 7 p.m. through Zoom. JFGN and JHSSWF will e-blast information in early December.
On Thursday, Jan. 19, in partnership with Collier County South Regional Library, we will present “Jack Nortman, Boxcar Education Champion,” the next film in the series, the release of which has been delayed by COVID. Refreshments will be served. Start time is 4:30 p.m. Signup information will be available as soon as possible.
The format and particulars of this event had to be changed to accommodate scheduling conflicts, but Nortman’s story remains unchanged and his pioneering input to this region’s Holocaust education is as invaluable as ever.
On Sunday, Feb. 5, 4 p.m. at Chabad of Naples, the next film will premiere to familiarize Southwest Florida residents with Edison College (presently, Southwestern) Naples campus’ first-ever Jewish student, Mitch Spaiser. With his family in town since the late 1960s, Mitch’s recollections of days gone by are unlike our other eyewitnesses — he was the youngest of them all.
Active fundraising efforts have been halted since the start of COVID and now, once more, by Hurricane Ian. So, in effect, we will not hold a true fundraiser in 2023. However, we appeal to your gracious generosity and kindness to step up your memberships and donations that help preserve local Jewish history and bring the next round of stories to you live and online.
You may now purchase Jewish Historical Society of SWFL memberships online or mail us a check. A family membership is $54; individual membership is $36; student membership is $18; and corporate sponsorship is $300. If mailing a check, please send to The Jewish Historical Society of Southwest Florida, 8805 Tamiami Trail North, Suite #1 255, Naples, FL 34108.
We can be reached at 833-547-7935 (833-JHS-SWFL), www.jhsswf.org or office@jhsswf.org. The Virtual Museum of SWFL Jewish History is located online at http://jewishhistorysouth westflorida.org/.
The Jewish Historical Society of Southwest Florida is a section 501(c)(3) charitable organization. Contributions are deductible to the fullest extent allowed by law.