Italian Cultural Society’s three-part program

By Gary Mead, ICS Chair

We’re pleased to introduce a three-part event to commemorate International Holocaust Remembrance Day, thanks to a collaboration between the Italian Cultural Society, Jewish Federation of Greater Naples and the Holocaust Museum & Cohen Educational Center.

The theme of the overall event is the role Italians played in saving Jewish Italians and others from Holocaust atrocities in Italy.

Part 1: “Italy and the Non-Jewish Response to the Holocaust”

This program with Dr. Myriam Swennen Ruthenberg is scheduled for Thursday, Jan. 23 at Naples Hilton (limited availability for lecture and luncheon, $65).

The two faces Italy displayed toward Jewish citizens and refugees just before and during World War II have become the focus of recent historical research that both undermines that country’s wartime image as a nation of benign captors and rekindles memories of heroic Italian individuals.

Dr. Ruthenberg will focus on Italy’s and Italians’ responses to key moments in its history prior to, during and immediately following World War II. We will ponder the reception of fascism’s politics by the establishment and the common people alike, especially following the promulgation of Mussolini’s racial laws.

In that context, the role of the resistance, as well as that of the church-at-large and of convents and monasteries in particular, cannot be ignored. Historical, literary and cinematic texts will be used to illustrate this talk. We shall conclude with a few personal anecdotes and photographs.

About the speaker

Dr. Myriam Swennen Ruthenberg is professor emerita of Italian and Comparative Literature at Florida Atlantic University (Boca Raton) and founder of the FAU Italian Studies program. In recognition of her contributions to the promotion of Italian Studies in the U.S., she was knighted Cavaliere by the Republic of Italy in 2005.

Research on De Luca led Dr. Ruthenberg deeper into the world of Jewish history and thought — which she further explored in her course offerings in Italian literature and culture and as an invited member of the Jewish studies faculty.

Part 2: Free tours of the Holocaust Museum & Cohen Educational Center on Jan. 27.

Part 3: Showing of the film "My Italian Secret: The Forgotten Heroes."

The film will be shown Monday, Jan. 27 at the Nina Iser Jewish Cultural Center at 6:45 p.m. ($5 donation)

Registration for these events opens in December.