Ops & Blogs | The Times of Israel » Barbara Aiello

Becca’s Wooden Box – A Story of Sicily’s Lost Jews

Barbara Aiello — Mon, 20 May 2013 18:32:42 +0000

She arrived on Sunday morning, having received an announcement of our meeting several days before. At first she was not certain that the gathering would be appropriate for her, but curiosity overcame her fear and she found herself at the door of an apartment in Palermo, Sicily ready to begin what she hoped would be [...]

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Lag B’Omer message for Sicily’s bnai anousim

Barbara Aiello — Thu, 25 Apr 2013 20:34:34 +0000

In a few short weeks I will board the train at the station in Lamezia Terme, the biggest town closest to my mountain village in Calabria, and head toward another town, Villa San Giovanni. There the train, with all the passengers on board, will itself board a ferry boat, taking us cross the Straits of [...]

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Italy’s first woman rabbi suggests that married priests and women priests could revive the Catholic Church

Barbara Aiello — Fri, 22 Mar 2013 20:08:53 +0000

His journey takes place in the mountains of Calabria, the “toe of the Italian “boot,” and spans two days and several hundred kilometers. For my dear friend and colleague, Father Luigi Iuliano, it’s a labor of love that begins every Saturday afternoon and continues through Sunday. After a week of pastoral care to the faithful [...]

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A candelabra comes home for shabbat

Barbara Aiello — Mon, 18 Feb 2013 15:25:10 +0000

For thousands of Italians who live in the southern Italian region of Calabria, the island of Sicily and the Aeolian Islands, connecting family traditions with an ancient Jewish heritage can be little more than a lucky guess. But as B’nei Anousim (those who were forced into Christian conversion during Inquisition times) continue to search for [...]

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“Cavalluccio” – After liberal Jewish movement puts in ten years work, Orthodox rabbis “discover” Italian B’nei Anousim!

Barbara Aiello — Mon, 04 Feb 2013 04:47:25 +0000

Charles Caleb Cotton said it first. “Imitation is the highest form of flattery.” But it is the orthodox who have come to the deep south of Italy who put Cotton’s words into action. The B’nei Anousim movement in Calabria and Sicily that they describe as a “new” initiative actually began ten years ago and has [...]

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Zachor! Memories of my first Holocaust Memorial Day in Italy

Barbara Aiello — Sun, 20 Jan 2013 20:58:40 +0000

January 27, 1945 marks the liberation of the Auschwitz death camp where one million Jews were murdered by the Nazis. Sixty years later, in November 2005 the United Nations General Assembly resolved that January 27 should be observed as a day to honor the memory of Holocaust victims and encourage the development of education programs [...]

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Tales from Jewish Italy – the midnight shofar

Barbara Aiello — Sun, 30 Dec 2012 22:34:22 +0000

It is New Year’s Eve in Calabria, the deep south of the Italian peninsula. At the stroke of midnight the bells in the church tower in the tiny village of Serrastretta ring twelve times. But if you are very quiet and the night is very still, you will hear something more. From deep in the [...]

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Jewish wisdom at the Christmas Pageant

Barbara Aiello — Fri, 21 Dec 2012 16:21:43 +0000

The year was 1955 and I was eight years old. Christmas back then was a magical time, even for us Jews. I recall that nearly every school held a Christmas pageant that featured stories, carols and the grand finale — a living Nativity scene with boys and girls dressed as the kings and angels, wise [...]

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The Cat that ate the cannoli

Barbara Aiello — Thu, 13 Dec 2012 13:14:04 +0000

Tales from Jewish Italy – The cat that ate the cannoli During the warm summer months our little synagogue in Bella Italia springs to life. Both my home and the synagogue I started in 2006 are located in the tiny village of Serrastretta in Calabria mountains, near the “toe” of the Italian “boot,” and throughout [...]

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The ingathering of the meshpucha – Jewish Pluralism

Barbara Aiello — Mon, 03 Dec 2012 03:20:53 +0000

When our sages taught about the destruction of the First and Second Temples, they made it clear that these tragedies occurred for vastly different reasons (Talmud, Yoma 9B). Sexual immorality, wanton murder and idol worship brought about the demise of the First Temple. The Second Temple, however, was destroyed for one reason alone. In Hebrew [...]

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A lesson from Italy

Barbara Aiello — Thu, 08 Nov 2012 09:10:41 +0000

Emma D. (not her real name) is a Bat Anousim – a Hebrew term which translates as “the daughter of the forced ones.” Her Italian Jewish roots, tangled as they are, also run deep. Emma traces her ancestry back 500 years to Inquisition times when Jews were forced to either convert to Christianity or face [...]

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