A September Full of Events at MEIS

The MEIS exhibition in Ferrara “Jews in Twentieth Century Italy” has been extended until 2 February 2025, thanks to the great public success. Mario Toscano and Vittorio Bo have curated an exhibition divided into seven sections which offer a detailed overview of the twentieth century through the history, art and everyday life of Italian Jews. A project that shows how this minority integrated into Italian society and how their sense of national belonging went through a tortuous process that involved first the acquisition of citizenship, then the loss, and finally the reacquisition of their rights. The exhibition explores the period from the end of the 19th century after the destruction of the ghettos to the dawn of the new millennium, focusing on questions of importance for contemporary Judaism. It also deals with the Shoah: the tragic blow of the racial laws of 1938, the Jewish persecution and deportation. The exhibition is enriched with contemporary artworks; photographs from public and private archives; historical documents and family objects. The many stories collected will make you discover and rediscover important Italian Jews, from the art of Olga and Corinna Modigliani to the canvases of Corrado Cagli, to Antonietta Raphaël Mafai, Rudolf Levy, and Emanuele Luzzati.

The themes of the Exhibition are also the focus of the next edition of the Festa del Libro Ebraico (the Jewish Book Festival), a literary festival that the MEIS organizes every year and that will be held from 26 to 29 September 2024.
During the days of the Book Festival, writers, illustrators, and journalists will present several volumes: great classics of the twentieth century narrated by today’s writers, but also books that reconstruct the events of the past and make them dialogue with the contemporary days. We will talk about novels, essays, children’s books, literary itineraries, and more.

On September 15th, like every year, the MEIS will participate in the European Day of Jewish Culture with a program full of events. At 11.30 am, we invite you to discover the MEIS garden on a guided tour by Garden Designer Manfredi Patitucci and the educator of CoopCulture Federica Pezzoli. At 4 pm there will be a thematic guided tour of the exhibition “Jews in Twentieth Century Italy” dedicated to family. At 5 pm, the MEIS will host the conference “Families according to the rules of art”: the Art Historian Francesco Leone and the Director of MEIS Amedeo Spagnoletto will talk about the images of biblical families in the great masterpieces of art history. The day will end at 7:00 pm with “Sounds familiar…”, a concert by the trio US dedicated to the most popular Jazz songs and their Jewish history.

All events are free; for information and reservations, write to eventi.meis@coopculture.it