Memories of Jewish Life: From Italy to Jerusalem, 1918-1960 (review)

Abstract

Memories of Life: From Italy to Jerusalem, 1918-1960, by Augusto Segre, translated by Steve Siporin. Lincoln and London: University of Nebraska Press, 2008. 507 pp. $40.00. North American readers especially should welcome this latest addition to growing collection of materials on Italian Jewry. Although English translation comes nearly twenty years after publication of Italian original Memorie di vita ebraica (Rome: Bonacci Ed., 1979), this volume proves to be well worth wait it renders accessible to English-speaking world important memoirs of Augusto Segre, Italian by birth, Israeli citizen by choice. Translated by Steve Siporin, professor of folklore at Utah State University, book includes a moving foreword by Segre's children, Tamar and Daniel, who characterize memories as witnesses from past which will open a unique window on unknown world of Italian Jewry, it was lived in small Communities during tragic and difficult times. The memoirs are preceded by an insightful and important introduction by translator, who well recognizes need to situate memoirs in larger context of history of Italian Jews, their unique culture and theirita/ianita - from details of language (Italian Jews, except in a few instances, never spoke Yiddish, language often taken to be universal touchstone of traditional culture) through emancipation of Jews during period of Italian Unification (Jewish citizenship became incorporated in laws of nascent Italian state) to patriotism exhibited during World War I (Italian Jews were encouraged by their religious leaders to be patriotic Italians even more than to be observant Jews. In fact, they sacrificed themselves soldiers in disproportionately high numbers). Prof. Siporin justly notes that the discord between tradition and assimilation, an intracommunity conflict, is at heart of Segre's memoir, and while rightfully assigning Segre a place among best-known Italian authors of ancestry - Primo Levi, Giorgio Bassani, Carlo Levi, Natalia Ginzburg, Alberto Moravia, and Italo Svevo - he dutifully notes that while others were assimilated and nonobservant, Jewish identity, religion, and culture form soul of Augusto Segre's memoir. As Segre had intended his memoirs for an Italian public, Siporin rightly acknowledges need for annotation and historical introduction for nonItalian reader and generously provides for this in introduction and copious footnotes to chapters. He also includes, in an appendix, a glossary of terms in Italian dialect and Hebrew that Segre had compiled for his Italian readers. It is Segre's constant vigilance against dangers of assimilation, his unwavering support of growing Zionist movement in Italy, his indefatigable efforts to help refugees escape to Israel, and his own emigration to Israel in 1979 which mark a strident contrast between these writings and those of other better known Italian authors. …