What is “Day of Remembrance“? January 27, 1945 marked the demolition of the gates of the Auschwitz concentration camp. Thus, as stated in Article 1 of the Law of July 20th 2000, n. 211, “The Italian Republic recognizes the 27th day of January, date of the gates of Auschwitz,” Day of Remembrance “in order to remember the Holocaust (extermination of the Jewish people), the racial laws, the persecution of Italian Jewish citizens , Italians who suffered deportation, imprisonment, death, and those who, even in different fields and camps, have opposed the project of extermination, and risked their lives to save more lives as well as protected the persecuted. “
On the occasion of the “Day of Remembrance 2018“, the Italian Cultural Institute is organizing a conference Traces of the “Shoa” in the daily life of the Hassidic Jews of Montréal by Valentina Gaddi. Among the Jews affected by the Holocaust, Hassidim are undoubtedly an important part because of their visibility and their great concentration in Eastern Europe (Poland, Hungary, and Romania), the region of origin of the Hasidic movement. Shoa literature only recently has been concerned with documenting this experience, generally paying attention to the memories and stories of the Hassidic surviving Jews. What is of this memory among the hasidic Jews of today? What place does it take in their daily life? The presentation will highlight the traces of the Holocaust in the daily lives of Hasidic Jews that Gaddi have observed during the research on the relationship between the Hasidim and not montrealese Hasidim in Outremont neighborhood. The men and women, have not personally experienced this tragic experience, but rather are the heirs of this past that has seen their parents or their grandparents as protagonists. Nevertheless, the memory of the Shoa continues to play a significant role in their daily lives and resurfaces particularly when disputes take shape in the neighborhood.
Wednesday January 24th 2018, 6pm
Istituto Italiano di Cultura
1200, Dr. Penfield
The conference will be held in Italian
Valentina Gaddi is a doctoral student in Sociology at Université de Montréal and Vanier scholar. She is established in Québec since 2012, when she arrived for a research associate position with the Canada Research Chair in Religious Pluralism and Ethnicity. Her background is defined by mobility: Morocco, Italy, France, Spain and England are among the countries where she has studied or led research activities. Valentina obtained a European Master in Inter-Mediterranean mediation, and a Master in Sociology at the Université de Montréal. Her current research focuses mainly on religious pluralism, with a specific attention to the Jewish Hassidic communities in Montréal. More recently, she has developed an interest in the new Italian migration in Canada.
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