OCTOBER 234 pm to 8 pmNYU Casa Italiana ZerilliMarimò24 West 12 Street, NY

October 23 | 4:00 pm - 8:00 pmFree admission

Emanuela Trevisan Semi (University of Venice, Cà Foscari)TaaMraT EMMaNUEl BETWEEN ColoNIZED aND ColoNIZEr

Brook Abdu (research Fellow at the Capucin Franciscan re-search and retreat Center, addis ababa)

TaaMraT EMMaNUEl IN PosT-ITalIaN ETHIoPIa(1941-1948)

This seminar focuses on the figure of Taamrat Emmanuel (1888 -1963) a member of the Beta Israel Community in Ethiopia who, asa young man, was sent to study in France by the Polish Zionistand Orientalist Jacques Faitlovitch. Taamrat continued his educa-tion at the Collegio Rabbinico Italiano in Florence and went on tobecome a leader of Ethiopian Jewry as well as an Ethiopian leaderduring the dramatic years of the Italian occupation, World War IIand the subsequent return to sovereign Ethiopia and the establish-ment of the State of Israel.

Emanuela Trevisan and Brook Abdu will explore Taamrat Em-manuel’s work and life through the documents he left in European and Ethiopian languages, concerning the occupation period and itsaftermath.

Some historical and biographical information will help understandTaamrat’s connection with Italy and with the Italian Jewish estab-lishment.

Italy’s colonial enterprise in East Africa started at the end of the19th century with the takeover of Eritrea and Somalia. In 1935-36from Eritrea, Italy invaded Ethiopia with a ruthless military aggres-sion led by General Pietro Badoglio and later by Marshal RodolfoGraziani. In spite of protest from the League of Nations, to whichEthiopia belonged, Italy imposed its rule over the country and re-mained in power until it lost it to the British in 1941.

Three groups of Jews lived in Ethiopia at the time: the Falasha,the Yemenites and the Adenites. Shortly after the invasion, TheUnion of the Italian Jewish Communities took interest in the situa-tion of the local Jews, whose story had been known among ItalianJews since the early part of the century through a teacher of theCollegio Rabbinico in Florence, Taamrat Emmanuel and throughFaitlovitch’s Committee for the Assistance of the Falasha. TheUCII decided to send to Ethiopia Carlo Alberto Viterbo (1889-1974) with the purpose to “assist and organize the Jewish commu-nities of ‘Africa Orientale Italiana’”. The UCII program includedsupporting the Jews of Addis Ababa and Dire Dawa and then ex-pand assistance to the Jewish population residing on Lake Tana. Carlo Alberto Viterbo was a lawyer from Florence, president of thefirst Italian Zionist Federation, a member of the Union of the ItalianJewish communities, a journalist and linguist.

In his eight months trip to Ethiopia (July 1936-March 1937), he en-tered local Jewish life and participated closely in the activities ofthe community both to create connections with Italy and to learnmore abut the history, culture, languages and traditions of theEthiopian Jews. During and after his journey, Viterbo prepared re-ports for the Union as well as for the Italian government, outlayingthe development of vast and articulate study project on the historyof the “Falasha”. Unfortunately, the project came to a halt soonafter his return to Italy with the promulgation of the Racial Laws, inSeptember 1938, and his subsequent arrest in June 1940.

THE JEWS OF ETHIOPIA UNDER FASCISTRULE

Presented with NYU Casa Italiana Zerilli Marimò, NYU Departmentof History, NYU Creative Writing Program

ADDITIONAL INFORMATIONWWW.PRIMOLEVICENTER.ORG

Cahnman FoundationViterbi Family Fund

Dr. Claude Ghez

OCTOBER 249:30 AM - 5:00 PMNYU Casa Italiana Zerilli Marimò24 West 12 Street, NY

LEGACIES OF THEITALIAN OCCUPA-TION IN ETHIOPIA

Organized by Ruth Ben-Ghiat (NYU) and MaazaMengiste (NYU).

Scholars, writers and pub-lic figures will examine thelegacies of the Italian oc-cupation of Ethiopia asexperienced by Ethiopi-ans. Visual and story-telling cultures have beenmain vehicles of postcolo-nial expression. Threepanels will look at howperformance, historicalfiction, and film incorpo-rated the narratives ofthis difficult period and itslegacies through severalgenerations.

Speakers:Maaza Mengiste (NYUand Princeton University),Ruth Ben Ghiat (NYU),Heran Sereke-Brhan (In-dependent Researcher),Bewketu Seyoum(Writer, Performer) Zeri-hun Birehanu (AddisAbaba University), Dag-mawi Woubshet (CornellUniversity), Abiyi Ford(Addis Ababa University),Shiferaw Bekele (AddisAbaba University).