New Works Wednesdays with Shira Klein
The ASF Institute of Jewish Experience presents:
New Works Wednesdays with Shira Klein
Join us for New Works Wednesdays with Dr. Shira Klein who will be discussing her new book “Italy’s Jews from Emancipation to Fascism” (Cambridge University Press).
Wednesday, 12 January
@ 9AM PDT ◊ 12PM EST ◊ 5PM London ◊ 7PM Jerusalem ◊ 8PM Dubai
About the book:
How did Italy treat Jews during World War II? Historians have shown beyond doubt that many Italians were complicit in the Holocaust, yet Italy is still known as the Axis state that helped Jews. Shira Klein uncovers how Italian Jews, though victims of Italian persecution, promoted the view that Fascist Italy was categorically good to them. She shows how the Jews’ experience in the decades before World War II – during which they became fervent Italian patriots while maintaining their distinctive Jewish culture – led them later to bolster the myth of Italy’s wartime innocence in the Fascist racial campaign. Italy’s Jews experienced a century of dramatic changes, from emancipation in 1848, to the 1938 Racial Laws, wartime refuge in America and Palestine, and the rehabilitation of Holocaust survivors. This cultural and social history draws on a wealth of unexplored sources, including original interviews and unpublished memoirs.
About the author:
Dr. Shira Klein is Associate Professor of History at Chapman University. She has won awards from the Memorial Foundation for Jewish Culture, the Yad Hanadiv/Beracha Foundation, and the USC Shoah Foundation.
For more about the book:
https://www.cambridge.org/academic/subjects/history/twentieth-century-european-history/italys-jews-emancipation-fascism
Sponsorship opportunities available:
info@americansephardi.org