Continuing my blog entries on my international teaching, I’m sharing for this blog a section of the beautiful piece Kezia wrote in February 2000 for the Avodah Newsletter about Pitigliano, the town in Italy where she, Deborah, three Italian dancers and an actress performed Avodah repertory on the opening night of the Second Annual Pitigliano Festival of Jewish Film and Culture.
From Kezia (in February 2000):
Known as “Little Jerusalem,” Pitigliano sits on the edge of a cliff of volcanic rock, out of which it appears to have risen. Nearly mystical is the sudden sight of the town as one rounds a curve in the winding mountain roads. (The cartoon-like zigzags of these roads begged for more Dramamine than the entire New York-London-Rome flight.)
The beautiful stone streets with their ancient stairs are layered upon one another like an Escher drawing, with flowered courtyards tucked into odd corners, and arresting slashes of light between buildings – through which one glimpses what appear to be sheer drops from the mountainside; and everywhere, garlands of laundry decorate the facades.
In 1799, the Christian community of Pitigliano sheltered its Jewish inhabitants from attacks by neighboring Christians, who had forced Jews from their homes in nearby towns. In 1850, the Jewish population constituted at least 10% (and perhaps as much as 20%) of Pitigliano – exceptional in Italy. Around 1870 many Jews left for new opportunities in larger cities (due to an easing of ethnic restrictions), but some remained in their comforting home of Pitigliano. In the 1930’s the Christians of this town once again protected their Jewish neighbors. But in about 1938, when the Fascist anti-Semitic laws became overpowering, the Jewish community of Pitigliano dissolved. Two websites devoted to this special town note, “During the Holocaust, people of Pitigliano risked their lives to hide and save Jews that were escaping from the Nazi terror” (Eytan Kahn), and “By lucky circumstances and also by the help of gentile Italians, who risked their lives, apparently all the Jews of Pitigliano survived” (Peter Petri). Elena Servi, who was a young girl in 1938, is the only member of Pitigliano’s early Jewish community living there today. Maintaining their proud tradition of shared lives, the Christian community in Pitigliano and Ms. Servi have joined together and created a small museum of Jewish history, and restored the synagogue, the Jewish cemetery and the communal baking ovens where the Jewish community gathered to bake Passover matzoh. (We were graciously given a private, unscheduled tour of the baking site by curator Luigi Cerroni, to whom we extend our appreciation.)
The bicentennial of the heroic events of 1799 coincided with the Second Annual Pitigliano Festival of Jewish Film and Culture, a festival created by Michela Scomazzon Galdi, an Italian film aficionado who chose to integrate her love of film with her appreciation of and interest in the Jewish culture of Pitigliano. It was as part of this Festival that we had the great and moving honor of performing in this town so enriched by its history of rare cooperation and compassion.
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