Milan’s Jewish and the City Festival to Feature Visual History Archive Testimony

The first Jewish culture festival in Milan, Italy, is drawing inspiration from USC Shoah Foundation’s Visual History Archive.

Mosaico, the official website of the Jewish Community of Milan, will feature testimony clips about Shabbat from Italian Holocaust survivors and a Polish survivor in an online exhibit. The clips are meant to provide context for Milan’s first-ever International Festival of Jewish Culture, Jewish and the City, to be held Sept. 28 to Oct. 1.

Jewish and the City aims to reinforce Italy’s commitment to maintaining dialogue about Jewish culture and promoting tolerance and acceptance. The festival will focus on contemporary observances of Jewish customs, emphasizing Judaism’s modernity while also paying respect to its traditions.

The festival’s theme is “Shabbat | Space to Time,” with events dedicated to the various facets of Shabbat observance. Scheduled events (to be held in locations around Milan) include panel discussions with Jewish scholars, cooking demonstrations, guided tours of Jewish cultural sites, Shabbat services, musical performances, films screenings and art exhibitions.

USC Shoah Foundation’s Visual History Archive contains 52,000 audiovisual testimonies of survivors and other witnesses of the Holocaust and other genocides. The testimonies were taken in 57 countries and in 33 languages.