I will be speaking at the Bi-Cultural Day School in Stamford on Wednesday, December 9, 2009 at 7:30PM. RSVP. disrael@bcds.org.
Esta and Jay Feinsod have organized this wonderful event. They read the book on their way to Italy in June and loved the little known story of Jews being saved in Italy. They took a side-trip to Campagna and went to the Museum dedicated to Peace in the convent of San Bartolomeo where Jews were in the Italian Concentration camp. They contacted me – and as they say…the rest is history. Once again, this book connects people in the most interesting ways.
THANK YOU TO ALL INVOLVED IN MAKING THIS A VERY SUCCESSFUL EVENT. THANK YOU RABBI STERN AND MICHELE AT BARNES & NOBLE. THANK YOU TO ALL WHO CAME TO HEAR ABOUT HOW MANY ITALIANS RISKED THEIR LIVES TO SAVE JEWS DURING THE HOLOCAUST.
Arden Heights Boulevard Jewish Center
Presents
Author Elizabeth Bettina
Speaking at
Barnes & Noble, Richmond Avenue
Sunday December 6th, 2009, 3:00 PM
Ursula Korn Selig, a survivor featured in the book, will also be speaking
What an amazing event! Thank you to all who helped make this so memorable and touching, especially Kari and Corey of the AJC. Meeting the Langnas family was the highlight of the event. Imagine – connections to Campagna and Ferramonti in Detroit! They hosted us in a private dinner where we got to share stories, see pictures and documents and add more pieces to this never ending puzzle.
I will be speaking with Ursula Korn Selig, a Holocaust survivor featured in the book at the:
Holocaust Memorial Center
28123 Orchard Lake Road
Farmington Hills, MI
7:30-9:30 PM
Please RSVP to detroit@ajc.org
248-646-7686
There is a $20 couvert per person
True, their past had been expunged, their future was completely uncertain, and they would emerge from this chapter stateless and without official identity of any kind. But compared to what was going on in the rest of Europe, this Italian respite was a God-send. And I will be forever grateful for this. I have my life, and there is nothing more precious than that.
When a dear friend told me about Elizabeth Bettina’s book, I finally felt relieved that someone out there would bring this miracle of humanity to the public’s attention, because, truly, it is a very little-known story. After all, there’s plenty of history and news about the atrocities in this world, but hardly any mention of beneficence. There are individuals who stand out, and some who are even documented (Schindler, for example), as rising above the cruelties of humanity, at risk of their own well-being and even lives. But, to my knowledge, there are few if any instances of whole nationalities taking it upon themselves to rescue, protect and provide human balm to those threatened by major holocausts.
This story of Italians, from every echelon of society, from local peasantry to political and religious, is a revelation of the goodness we are all capable of. In a world which has witnessed and studied the nature of groups and mobs to be devastating in their cruelty and destructiveness, it is a genuine relief to read a document that enumerates the opposite: Italians were a shining light of compassion, withstanding the powerful Fascist/Nazi regimes, and giving expression to the best that is in us. According to social psychologists, the tendency of individuals and groups, under authoritarian rule, is to collapse into destructive tendencies. Here we have a beautiful counter-example to that hypothesis. May it be a template for all of us to imitate so that we can stand tall as members of the human race.
Hi!
I will be speaking on Wednesday at the Half Hollow Hills Library. See you there!
TUESDAY – NOVEMBER 3, 2009
7:00pm
FAIRFIELD PUBLIC LIBRARY
1080 OLD POST ROAD
FAIRFIELD, CT 06924
203-256-3158
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THURSDAY – NOVEMBER 5, 2009
HAGMAN MEMORIAL LIBRARY
227 MAIN STREET
EAST HAVEN, CT 06512
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TUESDAY – NOVEMBER 10, 2009
FARMINGTON LIBRARY
203-673-6791
TUESDAY – OCTOBER 27, 2009 7pm – 9pm
ITALIAN CENTER OF STAMFORD
1620 NEWFIELD Avenue
STAMFORD, CONNECTICUT 06905
203-3222-6941
URSULA KORN SELIG, a Holocaust survivor featured in It Happened in Italy will also be speaking
WEDNESDAY – OCTOBER 28, 2009 – 7:30pm
JUST BOOKS – ARCADIA CAFÉ
28 ARCADIA ROAD
OLD GREENWICH, CONNECTICUT 06870
203-637-0707
URSULA KORN SELIG, a Holocaust survivor featured in It Happened in Italy will also be speaking
Buon Giorno.
I am in Florence, Italy and will be speaking at the Synagogue on September 22, 2009 at 18:30.
The lecture will be in both Italian and English.
