Letizia Battaglia's International Center of Photography opens in Palermo

Despite the heavy shower, yesterday Thursday 16^th November 2017, an enthusiastic crowd crammed the entrance of Pavilion 17 at the Cultural Construction Sites of the Zisa, in Palermo – Sicily- for the grand opening of the International Center of Photography, conceived and realized by world-renowned photographer Letizia Battaglia.

The International Center marks a further step in the cultural and intellectual awakening of the city of Palermo, awarded by the status of Italian Cultural Capital in 2018.

The momentum of Palermo goes beyond the national boundaries, as the opening of the International Center attests. “Today a dream comes true” proudly states Letizia Battaglia “And we can say that nowadays one can be happy in Palermo. And I am happy here in Palermo”.

Letizia Battaglia has spent much of her energy in the last 5 years, against all odds, to realize what it can be considered as her most important heritage: a tribute of love for her city, the stage, the living theatre of Letizia’s life-long work.

Starting as chronicle photographer in the late 60s, Letizia Battaglia tracked the Sicilian Mafia crime-story for two decades, shooting the bloodiest moments of the Mafia wars. Politically and socially engaged, Letizia dedicates her energy for witnessing the conditions of the Palermo’s most deprived inhabitants: in her pictures it can be seen the contrast between the glimmering top society of the Sicilian Capital attending ceremonies and theatres’ premieres and the miserable conditions of poorest families in their shacks. In all of Letizia’s shootings one can detect the love and compassion she feels for her subjects, a feeling the she extends to embrace the entire city of Palermo.

The Center occupies a 600 m² warehouse in the Cultural Construction Sites of the Zisa: a former industrial area, in the Zisa neighborhood, whose demised premises is now owned by the municipality of Palermo and is used for artistic projects. Three are the temporary exhibitions opened yesterday: Photographers for Palermo, a collection of 150 pictures of Sicilian and Italian authors picturing Palermo and its inhabitants; I am person: story of immigrations and emigrations told by Italian Photographers, curated by Kitti Bolognesi, Giovanna Calvenzi e Marta Posani, whereby 35 Italian photographers trace the history of migration from the post-war to our days; the Leopard, a retrospective by English artist and filmmaker Isaak Julien, curated by Paolo Falcone.

The Center will not host Letizia Battaglia’s work, though. “At the age of 82 I don’t want to see my own pictures anymore for I am more interested in fostering and encouraging the work –not only of photography- of other artists” says Letizia, in her role of Art Director. A role-she underlines- that she fills for free.

The International Center of Photography- that will also hold the photography archive of the city of Palermo- will be indeed an incubator for new talents, thanks to the workshops and international projects that will be realized. The space will indeed host photographers coming from all over the word, from Mexico to China and will represent a landmark of cultural exchange. A pledge of love for photography and for Palermo, that makes the capital of Sicily more and more interesting for its cultural and artistic vibrant scene.

524 years after expulsion decree the Jewish Community of Palermo has a Synagogue again

The date of 12th January marks a historical, ill-fated moment for the Jewish Community of Sicily: on that day, in 1493, all the Jews of the island were expelled as a result of the “Alhambra Decree” promulgated the year before by the Catholic Kings of Spain, Elisabeth and Ferdinand II, being Sicily part of Aragon kingdom. A long “exile into the exile”, as the Jewish Community of Sicily recalls it, that dramatically ended up at Auschwitz, where many Jews of Sicilian origins were sent to death.

Today, 524 years later, this same date takes a different, hopeful meaning for the Sicilian Jewry: in a moving and vibrant gathering set to commemorate the expulsion decree, the Archbishop of Palermo, Rev. Corrado Lorefice officially offered to the Jewish Community the use of a deconsecrated Church, Santa Maria del Sabato -set in what was the Jewish Neighborhood la Meschita- to be used as a Synagogue, the first in the city since 1493.

The event was lived with deep emotion by the representatives of the Jews of Palermo, in the persons of Rav Umberto Piperno and Mrs Evelyne Aouate, chairwoman of the ISSE (the Sicilian Institute of Jewish Studies, affiliated with Shavei Israel). Secular and religious authorities of the city of Palermo were also present to mark the event, with deputy-Major Mr. Emilio Arcuri;  the Bishop's delegate, Mons. Raffaele Mangano (Rev. Lorefice being busy in a visit to Jerusalem) and with the Imam of Palermo, Mr. Francesco Macaluso.

“A remarkable moment for us as Jews and for all the city of Palermo” as stated by Mrs. Evelyne Aouate.

“A historical event in the relations between Judaism and the Catholic Church” remarks Mrs. Noemi Di Segni, President of the Union of the Italian Jewish Communities (UCEI) “a turning point, much more meaningful as it comes in a Region -the South of Italy- which is living a momentum of cultural awakening”.

The chairman of Shavei Israel, Mr. Michael Freund, who also attended the ceremony, spoke of “reconciliation gesture between the Roman Church and the Jewish People, which heals a wound of 5 centuries”. 

The Jewish people of Sicily, whose presence dates back to the 590 B.C.E. lived an era of growth and prosperity in Sicily up until the Spanish Kingdom, when the community was calculated of about 25.000 people: Palermo had a significant number of families –with about 5000 individuals- and two Jewish neighborhoods -the Meschita and Guzzetta- laid in a large portion of the city area: a scattering of narrows streets, orchards, squares and gardens (scarcely visible today) that fostered the wonder of the then Palermo. The fall of the Kingdom of Sicily to the Spanish rulers, in 1409 marked the beginning of the decline for the Jewish presence in the island.

 After the expulsion edict, the Jewish communities swelled the ranks of the Sephardic Diaspora, although keeping their specific cultural features. Most of the Sicilian families escaped to the neighboring kingdom of Naples, waiting and hoping for better times to return home. However, that never happened, the order of expulsion being extended to Naples, too. The Sicilian Diaspora was then touching the lands of the Ottoman Empire, in what is today Greece and Turkey. But it was –as ironical as it could seem- in the Vatican Kingdom of Rome that most Sicilian Jews found shelter, forming the Scola Siciliana (the Sicilian Community) which was part of the five communities that then made up the Jewish presence in the Roman Ghetto.

A strong community, whose specific identity (for instance in the dietary customs as well as in the language) the “Sicilians” were able to keep alive throughout the entire “Roman Diaspora” against all odds (not only the daily discrimination but also, for instance, the pillage of the city by the German troops in 1527 that severally stroke the Jewish community) up until the terrible date of October 16^th , 1943, with the Nazi deportation of the Jews of Rome.

Today, the Jewish communities in the south of Italy and in Sicily in particular are steadily emerging from their ashes. A decade ago, Rav Stefano Di Mauro, a US Rabbi of Italian origins, decided to return to the city of his ancestors, Syracuse, in order to revive the vibrant Jewish community that up to 1493 used to flourish in the Archimedes’s city. Few families, mainly of marrannos (Jewish who were forced to repudiate their religious identity assuming all the exterior costumes of their Christian fellow citizens) gathered again in celebrating the Shabbat and reading the scrolls of the Torah, thanks to the efforts of Rabbi Di Mauro. Today, with the restoration of a Synagogue in Palermo, the Jewish Community of the island celebrates a landmark date in its millennial heritage in the Capital of Sicily.