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Shira Klein (Chapman University): "'More Italian Than Mussolini': Italian Jews from Emancipation to World War II"

“More Italian than Mussolini.” Italian Jews from Emancipation to World War II

Italian Jewry is well known for its celebrities, from sculptor Amedeo Modigliani to author-survivor Primo Levi. But far less is known about the history of “ordinary” Italian Jews. What did it mean to be both Italian and Jewish in the young state of Italy? Did Jews, fierce patriots of Italy, find place for their Jewishness as well? In this lecture, Shira Klein explores the culture and daily life of Italian Jews from the time they became full citizens until their persecution under Fascism.

Shira Klein is an Assistant Professor of Jewish history at Chapman University. She received her PhD from New York University in 2012. Klein is currently working on a book manuscript, a social and cultural history of Italian Jewry and its diaspora. Spanning Italy, the United States, and the British Mandate of Palestine, Klein’s work enquires into the experiences of Italian Jews from the time of emancipation in the nineteenth century until after the Holocaust.