On International Holocaust Remembrance Day on Monday, January 27, Italian ambassador Gianluigi Benedetti will come to Jerusalem to participate in an early morning program at Harmony Hall.
By GREER FAY CASHMANTHE JERUSALEM skyline as viewed from the Mount of Olives(photo credit: DAN/FLICKR)
Members of the Italian Jewish community living in Israel have several commemorative events throughout the year to honor the memories of victims of the Holocaust. On International Holocaust Remembrance Day on Monday, January 27, Italian ambassador Gianluigi Benedetti will come to Jerusalem to participate in an early morning program at Harmony Hall at 27 Hillel Street adjacent to the Museum of Italian Jewish Art.Also participating will be Italian author and journalist Giovanni Grasso, who is currently press and communications adviser to the president of Italy; author and journalist Massimo Lomonaco, the Israel correspondent of ANSA, Italy’s leading wire service; Professor Sergio Della Pergola, chairman of the Association of Italian Jews; with Fabio Ruggirello, the director of the Italian Cultural Institute in Tel Aviv acting as moderator.-Aside from the speeches, the key aspect of the commemoration, which has been organized by the Italian Embassy in conjunction with the Italian Cultural Institute, will be a discussion about Grasso’s book The Kaufmann Case, which was published last year and is based on a true story that took place in Nuremberg after Hitler came to power in 1933.The central figure in the book, Leo Kaufmann, is an affluent and respectable 60-year-old merchant who heads the Jewish community in a small town. A non-Jewish friend, whose vivacious 20-year-old daughter Irene comes to Nuremberg to study, asks Kaufmann to take care of her. Kaufmann puts her into an apartment of her own, meets her in the park for discussions on a variety of subjects, supplies her with cigarettes and candy and often invites her to dine with him in a restaurant.Der Sturmer, the Nazi propaganda publication published by Julius Streicher, contained cruel, viciously antisemitic cartoons of Jews, often depicting them as sexual predators. These cartoons caused people, especially Kaufmann’s valet, to look with severely jaundiced eyes at Kaufmann’s relationship with Irene. This leads to the confiscation of Leo’s property and to much more in terms of human degradation. He is also charged with violating racial laws. Much of the trampling on the rule of law that is seen today in nationalism, neo-Nazism and all forms of racism are echoes of situations contained in the book.■ VETERAN JERUSALEMITES cannot help but notice the radical changes taking place in the city. The skyline has been altered dramatically, and iconic shops, restaurants and more are disappearing to make way for urban renewal.But there’s at least one chain of stores that is expanding. Around four decades ago, Leon Koffler, who heads the Super-Pharm chain of drug stores, launched the first such store in the capital in downtown Hahistadrut Street on the site of the old Sova restaurant. He followed with a foray into suburbia and opened another large store in Nayot.Now there’s a Super-Pharm in just about every shopping mall all over the country. In many cases, Super-Pharm is putting smaller pharmacies out of business. In the German Colony, the chain opened a drug store opposite a veteran pharmacy on Emek Refaim St. Some of the locals refuse to be tempted and continue to patronize the store that has given them good service for years, but the competition is tough.The BE drug stores, owned by Shufersal (Supersol), were previously known as New-Pharm and were owned by the Hamashbir chain. The New-Pharm store on the corner of Hillel and King George Streets became a BE store, and now it is going through yet another conversion process to become a Super-Pharm.In fact, the chain has acquired three stores that are next door to each other there. Aside from the former BE store, the remodeled facility will include the former Mahogany clothing store and the late lamented Ta’amon restaurant, which was popular with artists, authors, musicians and the Bohemian crowd in general. In the days when the Knesset stood directly opposite on King George St., Ta’amon was also frequented by Knesset members and cabinet ministers. The building in which the three stores are located dates back to the 1930s, and there is a plaque on a wall at the entrance to the building testifying to the fact that the Ora Pharmacy was established there in 1936. Ta’amon also opened its doors in 1936. No one seems to care that Super-Pharm is establishing a monopoly.By the way, Mahogany did not go out of business. It simply moved a few meters around the corner to Hillel Street.
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