Metadata: Education and culture, youth associations
Collection
- Country:
- Italy
- Holding institution:
- Centre of Contemporary Jewish Documentation
- Holding institution (official language):
- Fondazione Centro di documentazione ebraica contemporanea
- Postal address:
- via Eupili 8, 20145 Milano
- Phone number:
- +39 02316338
- Web address:
- http://www.cdec.it/
- Email:
- cdec@cdec.it
- Reference number:
- I° versamento: box 39; II° versamento: box 24bis
- Title:
- Education and culture, youth associations
- Title (official language):
- Educazione e culturali, associazioni giovanili
- Creator/accumulator:
- Milan Jewish Community
- Date(s):
- 1970-1988
- Extent:
- 7 files
- Physical condition:
- good
- Scope and content:
- The sub-series documents the needs of Jewish youth through the collection of documents (circulars, notices, informative leaflets, requests for the use of Community premises) relating to educational meetings, mainly by the Benè Akivà movement. It also contains correspondence with the Federazione giovani ebrei italiani (FGEI, Federation of young Italian Jews) in the years 1972-1973, and with Hashomer Ha-Zair on the organisation of summer and winter camps, typescripts reporting activities in the field of youth services, education and aggregation. Among the papers by held the Community, there are also records of the Federazione Italiana Maccabi (Italian Maccabi Federation), the Centro giovanile ebraico (Jewish Youth Centre) and the Gruppo Giovani leaders (Young Leaders Group).
- Administrative/biographical history:
- The Community of Milan, with its origins as a section of Mantua’s Community, developed around the middle of the 19th century, following the arrival of numerous Mantuan Jews who fled the violent anti-Semitic demonstrations of 1842. In Milan, without a real official and organised community, the relations with the mother community were governed by the Austrian civil code, according to which smaller communities must refer to the larger ones. Only in 1855 was the Jewish Consortium established, the first Jewish organisation in Milan, which in 1866 broke away from Mantua. The consortium did not assume the legal characteristics dictated by the Rattazzi law but reaffirmed its nature as a voluntary association with the only commitment for the members being the contributions for its maintenance. Thanks to the sudden economic, industrial and commercial development of Milan, the community grew rapidly: in 1890 it had 2,000 members, in the 1930s 8,000 Jews arrived from Piedmont, Marche, Tuscany and Veneto but also from Germany and from Central and Eastern Europe. In October 1930 the Council of Ministers approved the Royal Decree 1731, the new law on the Jewish communities and on the Union of the Italian Jewish Communities. A few days after the approval of the decree, Federico Jarach was elected the first president of the Jewish Community of Milan. In 1938 on the eve of anti-Jewish laws, the Community of Milan had just 5,000 members out of a total Jewish population of about 8,000 people. At the end of the Second World War, the Community of Milan became a crossing point for many refugees and survivors of the Nazi concentration camps, collaborating with relief organisations such as the Joint, ADEI-WIZO, the ORT, and UNRRA using the building of via Unione 5 as the main reception, research and sorting centre for Jews returning from concentration camps. In the 1950s the community welcomed groups of Jews from Egypt, Syria, Libya, Lebanon, Iraq and Iran who settled in Milan because they were fleeing the Arab-Israeli wars, giving rise to an integration process that changed the original face of the Milanese community. Today it includes the districts of Como, Pavia, Sondrio and Varese.
- Yerusha Network member:
- Contemporary Jewish Documentation Center - Milan
- Author of the description:
- Paola Cipolla