Italy's Jews from Emancipation to Fascism

Reviews / Votes

'Most Italian Jews were pro-Fascist (until anti-Semitic legislation in 1938) and the Italian dictatorship's major killing afflicted the Arabs and Berbers of Libya and the peoples of Ethiopia. Shira Klein, with skilled and vivid use of ordinary voices, explores the complex story of Italian Jewry's dealing with Fascism and its often gilded memory of it.' R. J. B. Bosworth, Jesus College, Oxford 'Shira Klein makes a valuable contribution to the debate about Italy's role in the Holocaust, the nature and extent of anti-Semitism in Italy, and the creation of the national narrative of the fundamentally benign nature of Italian Fascism's part in the program of racial discrimination and extermination.' Alexander Stille, Columbia University, New York 'Shira Klein's new book will be an important contribution to the literature on Italian Jews. By taking the story from Emancipation through today, Klein adds a perspective on the Fascist era that is difficult to find in other English-language works. While refuting the Good Italian myth, she demonstrates its continuing hold on many inside and outside of Italy, and the implications of the myth for the postwar Jewish community.' Michael A. Livingston, Rutgers University, New Jersey 'Klein's scholarly study is an impressive introduction to the history of Italy's Jews in the modern period. It also offers new perspectives on the myth of the Good Italian, and addresses the little- explored subject of Jewish support of Fascism. Written with fluency and clarity, this book is essential reading for Jewish studies.' Elizabeth Schaechter, University of Kent 'Well-written, with an eye for the compelling anecdote and a skill in bringing the stories of ordinary people to life, this is an important and welcome book and announces the arrival of a strong new voice in the fields of Italian and Jewish studies.' Stanislao G. Pugliese, Hofstra University, New York 'Historian Klein (Chapman Univ.) nicely supplements her narrative, which is based on a mastery of the secondary literature, with a variety of primary sources, including interviews conducted by the author and deftly woven throughout. Recommended.' R. T. Ingoglia, Choice '... an enlightening and ground-breaking study of Italian Jewish experiences, memories and reconstructions of anti-Semitic persecution under Mussolini's fascist regime.' Shira Klein, Journal of Modern Jewish Studies