{"id":77090,"date":"2020-03-28T17:05:44","date_gmt":"2020-03-28T15:05:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/?p=77090"},"modified":"2020-03-28T09:09:25","modified_gmt":"2020-03-28T07:09:25","slug":"03-05-52","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/?p=77090","title":{"rendered":"For Italian Jews, the \u2018smell of death\u2019 is all around"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>For Italian Jews, the \u2018smell of death\u2019 is all around<\/a><\/strong><\/span><\/h5>\n

CNAAN LIPHSHIZ \/ JTA<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Isolated and worried, thousands of Italian Jews have turned to their communal media and institutions for a lifeline and sense of solidarity.<\/strong><\/p>\n

An empty canal is seen after the spread of coronavirus has caused a decline in the number of tourists in Venice, Italy, March 1, 2020 \/ (photo credit: REUTERS\/MANUEL SILVESTRI)<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

At least twice a day, Micol Naccache breaks down in tears over what the coronavirus is doing to her city of Milan and its Jewish community.<\/span><\/p>\n

A high school teacher and mother of two, Naccache describes herself as \u201can optimistic person.\u201d But she is struggling to stay positive following the death of one of her friends from the disease, whose outbreak in Milan earlier this month forced all of Italy into a lockdown that has been in force now for three weeks.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI smell death around me, it\u2019s the first time something like this has happened to me,\u201d said Naccache, 48, who begins each day by disinfecting her entire home with alcohol spray, partly for protection and partly as a distraction. \u201cIt\u2019s like in a war, where you walk on and people are dying around you. I don\u2019t see them dying but I can feel it, death all around me.\u201d<\/span>
\nMore than 7,500 people have died in Italy of COVID-19, the largest death toll of any country. Some 800 people are dying each day of a disease that has overwhelmed local health services.<\/span><\/p>\n

Isolated and worried, thousands of Italian Jews have turned to their communal media and institutions for a lifeline and sense of solidarity.<\/span>
\nOne of the victims last week was Giorgio Sinigaglia, a friend of Naccache and fellow member of the Jewish Community of Milan. Sinigaglia was a 54-year-old engineer and father of four. The week before that, the virus claimed Michele Sciama, a former leader of the community.<\/span><\/p>\n

The pandemic has killed at least five Jewish people in Milan, and all of them have been buried at the Jewish cemetery, said Alfonso Arbib, the community\u2019s rabbi. Their bodies have not been prepared in accordance with Jewish religious laws, or tahara, which involves washing the corpse, among other rituals.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not safe,\u201d Arbib said, \u201cand preserving life is the most important thing right now.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Several others from the community have died in recent days, he said, though it\u2019s not immediately known if their passing was due to COVID-19. Arbib also said that among several others who have contracted the virus, some are fighting for their lives.<\/span><\/p>\n

Last week, images of army trucks bringing bodies to be cremated in the northern city of Bergamo stunned Italy. Arbib said the scenes were particularly shocking for Jewish Italians, whose faith forbids cremation.<\/span>
\n\u201cSo far, we\u2019ve been able to prevent this because burials are still allowed under certain conditions, but it is a concern that this would no longer be possible if the death toll keeps climbing,\u201d he said.<\/span><\/p>\n

Funerals are limited events these days, with only 10 mourners from the immediate family allowed to attend. The customs of sitting shiva and nichum avelim \u2013 Judaism\u2019s seven days of mourning at the deceased\u2019s home and visits there during the period by relatives, friends and acquaintances \u2013 have been made impossible because of the country\u2019s lockdown.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cLosing a loved one without saying goodbye is really painful,\u201d Stefania Sciama, the daughter of the former community leader of Milan, told The Times of Israel in an interview published Thursday. \u201cMy father died alone and now I can\u2019t even comfort my mother.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Her mother, Viviane, is alone at her home and keeps in contact with other relatives through video chats.<\/span>
\nerrifying Liliana Segre, 89. She\u2019s a Jewish senator from Milan and a Holocaust survivor.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI have to tell the truth, the thing that scares me the most is to die alone,\u201d she told Moked, the Jewish-Italian news service, on Tuesday. \u201cI have already seen those who died alone, but I didn\u2019t think I, too, would be on the frontline.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Milo Hasbani, the president of the Jewish Community of Milan, a nonprofit representing most of the city\u2019s Jewish institutions, is feeling \u201cpowerless to help the people I\u2019m responsible to help, and it\u2019s a very difficult feeling,\u201d he told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThere is actually little I can do in practical terms when I can\u2019t leave my house. It\u2019s very tough.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The community in Milan did manage to organize an assistance service for the elderly who were left alone, including the delivery of groceries and medicines to their homes. It also has harnessed video chat and streaming platforms to preserve a sense of togetherness.<\/span><\/p>\n

Arbib gives daily lessons on the Torah over Facebook to dozens of viewers. Each time one of his congregation members dies, he dedicates the following lesson to the deceased and delivers an obituary as his followers add their own words in text comments.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Milan community\u2019s website, Mosaico, has published an obituary about each person it has lost to the disease and invited readers to add their own words in the comments. The one about Sinigaglia, the engineer, has received about 200 comments, including by close friends recalling moments they shared with him. Encouragements and condolences have been sent to his widow and children.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not a fan of Facebook and internet communication, I\u2019m more of an old-school guy, especially when it comes to offering condolences,\u201d Hasbani said, \u201cbut now we have nowhere but the internet to come together to mourn. So that\u2019s what you\u2019re seeing.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

At a \u201cdifficult moment of social isolation and solitude,\u201d the website is geared toward facilitating \u201cemotional closeness and sharing of pain,\u201d said Fiona Diwan, the editor in chief of the website and Milan\u2019s Jewish monthly, Bet Magazine.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201dWhen hugs, sociability and the possibility of burying one\u2019s loved one are missing, only the written words remain,\u201d she said.<\/span>
\nNaccache, the teacher, tunes in to lessons by a rabbi and author from Rome, Benedetto Carucci Viterbi.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cHe gives beautiful lessons that really resonate with me and give me power to go on,\u201d she said.<\/span><\/p>\n

Her children, aged 8 and 10, attend Milan\u2019s Jewish school, La Scuola Ebraica, which has 500 students. Like most other schools in Italy, it has switched to remote studying, but \u201cit\u2019s very difficult for students to concentrate,\u201d said Naccache, who also teaches law and economics remotely at a different school.<\/span><\/p>\n

On March 9, hundreds of Italian Jews tuned in to a livestreamed reading of the Scroll of Esther for Purim carried on the Zoom video chat platform. Rabbi Ariel Finzi of Naples read the text while sitting on a baroque-style couch, presumably at his home. Participants from all across Italy left encouraging words on the chat\u2019s text box.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a powerful moment, we were all in our homes but you could really feel the community around you,\u201d said Adam Smulevich, a journalist for Moked, the news and information service of the Union of Italian Jewish Communities, which represents the country\u2019s approximately 30,000 Jewish citizens.<\/span><\/p>\n

Moked, which was founded in 2009, has become a central vehicle for connecting households grieving over the coronavirus crisis in isolation.<\/span>
\nFollowing the lockdown, Moked upped its production of articles and launched video editions that are streamed on Facebook. It also produces at least three newsletters each day with content from its some 100 contributors, as well as a magazine and a children\u2019s newspaper each month.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cAt first it was farther away and now it\u2019s coming closer, it feels pretty close now,\u201d said Daniel Reichel, a Milan-based journalist who is on Moked\u2019s staff of five.<\/span><\/p>\n

Italian Jews are coming together through their community\u2019s websites, media and streamed sermons, but \u201calso on family WhatsApp groups,\u201d he said. Reichel\u2019s family, which is spread across Italy and in Israel, created its first such family group to stay connected through the crisis.<\/span><\/p>\n

But Reichel, 33, has limited time to use it and engage with his relatives. These days, Moked\u2019s journalists wake up at the crack of dawn and work until about 10:30 p.m., he said.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cOur responsibility is important on normal days, but now it\u2019s double: We need to provide information, of course, but also offer encouragement, sometimes a distraction, fight loneliness, inspire and fight fake news,\u201d Reichel said. \u201cBut it\u2019s also about offering a lifeline, being present in the lives of people who became very alone, very fast.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

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For Italian Jews, the \u2018smell of death\u2019 is all around CNAAN LIPHSHIZ \/ JTA Isolated and worried, thousands of Italian Jews have turned to their communal media and institutions for a lifeline and sense of solidarity. An empty canal is seen after the spread of coronavirus has caused a decline in the number of tourists […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[26,24],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77090"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=77090"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77090\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":77100,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77090\/revisions\/77100"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=77090"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=77090"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=77090"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}