JTA Launches Online Searchable Archive -- Tremendous Resource

By Ruth Ellen Gruber

Bravo and Mazel Tov!

JTA -- the archaically named Jewish Telegraphic Agency -- has announced the launch of a tremendous new online resource -- a digitized archive of all its articles since 1923 --  a quarter of a million articles.

I've written for JTA for many years, and many pieces that I and others have published for the service will be of interest to this blog.

CLICK HERE, for example, for my 1989 article about the restoration and rededication of the great synagogue in Szeged, Hungary.

Or CLICK HERE for my 1999 article on the first European Day of Jewish Culture.

Or CLICK HERE on the a 1976 article about the restoration of the medieval synagogue in Sopron, Hungary

OR CLICK HERE for a 1982 article by Maurice Samuelson about renovations at the Jewish Museum in Budapest

Italy -- Festival of Jewish Books this weekend in Ferrara

By Ruth Ellen Gruber

This coming weekend, May 7-9, will see the second annual Festival of the Jewish Book in Italy. It takes place in Ferrara -- which will be the site of a new Museum of Italian Judaism and the Shoah, or MEIS, which is now in the planning stage. The MEIS foundation is the sponsor the book festival.

The three-day book festival will begin Saturday night with what is described as Italy's first Jewish "white night" -- that is, an series of events and activities that lasts well into the wee hours if not all night.

The Festival includes book signings, lectures, round-table discussions, exhibitions, concerts, guided tours, etc -- all is directed to an Italian audience.