The volume investigates the interconnections between the Italian Jewish worlds and wider European and Mediterranean circles, situating the Italian Jewish experience within a transregional and transnational context mindful of the complex set of networks, relations, and loyalties that characterized Jewish diasporic life. Preceded by a methodological introduction by the editors, the chapters address rabbinic connections and ties of communal solidarity in the early modern period, and examine the circulation of Hebrew books and the overlap of national and transnational identities after emancipation. For the twentieth century, this volume additionally explores the Italian side of the Wissenschaft des Judentums; the role of international Jewish agencies in the years of Fascist racial persecution; the interactions between Italian Jewry, JDPs and Zionist envoys after Word War II; and the impact of Zionism in transforming modern Jewish identities.
"This highly stimulating collection of essays, ... unravels different Italian Jewish networks that emerged and evolved over long stretches of time from the 17th until the 20th centuries, within the larger Mediterranean and European framework. ... Italian Jewish Networks offers new perspectives and materials, innovative research, and novel analyses that allow for further reassessment of complex and-geographically and chronologically-widely cast histories." (Evelien Chayes,Reading Religion, readingreligion.org, April 24, 2019)