Addis Abeba-Firenze, andata e ritorno

Abstract

A photo and three letters: these are the objects this contribution explores. The letters, one of which was handwritten, were sent to Florentine lawyer Carlo Alberto Viterbo between 15 May and 25 June, 1940, by Menghistu Isaac from Dr Faitlovith’s school in Addis Ababa. The correspondence, which evokes a spatial connection between Addis Ababa and Florence at a time marked by frenetic Italian colonial history, can be read as a sort of synecdoche in the history of Jews of Ethiopia (Beta Israel). The last of the letters was sent to Viterbo when he was no longer in Florence—he had in fact been arrested a few days previously and interned as a Zionist Jew in the Urbisaglia camp in Italy, where he remained until July 1, 1941. Anti-Jewish legislation, colonialism, historical and cultural fractures, migration and individual and collective memories of the past constitute the threads with which the letters are woven.

Keywords

• ethiopian jews
• italian colonialism
• memory
• migrations
• palimpsest