Specials

The auditorium of the Jewish center on 16th street in NYC could not have been more crowded on that warm and quiet end of October evening. The third edition of the international symposium “New Voices on Primo Levi” attracted hundreds of people of so many different religious, national and cultural backgrounds that to attempt to make a complete list would be a formidable task.

It is probably enough to say that the heterogeneity of the public perfectly reflected the universality of Primo Levi’s message, one that can embrace all generations, past present and hopefully future, without limits of space or time.
 

"This year’s edition of the symposium is different from the past ones for a number of reasons", said the director of the center Natalia Indrimi greeting those present. The program of the evening, itself, indeed, presented the first of these important novelties. For the first time, in fact, a concert would open the works of this yearly appointment aimed at reflecting on and studying the works of the Italian writer that experienced the atrocities of Nazi persecution and  internment in Auschwitz for 11 months.
 

“From a small conference our “New Voices on Primo Levi” has by now become an

international, articulated symposium examining a different number of issues every year. Many people supported and assisted us in organizing this event and I would like to specially thank  Casa Italiana Zerilli Marimò at NYU and the CUNY Graduate Center for their precious collaboration over the years. I would like to announce, however, that from this year on all our many activities and appointments, including the Symposium, will also be enriched by the collaboration with the new  Primo Levi Center in Turin. This center was strongly desired by the writer’s family, the Piedmont region, the city of Turin, and the Fondazione Compagnia di San Paolo”, continued the director.
 

After summarizing the major biographical and bibliographical moments of Primo Levi’s life, Dr. Indrimi went on to introduce the institutional representatives and special guests attending the event. As she gladly noted, each one of them was to give a very personal speech which would explain to the audience the ways in which Primo Levi had enriched his/her private and/or professional life and culture.
 

The first guest to step on the podium was the Consul General of Italy in New York Francesco Maria Talò. “I was attending middle school when I read Se questo è un uomo for the first time. For me, this book was my most important and significant approach to the reality of the Holocaust. The author’s description of Auschwitz in that work became part of my cultural baggage and accompanied me on my first visit to the camp years later. That’s why I think it is important to keep the memory of this author alive and recall his multifaceted personality. The internationality of this Symposium and the availability of his book in so many different languages mirrors the universality of his message. With Levi, language is not a barrier anymore but becomes a bridge to better understand each other.”
 

The Consul General of Israel Asaf Shariv immediately followed him: “Levi’s voice had the power to break the silence that immediately succeeded the fall of the Nazi era when everybody wanted to forget and move on. He did not only invite us to remember, but he also instructed us on HOW to remember and the way in which we must never allow ourselves to forget. As a survivor, but also as a scientist, he invented the most fascinating paradox: silence, no matter how loud it cries, cannot suspend the existence of good or evil”
 

The Consul of Germany echoed his words with strong conviction by highlighting the need to remember past atrocities: “Today, more than 60 years after the Holocaust, the importance of keeping memory alive has entered a new critical faze since the number of witnesses who can still recount their personal experience of the tragedy is steadily decreasing. Only education can keep history alive and avoid similar cases of anti-Semitism and xenophobia in the future.  When first published in German in 1961, this book encountered an overwhelming consent with the German readers and forced the whole country to face the evils of the past. Today Primo Levi and his words are often quoted and he is referred to as the witness to the “universality of suffering”. In this sense, his is a message that has the power to break contrasts and dismantle barriers among peoples. That’s why I consider the keeping of his memory alive not only a personal commitment but  a civil duty”.
 

“On his tombstone, one reads the dates of his birth and death, his name, and his prisoner tattooed number, 174517” continued the Israeli Ambassador to the UN Gabriela Shalev. “He was one of millions of numbers that the Nazis wanted to leave nameless, faceless, and homeless. They say that Primo Levi used to wear short sleeve shirts, even in winter, insisting on showing his tattoo as long as he lived. He didn’t want people to forget the tormenting question ‘Se questo è un uomo’ (If this is a man)”, she finally concluded.
 

These heartfelt speeches stimulated all of us sitting in the auditorium to think about the way Levi has changed our own perspectives and ways to look at the Holocaust, a tragedy that as Mustafa Tlili (NYU Center for Dialogues-Islamic World-U.S.-the West) pointed out, should have never been repeated, but which indeed was at many different historical and geographical levels and circumstances. “I try to imagine the way historians will look at the Middle East two centuries from now.  That land is inhabited by two peoples, the Palestinians and the Israelis, who, with the same passion, claim the right to live on it. We look at the sufferings of the Palestinians during the last 60 years in the name of that right, but at the same time we can never forget the millions of Jews who lost their lives in Nazi camps. And I wonder how any human being could ever do that, but indeed, there are those who forget and worse yet, deny what happened. Remember, hate can lead to dehumanization and genocide, it happened in Nazi Germany and it can happen wherever."

"This is the fundamental difference between animals and men: the first do not torture Prof. Andrew Viterbi was the last speaker of the evening. He did not talk as an expert in the field, nor had he an elaborate thesis to expose. He was there to tell us about his everyday life with Primo Levi, their first encounter, their lifelong friendship. Primo was his first cousin’s husband and Andrew had a chance to meet him very soon after his liberation from Auschwitz. “I was in Italy for my Barmitzva, I was 13 and at that time Primo was already a sort of celebrity in the family”. The numerous trips that brought Andrew back to Italy and the letters they exchanged helped them build up a strong relationship, a continuous intimate and cultural exchange. “One thing I feel I have to say about Primo is that, contrarily to how sometimes he is depicted, he was the funniest guy ever. He had a strong sense of humor, and was  great company to spend time with.”

A man of good spirit, but also a careful observer, a sharp analyzer of human kind, Primo had the special gift to put into words his most inner feelings about the world surrounding him both inside and outside Auschwitz. Five of his poems were put to music by composer Tzvi Avni and were performed for us on that evening by pianist Rainer Ambrust and soprano Sharon Rostorf-Zamir. The concert was without a doubt the crowning moment of the evening, as everybody sat still in their chairs listening or, better yet, feeling the notes inspired by Levi’s (dis)human experience. “I came across the English translation of these poems, but I decided to use the original Italian version written by Primo Levi, which to me is incredibly impressive for his musicalità”, said Tzvi Avni to Samuel Adler (Juilliard School of Music) during a brief talk right after the performance.

“Levi is a Jew who survived and wrote literature, but he expresses not only Jewish feelings but universal ones. That’s what inspired me to write the music: you have to fall in love with what you are composing for to do a proper job. And I immediately fell in love with Levi’s literary music”, he concluded.
 

The universal approach of Levi’s work would be further discussed at Casa Italiana Zerilli Marimò the day after, as Director Stefano Albertini had previously reminded the audience. As the evening was rapidly coming to an end, we were all invited by the Center’s Director Indrimi to taste the delicacies prepared by Tony May’s San Domenico for that special celebration together. And after a good glass of wine and an Italian espresso, we gave each other an appointment for the day after, for the second day of the International Symposium “New Voices on Primo Levi”.