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In August 1908, a white mob attacked Springfield, Illinois’s Black community, destroying homes and businesses and lynching two Black men. National outrage over the violence helped spur the movement that created the NAACP the following year.
MORE →Reflects the personal views, recollections, and perspective of the author, Mike Davis.
This is a personal recollection on the Move fire on May 13, 1985
The Italian Nusach[a][b] is the ancient prayer rite (nusach) of the long-standing Italian Jewish (Italkim) community on the Italian Peninsula, used by Jews who are not of Ashkenazi or Sephardic origin.
The Italian nusach has been considered an offspring of the ancient Eretz Israel minhag and it has similarities with the nusach of the Romaniote Jews of Greece and the Balkans. However, the documents discovered in Cairo Geniza reveal that the influence of Minhag Eretz Israel on Benè Romì is less extensive than believed.[1]
Italian Jews have their own unique prayer rite that is neither Sephardic nusach, Nusach Ashkenaz, nor Nusach Sefard, and to a certain extent is not subject to Kabbalistic influence. In Italy, there were also communities of Spanish origin who prayed in the Sephardic rite and communities of German origin who prayed in the Western Ashkenazic rite, which were mainly in northern Italy. The Italian rite, therefore, is not the rite of all Jews in Italy, but the rite of the veteran Italian Jews, called "Loazim".
Despite being a dominant prayer rite among Italian Jews, the Italian rite rarely spread beyond its borders, unlike other prayer rites such as the Sephardic rite, which Spanish exiles brought to many places, or the Ashkenazic rite, which also reached new regions starting from the 19th century. The Italian rite hardly left the borders of Italy, except for a few cases where it reached other communities in the Middle East. For example, in the cities of Constantinople and Thessaloniki, several Italian synagogues operated until World War II, as well as in the city of Safed in the 16th and 17th centuries.[2] Today, outside of Italy, the only communities using the Italian rite are in Jerusalem and Netanya, the main one being in the main Italian synagogue on Hillel Street in downtown Jerusalem.
Source: Wikipedia. Article content is retrieved live through the MediaWiki API.
The Italian Nusach is the ancient prayer rite (nusach) of the long-standing Italian Jewish (Italkim) community on the Italian Peninsula, used by Jews who are not of Ashkenazi or Sephardic origin.
Italian Jews (Italian: ebrei italiani; Hebrew: יהודים איטלקים) can be used in a broad sense to mean all Jews living in or with roots in Italy, or, in a narrower sense, to mean the Italkim, an ancient community living in Italy since the Ancient Roman era, who use the Italian liturgy (or "Italian Rite") as distinct from those Jewish communities in Italy dating from medieval or modern times who use the Sephardic liturgy or the Nusach Ashkenaz.
Drago is a surname typically of Italian origin, meaning "dragon". Historically, Drago can be observed as an Italian Jewish (Italkim) habitational name. It may also be of Mixed heritage, possibly French, Croatian, Albanian and Spanish origin. It is another spelling of the last name "Dragaud" or "Dragoo". Notable people with the surname include: Ana Drago (born 1975), Portuguese politician Billy Drago (1945–2019), stage name of American actor William Eugene Burrows Dick Drago (born 1945), American baseball player Filippo Drago (pharmacologist) (born 1954), Italian pharmacologist Jaime Drago (born 1959), Peruvian footballer Luis María Drago (1859–1921), Argentine politician Massimo Drago (born 1971), Italian football player and coach Roberto Drago (1923–2014), Peruvian footballer and manager Roberto Drago Maturo (born 1951), Peruvian footballer and manager Russell S. Drago (1928–1997), American chemist Tony Drago (born 1965), Maltese snooker and pool player
Ashkenazi Jews, also known as Ashkenazic Jews, Ashkenazis, or Ashkenazim, are a distinct ethnic subdivision of the Jewish diaspora. The Ashkenazim emerged from the Jewish communities that consolidated during the 10th century in the Rhineland (western Germany) and in northern France, having migrated there from centers such as the Italian Peninsula and the Southern Levant. After numerous massacres of Jews during the Crusades (11th–13th centuries), they began a gradual eastward migration due to mounting restrictions within the Holy Roman Empire and the favorable policies of Casimir III the Great of Poland and others. This migration ramped up after the persecution of Jews during the Black Death during the 14th century, such that by the 16th century, the bulk of the Ashkenazi Jews had migrated to the Kingdom of Poland, which includes modern Poland, Lithuania, Belarus, Ukraine, and parts of Russia. This area became the main center of Ashkenazi Jewry until the Holocaust. Ashkenazim adapted their traditions, rites and customs to Europe. They traditionally follow the German rite synagogue ritual and until the Holocaust primarily spoke Yiddish, an offshoot of Middle High German written in a variety of the Hebrew script, with significant Hebrew, Aramaic, and Slavic influence. From the late 18th century onwards, Ashkenazi communities underwent significant religious and cultural transformations, under the influence of the Haskalah (Jewish Enlightenment) and the struggle for Jewish emancipation in European states that restricted their rights. Among other things, Maskilim (adherents of the Haskalah) advocated the adoption of national languages instead of Yiddish, as well as increased study and usage of the Hebrew language, in order to modernize Jewish religious practice and identity. The Hebrew language, whose usage until then had been primarily liturgical and clerical, was progressively revived as a common language starting from the 19th century, fueled by these aspirations of both religious and national revival. The Yiddish language progressively declined in prestige, in favor of national languages and Hebrew, being stigmatized by both assimilationists and Zionists, though it remained spoken by over 11 million people worldwide prior to the Holocaust. The Yiddishist movement, which sought to preserve and revive the language, faded through the 20th century but is enjoying a revival in the 21st. Starting from the 19th century, millions of Ashkenazi Jews emigrated from Europe, fleeing an increase in violent anti-Jewish bigotry that occurred, in part, as a reactionary response to Jewish emancipation. Ashkenazi Jews emigrated both to Ottoman Palestine, as part of the "Aliyah" movement, and to the United States, which today houses the largest Ashkenazi community in the world. Throughout the centuries, Ashkenazim made significant contributions to Western philosophy, scholarship, literature, art, music, and science. As a proportion of the world Jewish population, Ashkenazim were estimated to be 3% in the 11th century, rising to 92% in 1930 near the population's peak. The Ashkenazi population was significantly diminished by the Holocaust carried out by Nazi Germany during World War II, which killed around six million Jews, affecting practically every European Jewish family. Prior to World War II, the estimated worldwide Jewish population was 15.3–16.7 million, with 92% being Ashkenazi. Israeli demographer Sergio D. Pergola published statistics showing that Ashkenazim comprised 74% of Jews worldwide in 2000. As of 2023, the population of Ashkenazim was estimated to be around 10–13 million out of 15.8 million total Jews.
Before the 1921 destruction of Tulsa’s Greenwood District, Black residents had created a remarkable center of business and community life. The district included stores, professional offices, entertainment venues and homes owned by Black citizens. Understanding Greenwood means learning what was built—not only what was burned.
MORE →Mae Jemison, aboard Space Shuttle Endeavour in 1992.