“Conversation on Jonathan Sacks” event
THE BABYLONIAN TALMUD TRANSLATION PROJECT
PRESENTS:
CONVERSATION ON
“JONATHAN SACKS, A GIANT OF CONTEMPORARY THOUGHT”
On Tuesday, December 15, 2020 at 5:30 p.m., the event “Conversation on Jonathan Sacks, a Giant of Contemporary Thought” sponsored by the Senate of the Republic and the Chamber of Deputies will be held on a digital platform.
“The best way to break down barriers between people or communities is through simple, unforced acts of kindness. One act can undo years of alienation ” so said Jonathan Sacks who saw community building and gestures of solidarity as actions that can speak to people in times of trouble. In a historical period such as ours, his words mark a very clear direction: the strength of unity, the beauty in kindness combined with the vision of a world free of prejudice and trust in the intellect of humanity are the engines to build a new social paradigm, based on the acceptance of Being, the ethical value of belonging and the inclusion of the different.
The event will be an opportunity to witness together the valuable cultural contribution of Jonathan Sacks and participate in a universal message, his message, that crosses borders, shortens distances between peoples and speaks straight to people’s hearts.
Sacks’ thought, as well as the work of the Babylonian Talmud are windows that open wide into the world, living knowledge that opens minds, heritage for all humanity and lifeblood for a process of integration between peoples and cultures. To offer the world an extraordinary universal enrichment, this is the founding intent on which the digitized translation carried out by the Babylonian Talmud Translation Project is based.
In the Talmud we read “Condemn no one and hold nothing to be impossible.” and in hope, which Sacks called the “active virtue of changing realities,” lies the power to make the impossible possible, to create the tangible from the intangible by investing in the power of knowledge and education.
Jonathan Sacks believed strongly in the possibility of building a future that consciously belongs to us, a future that looks at the past with the benevolence of one who accepts it and wants to move forward.
And us with him.
With this vision, the Babylonian Talmud Translation Project wishes to honor the person of Jonathan Sacks by embracing his thought, ideas and mission in a unique day of beauty, knowledge and truth. Reconciliation, Compassion and Creativity will be the three key words that will take us on this wonderful journey through Sacks’ life and thought.
Through the speeches of distinguished scholars, literary scholars, academics and senior religious and cultural figures.
Minister of University and Research Prof. Gaetano Manfredi and UCEI President Noemi Di Segni will bring their institutional greetings to the event.
Rav Riccardo Di Segni, Chief Rabbi of Rome and President of the Babylonian Talmud Translation Project, and Prof. Clelia Piperno, Director of the Babylonian Talmud Translation Project, will introduce.
During the afternoon we will have the honor and pleasure to hear from: Giovanni Grasso, Press and Communication Advisor and Director of the Press Office of the Presidency of the Italian Republic, Milena Santerini ,National Delegate for the fight against anti-Semitism, Rav Moshe Sebbag Rabbi, Head of the “Grande Synagogue de la Victoire,” Paris, Rabbi Meni Even Israel, Executive Director, Steinsaltz Center, Stefania Giannini ,UNESCO Deputy Director General with Education delegation, Maurizio Molinari, Director of “La Repubblica” , Simonetta Della Seta, International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance, Ofer Sacks, former Israeli Ambassador to Italy , Gianluca Comin, Professor of Communication Strategies, Luiss Guido Carli, Elena Loewental, Writer, Linda Laura Sabbadini , Central Director ISTAT, Prof. Michel Rosenfeld ,Cardozo School of Law, New York, Prof. Giulio Busi, Director of the Institute of Judaism, Free University of Berlin, Prof. Alberto Melloni, Foundation for Religious Sciences Bologna – Palermo, Shulim Vogelmann, Publishing House, “La Giuntina” and Andrée Shammah, Director Teatro Franco Parenti.
The meeting will be moderated by Gianluca Giansante, Partner at Comin & Partners.
To take part in the event just send an email to: cerimoniale@talmud.It
We are waiting for you!