“MANTUA & THE KABBALAH” – AN HISTORIC EXHIBIT – ON DISPLAY AT NYU’S CASA ITALIANA ZERILLI-MARIM̉, MAR. 4-29

An exhibition highlighting the historic importance of the Jewish community in Mantua, Italy, and focusing on Mantua as a center for the study of the Kabbalah from the Renaissance on will open at New York University’s Casa Italiana Zerilli-Mariṃ, located at 24 W. 12th Street, on Monday, March 4, 6 p.m. Entitled “Mantua and the Kabbalah” the exhibition will be on display through March 29. Gallery hours are 9 a.m.-5 p.m. weekdays, and admission is free. For further information the public may call 998-8739. This event is held in cooperation with the Center for Jewish History and the Bronfman Center for Jewish Student Life at NYU.

The exhibition will be inaugurated on March 4 with welcoming remarks by Stefano Albertini, director of Casa Italiana Zerilli-Mariṃ; Gianfranco Burchiellaro, mayor of Mantua; Fabio Norsa, president of the Jewish Community of Mantua; and Rabbi Andrew Bachman, director of the Bronfman Center. Exhibit curator Giulio Busi, Frei Universitat Berlin, will discuss “Discovering the Visual Kabbalah in Mantua”; and a documentary on the Jewish Community in Mantua will also be screened.

While the main body of the exhibition is on display at Casa Italiana Zerilli-Mariṃ, an annex exhibit will be on view at the Center for Jewish Hisotry, 15 W. 16th Street.

During the Renaissance and the early modern age Mantua was a major center for the study of the Kabbalah, that esoteric tradition which fostered a profound renewal in Jewish spiritual life. A remarkably large collection of Hebrew-language books is still preserved in the city, and the library of the Jewish Community of Mantua, now in the Municipal Library, contains the greatest selection of kabbalistic texts, both manuscripts and printed books, available in Italy.

This exhibition highlights the importance of Mantua for the diffusion of the Kabbalah and brings to light the innovative features of the city’s kabbalistic school.

02/07/02