Research bodies and institutions meet again to remember the scientific, cultural and academic impact that the Racial Laws of 1938 had on Italian society.
THENational Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology (INGV) and National Research Council (CNR) participate in the anniversary of the Remembrance Day 2026 with exhibition events and seminars curated within the project Page of Memory. A stumbling block for science and culture., on the scientific, cultural and academic impact of the Racial Laws, of which INGV is a promoter together with CNR, National Academy of the Lincei, National Institute for Public Policy Analysis (INAPP), Union of Italian Jewish Communities (UCEI), Jewish Community of Rome (CER) and with the patronage of Jewish Museum of Bologna, Association of Italian Scholars and Scientists in Israel (AISSI), University Library of Bologna (BUB), UNINETTUNO e Memory Project Association.
Exhibition | “Page of Memory”
January 21 - February 9 | Ca' Foscari University of Venice
Wednesday, January 21, 15:30 PM, Baratto Hall - Presentation of the "Page of Memory" project, with greetings from Sara De Vido, Rector's Delegate for Days of Memory, Remembrance, and Gender Equality at Ca' Foscari University of Venice, and remarks by Aldo Winkler (INGV), Project Coordinator, Alessia Glielmi, Head of Document Management and Archives at the CNR, and Myriam Pilutti Namer, Professor of Venetian Art and Archaeology at Ca' Foscari University of Venice.
Following, from 17:00 PM, Androne Ca' Foscari, Dorsoduro 3246 - Inauguration and guided tour of the exhibition "Page of Memory," featuring 16 illustrative panels on the application of the "Racial Laws" in research institutions, universities, and academies. These panels contain stories, testimonies, and family documents on the racist persecution suffered by women, technicians, workers, and scholars employed by research institutions and universities.
Among the panels on display, graphically designed by Gianluca Nardi (INGV), we should mention those curated by Alessia Glielmi and Aldo Winkler on the brothers Giacomo and Leone Anticoli, exempted from service at the CNR and the ING (National Institute of Geophysics, then a body of the CNR), whose families were devastated by the Nazi-Fascist raid of 16 October 1943. Other panels highlight the impact of the Racial Laws on pioneering female figures such as Lucia Bedarida Servadio, the youngest female doctor in Italy, who emigrated to Morocco to escape racial persecution and provided the first medical care to Muslim women who could not be visited by men, as illustrated by her daughter Mirella Bedarida Shapiro and Cristina Bettin, professor at the Ben-Gurion University of the Negev and President of the AISSI, and Alda Levi, the first woman to become an official in a Superintendence of Cultural Heritage, treated by Myriam Pilutti. Namer .
The exhibition will be open to the public with free admission from January 22nd to February 9th, Monday to Friday from 9:00 am to 18:00 pm and on Saturdays from 9:00 am to 12:00 pm.
Conference | "The Racial Laws and their Effects on Italian Culture: Alda Levi at the Baths of Diocletian"
January 26, 16:30 PM | National Roman Museum - Baths of Diocletian
Introduced and moderated by Federica Rinaldi, Director of the National Roman Museum (MNR); speakers:
Aldo Winkler (INGV and Progetto Memoria Association): The Cultural and Academic Consequences of the Racial Laws: The "Page of Memory" Project
Anna Ceresa Mori (former Archaeological Superintendency of Lombardy): Italian Archaeology Between Racial Laws and Damnatio Memoriae: The Case of Alda Levi
Antonella Ferraro (Archaeological Officer, Head of the Crypta Balbi Office and Head of the MNR Archival Heritage Office): Salvatore Aurigemma and the protection of the archaeological heritage of the province of Rome during the period of the Racial Laws in the archival documents of the National Roman Museum
Free event, reservations on Eventbrite.
Useful links:
National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology (INGV)
National Research Council (CNR)
Page of Memory. A stumbling block for science and culture.
National Academy of the Lincei
National Institute for Public Policy Analysis (INAPP)
Union of Italian Jewish Communities (UCEI)
Jewish Community of Rome (CER)
Association of Italian Scholars and Scientists in Israel (AISSI)
