16 October 1943 is one of the most intense, troubling and spectacular works ever written on a single event in the Holocaust of Europe's Jews. This text embodies a stylistic combination of almost real-time journalism, powerful poetic and emotional literature and a profound philosophical essay on the Nazi's behavioral patterns. Giacomo Debenedetti, a distinguished Jewish-Italian author, journalist, and literary critic and theorist describes in 16 October 1943 the terrors of the raid of the Ghetto of Rome. The story (for it is first and foremost a story) unfolds, with piercing, terrifying language, the deportation of one Jewish community within the Nazi extermination mechanism.

This volume of Italia vol. 13-15, is dedicated to the memory of the late Professor Giuseppe Sermoneta, one of the two original founders of Italia. Prof. Sermoneta was an esteemed scholar and teacher at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and an internationally known expert in his field. This volume contains 29 articles by renowned scholars in the field who were also close friends or revered students of Prof. Sermoneta. ITALIA Periodical for research in the history, culture, and literature of the Jews of Italy. Whoever is dealing with Jewish thought and humanities knows well how important and influential the Italian Jews were and are in these wide ranges of fields. The large creation and thought of the Italian Jews was passed on for multi generations in Hebrew and Italian while keeping a firm methodical tradition which ITALIA periodical is following and keeping the importance of studying and researching the language, literature, culture and history of Italy and Italian Jews. Italian Jews had a strong presence in the European culture from the 13th century on to our current time. Documents, manuscripts and many books show us many remarkable authors and thinkers, Italian Jews and others, that had strong ties with the rather small ethnicity of Italian Jews. Even though there are many respected studies on the contributions of Italian Jews to the cultural making of the Italian nation, there is still a necessary need for a centralized publication of these past and new studies. ITALIA is an important focus point for an academic discussion on the culture, literature, history and language of Italian Jews as well as a place where we can weight the conclusions of these studies and place goals for future doing in these exciting full of aspects fields.