ROME (JTA) — Italy’s first ever national Jewish book fair opened with a concert and formal ceremony.
The fair is taking place in Ferrara, a historic city in northern Italy that has plans to build a national Museum of Italian Judaism and the Shoah.
The five-day fair, which received wide publicity in the national media, opened with a concert Saturday night and formal ceremony Sunday.
Publishing houses are displaying more than 1,500 titles of Jewish interest or by Jewish authors, all published in Italian.
Numerous talks, book signings and other events featuring leading Jewish fiction and non-fiction authors are on the agenda. Several events, however, had to be canceled because speakers were stranded by the air-travel shutdown forced by the cloud of ash from the Icelandic volcano.
Sponsors and organizers of the book fair, which is a project of the planned new museum, included the Italian Culture Ministry, local civic authorities and Jewish organizations.
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