(20 Jul 2022) ITALY JEWISH TOWN
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
LENGTH: 4.50
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Serrastretta - 8 July 2022
1. Various of Serrastretta village
2. Rabbi Barbara Aiello walking in an alley passing by a David star on the wall
3. Various of Rabbi Aiello showing his family and his father's photograph
4. Various of Rabbi Aiello showing Jewish symbols and items in her house
5. SOUNDBITE (English), Barbara Aiello, Rabbi:
"The first time I came here was 1975, I brought my father back who kissed the ground when I brought him back, and he often said that many many people have Jewish roots and they need to be reconnected with their spiritual traditions."
6. Various of Rabbi Aiello preparing for a Jewish ceremony
7. Rabbi Aiello performing a religious ceremony
8. Zoom out from plate on the wall reading "Shalom" to people celebrating with Rabbi Aiello after religious ceremony
9. SOUNDBITE (English), Barbara Aiello, Rabbi:
"Before my father died he said: 'Promise me that you'll do something for the Jews of Calabria, the Calabresi who have Jewish roots'. And I promised him and I had no idea what I would do. I didn't know, but I became a Rabbi later in life as a second career, I was ordained when I was 51 years old, I have been a rabbi for 23 years, and when when I brought my father back here in 1975, I knew I would live here one day."
10. Close of gate with David's star, Rabbi Aiello in the garden
11. Rabbi Aiello hugging her fellow Serrastretta residents
12. Various of Ukrainian children playing in a garden in Serrastretta
13. SOUNDBITE (English), Vira (no family name given for safety concern), Ukrainian refugee:
"All my childhood I spent with Jewish traditions, and I kept in touch with all my relatives, and that's why I was very… I didn't even expect that Barbara can help me, because she was very kind with me, with open heart, and in a very hard moment for me."
14. Vira looking at her children playing
15. Serrastretta village
16. Elderly residents sitting on the bench looking at cars passing
17. Rabbi Aiello walking in the street with Serrastretta mayor Antonio Muracca
18. Close of Italian flag outside the mayor's office
19. SOUNDBITE (Italian), Antonio Muracca, Serrastretta Mayor:
"It's been few years now that Serrastretta has been having a shocking depopulation because there is little work, and therefore people take their chances and go somewhere else. We are doing whatever possible for the people to remain here."
20. Alleys in Serrastretta ++UPSOUND of church bell tolling
21. Wide of church, bell tolling
22. SOUNDBITE (Italian), Reverend Luigi Iuliano, Pastor of Serrastretta Parish:
"The Rabbi is a very gentle person, very open, and there was never competition, so to say, or jealousy. There is instead collaboration, respecting above all each other's (religion) history."
23. Various of Serrastretta residents on the street
24. Various of handmade chairs used as decoration with flowers on the street
LEAD IN:
An American rabbi and Ukrainian refugees are helping to revive the population and Judaism in a small town in Calabria, southern Italy.
Antonio Abramo Aiello left his hometown of Serrastretta in 1923.
Now, his Rabbi daughter has returned to her father's birthplace on a mission to reverse the depopulation that so many Italian towns suffer from, and reconnect new residents with their Jewish roots.
STORYLINE
Those links were nearly severed five centuries ago when the Inquisition forced Jews to convert to Christianity.
On a small wooden table near the synagogue's entrance sits a yellowed family portrait.
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