Fra identità e memoria. Viaggio nella Comunità ebraica di Napoli

The focus of this thesis is the analysis of the concepts of memory and identity within a religious minority group like the Jewish one. The case-study is the Jewish Community in Naples, one of the smallest communities in Italy (around 184 members). What this study aims at is to bridge the methodological gap between history and anthropology. As a matter of fact, on the one hand the scholars of Hebraism have frequently focused their attention to anthropological investigation methods for a better understanding of the dynamics existing between Jewish and not Jewish over the centuries; while, on the other hand, the anthropologists, non only Italian, have rarely dealt with these subjects. That is the reason why there is an urgent need to study the concepts of memory and identity in this specific cultural situation, which might also help the Jewish culture come out of its persistent isolation and become the object of anthropological investigation. Thus, a transdisciplinary method has been developed to integrate not only anthropologic, historical, psychological and sociological methodologies, but also literary ones. This is clear especially in the analysis of the narrative modes used by the several interviewees to explain their memories both in speaking and writing. Naturally, everything has been carried out constantly keeping in mind that numerous are the reasons underlying the social action. Starting from the local (Naples), considerations will also include more global aspects (the dispersion and Israel). What emerges is a Transnational Community, often inclined to migration, polyglot and, tough deeply Italian, still strictly linked to Israel.