Presentation by Author, Gianna Pontecorboli, Prof. W. Castello, and Prof. L. Lionini. GARIBALDI MEUCCI MUSEUM , 420 TOMPKINS AVE. STATEN ISLAND, NY : Gianna Pontecorboli. Documenting the stories of Italian Jews in the Americas. The Garibaldi-Meucci Museum and The Jewish Community Center of Staten Island present Gianna Pontecorboli's book: "Americordo" The Italian Jewish Exiles in America. Book Signing by Gianna Pontecorboli

This book is a humble homage to the history of some 2,000 Italian Jews who crossed the ocean to flee the Fascist regime's unjust racial laws, having understood early on the tragedy in which those laws would culminate only a few years later. This story has never been told in its entirety, though many of the exiles have written books and personal memoirs.

Pontecorboli retraces the threads of their stories, personal recollections and historical background, their strategies to exit Italy and those to find a visa to the US. She reconstructs their first steps in the New World, their networks of mutual support, their successes and drawbacks, their encounters with fascism and anti-fascism in America, their different and at times conflicting choices of adaptation and survival.

Written in a fast paced journalistic style, the book is both a good read as well as an important contribution to cultural history, marking a starting point for a whole new field of inquiry.

Call now for reservations, space is limited: 718-442-1608

"A fascinating and intriguing book that traces networks of kinship and relationships that reverberate into many developments of the late twentieth century" Susanna Pesenti L'eco di Bergamo.