Esdra Pontremoli (
Chieri
Chieri (; pms, Cher) is a town and '' comune'' in the Metropolitan City of Turin, Piedmont ( Italy), located about southeast of Turin, by rail and by road. It borders the following municipalities: Baldissero Torinese, Pavarolo, Montaldo ...
, 10 January 1818 –
Vercelli, 1 February 1888) was an Italian
rabbi
A rabbi () is a spiritual leader or religious teacher in Judaism. One becomes a rabbi by being ordained by another rabbi – known as '' semikha'' – following a course of study of Jewish history and texts such as the Talmud. The basic form o ...
, poet, writer, editor, teacher,
pedagogist and member of the Pontremoli dynasty. He founded with Giuseppe Levi ''
L'Educatore Israelita'', the first Jewish journal in Italy.
["Les Pontremoli, deux dynasties rabbiniques en Turquie et en Italie" Parigi,1997]
on-line
Biography
Ezra Pontremoli was born in
Ivrea in 1888, the son of rabbi Eliseo Graziado Pontremoli (born in
Casale Monferrato
Casale Monferrato () is a town in the Piedmont region of Italy, in the province of Alessandria. It is situated about east of Turin on the right bank of the Po, where the river runs at the foot of the Montferrat hills. Beyond the river lies the v ...
in 1778 and died in
Nice in 1851) and Bella Eleonora Olivetti (died in Nice in 1874, nephew of the banker
Laudadio Formiggini), exponent of a wealthy family of bankers from
Modena
Modena (, , ; egl, label=Emilian language#Dialects, Modenese, Mòdna ; ett, Mutna; la, Mutina) is a city and ''comune'' (municipality) on the south side of the Po Valley, in the Province of Modena in the Emilia-Romagna region of northern I ...
. On his mother's side, he was related to
Angelo Fortunato Formiggini and to
Camillo Olivetti, founder of the eponymous typewriter manufacturer. He ws the brother of
Raffaele Pontremoli
Raffaele Pontremoli, also known as Raffaello Pontremoli (1832 in Chieri – 1906 in Milan), was an Italian painter, mainly as a battle painter.
Biography
Pontremoli studied at the Academy of Arts in Nice, where his father was rabbi for the lo ...
, uncle of
Emmanuel Pontremoli
Emmanuel Pontremoli (13 January 1865 – 25 July 1956) was a French architect and archaeologist.
Biography
Born in Nice, Alpes-Maritimes, a student in the ''atelier'' of Louis-Jules André, in 1890 he won the Prix de Rome in the architectur ...
,
Roberto Pontremoli
Roberto Pontremoli (born June 5, 1937) is an Italian insurance executive. From 1993 to 1999, he was CEO of the Istituto Nazionale delle Assicurazioni ( INA), and in 1994, founded the Rotary International club of Milan.
Biography
Roberto Pontr ...
and grandfather of
Aldo Pontremoli
Aldo Pontremoli (; 19 January 1896 – 25 May 1928) was an Italian physicist who held a chair of theoretical physics at the Milan school of physics, Physics Department of the University of Milan from 1926 and who founded and directed the Instit ...
, Mario Pontremoli. Influenced by the figure of his father, an exponent of an important dynasty of rabbis, he decided to undertake theological studies and become a rabbi. In 1844 Esdra Pontremoli became professor of Hebrew and French in the Foa College of
Vercelli. In the following years he also became a professor of French language at the technical institute of Vercelli. In January 1853, he founded with Rabbi Cav. Giuseppe Levi (1814–1874), the newspaper "''
L'educatore Israelita''", the first in Italy, which initially reports as a subtitle "Journal for Jewish families". From 1859 the subtitle will change to "Journal for the history and spirit of Judaism" which will remain until July 1874. On 2 January 1882, he was awarded, upon decision of King
Umberto I, the honor of Knight of the
Order of the Italian crown as recognition of the important propaganda in favor of the unification of Italy carried out through the newspaper "L'educatore Israelita".
Bibliography
* "Esdra Pontremoli". In: ''
Jewish Encyclopedia
''The Jewish Encyclopedia: A Descriptive Record of the History, Religion, Literature, and Customs of the Jewish People from the Earliest Times to the Present Day'' is an English-language encyclopedia containing over 15,000 articles on th ...
'', Vol. XIX, 1888 Isidore Singer
on-line
* "Esdra Pontremoli". In: ''I Rabbini Italiani'', 2012 David Bruno e Pellegrino Polacco
on-line
* L'epistolario di Marco Mortara (1815–1894): un rabbino italiano tra riforma ...Di Marco Mortara, Asher Salah
on-line
Seduta della Camera dei Deputati del 30 Gennaio 1854"Les Pontremoli, deux dynasties rabbiniques en Turquie et en Italie" Parigi,1997Corriere Della Sera: "Una storia di carattere, 150 anni di stampa ebraica in Italia"
See also
*Pontremoli (disambiguation) Pontremoli is a small city in the north of Tuscany in Italy.
Pontremoli may also refer to:
People
*Aldo Pontremoli, Italian physicist
*Esdra Pontremoli, Italian poet, editor, rabbi.
*Benjamin Pontremoli, Turkish poet and rabbi
* Raphael Chiyya P ...
Notes
{{DEFAULTSORT:Pontremoli, Esdra
19th-century Italian rabbis
Italian poets
1888 deaths
1818 births
Jewish Italian writers