Bianca Nunes Vais Collection
Item
-
Nota de estado
-
Finalizado
-
Country
-
IL
-
Name of institution (English)
-
Central Archives for the History of the Jewish People
-
Language of name of institution
-
heb
-
Contact information: postal address
-
Edmond J. Safra Campus, Givat Ram, Jerusalem 91010
-
Contact information: phone number
-
00972 02-6586249
-
Contact information: email
-
cahjp@nli.org.il
-
Reference number
-
P66
-
Type of reference number
-
Call number
-
Title (English)
-
Biana Nunes Vais Collection
-
Title (official language of the state)
-
Bianca Nunes Vais Collection
-
Language of title
-
eng
-
Creator / accumulator
-
Bianca Nunes Vais
-
Date note
-
1600/2000
-
Language(s)
-
ita
-
Extent
-
6 files
-
Type of material
-
Photographic Images
-
Textual Material
-
Scope and content
-
This collection comprises materials gathered by Bianca Nunes Vais. It contains photographs, miscellaneous documents, documentation concerning the Jewish University of Lippiano, draft statutes of the Jewish Community of Alexandria in Egypt, and a letter from Rabbi Elyashar of Jerusalem. It also includes a few essays by Bianca Nunes Vais with typewritten copies of documents entitled: "I Levi di Venezia" (The Levis of Venice), "Gli ebrei di Tripoli" (The Jews of Tripoli), and "Storia degli Arbib" (History of the Arbibs).
-
Administrative / Biographical history
-
Bianca Nunes Vais (1883-1970) was the daughter of Salvatore and Clotilde di Cesare Levi. Her paternal family was of Tripoline descent. Around the mid-19th century, Vita di David Arbib, Bianca's grandfather, who was married to Diamante Forgion, had moved to Venice, where he ran the firm "A. Bonlini & V. Arbib", a glass beads factory. Bianca's grandfather kept close family and economic ties with his homeland, and Bianca's father, Salvatore, an antiquarian, continued to conduct his stores similarly. In 1910, Bianca married Ercole Nunes Vais (1883-1967), the son of Adolfo and Rebecca Nahum and a member of one of the most prominent families in the Tripoli community.
Until 1925, Bianca lived in Tripoli, where, together with Fortuny Arbib, her father's cousin, she was among the founding members of a committee initially called the Israelite youth patronage "Work and Virtue" and later "Jewish Women's Society" with charitable and welfare purposes. Returning to Venice with her husband, she was among the first members of the Venetian section of the Association of Jewish Women of Italy (Venetian section ADEI, 1928), established by Amelia Fano. She became the bearer of the pleas of the underprivileged Jews of Tripoli, becoming the contact for resources collected in their support. She was also entrusted with organising the "nidiata di rondini" (brood of swallows) or the association's activities aimed at children.
Bianca participated assiduously in the cultural life of the General Fraterna, later the Israelite Community, which had its epicentre in the Jewish Studies Convention, led by Rabbi Adolfo Ottolenghi and Vittorio Fano. She also participated in the Venetian section of ADEI, fostering meetings, lectures and readings on doctrinal, historical and literary subjects.
After the interruption of the two-year period 1943-1945, Bianca, having escaped with her husband the deportations in which she lost her grandsons Adolfo Nunes Vais and Salvatore Vivante, resumed her studies of a historical and doctrinal nature. In the 1960s, she published in the "Rassegna Mensile di Israel" (Israel Monthly Review) two essays on the history of Jews in Venice during the Risorgimento.
-
(source: SUSA - Sistema Informativo Unificato per le Soprintendenze Archivistiche)
-
Access, restrictions
-
The collection can be accessed in the reading room and in rooms with microfilm readers.
-
Author of the description
-
Joana Rodrigues, 2023
