{"id":11511,"date":"2026-09-15T11:41:33","date_gmt":"2026-09-15T09:41:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/torinoebraica.it\/senza-categoria\/love-war-and-the-relationship-with-god-in-the-poetry-of-yehuda-amichai-a-meeting\/"},"modified":"2026-09-30T10:37:00","modified_gmt":"2026-09-30T08:37:00","slug":"love-war-and-the-relationship-with-god-in-the-poetry-of-yehuda-amichai-a-meeting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/torinoebraica.it\/en\/articles\/love-war-and-the-relationship-with-god-in-the-poetry-of-yehuda-amichai-a-meeting\/","title":{"rendered":"Love, war, and the relationship with God in the poetry of Yehuda Amichai. A meeting."},"content":{"rendered":"

To cap off what has become “Jewish Culture Week,” the Vivaldi Auditorium at the National University Library hosted an engaging afternoon on Wednesday, September 9, dedicated to Yehuda Amichai<\/strong>. A great Israeli poet, his work explores love\u2014the theme of this year’s Jewish Culture Week\u2014as well as war, torment, and a complex relationship with the divine and the religious realm. Born Ludwig Pfeuffer in W\u00fcrzburg, Germany, in 1924, and having emigrated to Israel with his family in 1936, Amichai passed away in 2000. Yet, his themes, his often critical and provocative stance, and the powerful questions he posed to society (both Israeli and beyond) keep his work extraordinarily relevant\u2014especially during the turbulent period the country has been experiencing since October 7.
\nThree distinguished speakers\u2014poet and writer Sarai Shavit<\/b>, along with critics and scholars of Israeli literature Raffaella Scardi<\/b> (also a translator) and Sara Ferrari<\/b> (based in Turin and Milan, respectively)\u2014illuminated his personality, his world, and his verses. The fascinating portrait of the author was rounded out by a musical performance from singer-songwriter Rocco Rosignoli<\/b>, who set some of the poet’s texts to music with great empathy.
\nWhat emerged from this attempt to engage intellectually with Amichai\u2019s multifaceted language?
\nThree fundamental themes stood out in his work. Love, certainly\u2014expressed in all its dimensions (spiritual, idealistic, and erotic\/sensual) and a source of both conflict and inner turmoil, yet ultimately inalienable and dominant; a love often captured through skillful references to the very heart of biblical texts. His relationship with God\u2014always contentious yet inescapable for someone like Amichai, who received a religious upbringing he chose to leave behind but whose foundations he never repudiated\u2014was a bond defined by both need and rupture: continuous, fraught with conflict, and never banal. Then there is war, which the poet experienced for many years as an IDF soldier\u2014a dimension that, alongside the harshness and pain of death, also brought deep friendship, closeness in moments of extremity, and the tangible reality of essential defense.
\nUltimately, what remains is the powerful image of a poet who sang of a reality that was solid and alive\u2014never banal or contrived. Even his Jerusalem\u2014the chosen city where he lived for many years and a central pillar of his poetic vision\u2014is not a picture-postcard clich\u00e9, but a place of lived experience, a crossroads of lives.
\nIn short, a powerful poet\u2014Israeli to the core in his critical spirit and his love for his land. <\/p>\n

David Sorani<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>

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Capping off what has become “Jewish Culture Week,” the Vivaldi Auditorium at the National University Library hosted an engaging afternoon dedicated to Yehuda Amichai\u2014a great Israeli poet whose work explores love, but also war, torment, and a complex relationship with the divine and the religious realm. By David Sorani. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":11510,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[103],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11511","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-articles"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/torinoebraica.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11511","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/torinoebraica.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/torinoebraica.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/torinoebraica.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/torinoebraica.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11511"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/torinoebraica.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11511\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11514,"href":"https:\/\/torinoebraica.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11511\/revisions\/11514"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/torinoebraica.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11510"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/torinoebraica.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11511"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/torinoebraica.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11511"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/torinoebraica.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11511"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}