Further important steps forward have been made to hasten the moment when restoration and refurbishment works, promoted by the Italian Jewish Cultural Heritage Foundation, can finally begin on the Jewish cemetery of Valdirose. The Jewish cemetery of Gorizia, which, after being separated for years from the city by the Iron Curtain, is now in Slovenia, in the municipality of Nova Gorica, is a place of value not only for Italian Judaism. As Livio Vasieri, member of the Trieste Jewish Community Board, explained during a visit to the site, the oldest tombstones date back to 1300, and the cemetery houses the graves of such prominent figures as, in recent times, philosopher Carlo Michelstaedter and journalist Carolina Luzzatto Coen. After the first visit, in January of last year, and the first meeting between the president of Fbcei, Dario Disegni, and the mayors of Gorizia and Nova Gorica (organised by the journalistic editorial board of the Union of Italian Jewish Communities), architect Andrea Morpurgo was assigned the project for the restoration and refurbishment of the area, which was approved by the Board at the end of June in Trieste. The project, aimed at restoring Jewish Gorizia to its original integrity which was destroyed by many years of persecutions and tragedies that took place on its borders, was welcomed both by the mayors of the two cities, Matej Arcon and the newly-elected Rodolfo Ziberna (the meetings were photographed by Giovanni Montenero) and by Marino Zanetti, vice president of Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio di Gorizia.
a.t.@ada3ves – Jewish Pages, July 2017
(June 28, 2017)