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Lucia Bedarida Servadio: A Life Beyond Limits. A Female Italian Jewish Scientist in Tangier



Author(s)

Cristina Bettin

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DOI:10.17265/2328-2177/2016.07.003

Ben Gurion University of the Negev, Negev, Israel

Italian Jewish women in the early 20th century, and, their struggle with their Italian national identity, culture, and, Jewish heritage is a topic that has not been yet sufficiently studied, in particular the one regarding Italian Jewish women in sciences and their contribution to the Italian culture. With the exception of a few memoirs, as well a book recently published in Italian, who depicted shortly the life of some of these women, to this day, there is a paucity of publications about it, with the result that, there is little knowledge about them and their “pioneering spirit” and “modernism”. Thus, this article aims to spread light on one of these extraordinary women: the tubiba (Arabic name for doctor) Lucia Bedarida Servadio. In analyzing Lucia’s life through her memoirs, writings, and, unpublished documents, such as private letters that she wrote to her friends and family, I will show the impact that this “avant-garde”, and, still quite unknown women had in the Italian society. Above all, the legacy that she left as a “messenger” of peace, in dedicating her whole life, to help the “others”, despite their colors, race and religion, like she did in Morocco from 1940 until 1981.

Italian Jewish women, memoirs, Jewish education, Italian national identity, Jewish heritage, racial discrimination