Miriam Camerini (IT)

Miriam Camerini was born in Jerusalem on Purim night of 1983 and grew up in Milan, Italy. Miriam believes interpretation is a key word to describe her work and artistic persona, because it bridges between the way we read texts and the way we put them on stage, allowing for an encounter between theatre and Jewish traditional study.
She holds a BA in Linguistics and Literature from the State University of Milan and attended an MA program in Theatre Studies at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Miriam wrote her thesis in History of German Theatre on Gotthold Efraim Lessing's play Nathan the wise and the presence of Jewish Characters in German plays of the 18th century.
A graduate from the Paolo Grassi Acting School of Milan and the Pardes Institute of Jewish Studies in Jerusalem, she's now a rabbinical student at Beit Midrash Har'El, one of the first orthodox yeshivas to ordain women rabbis: she might become Italy's first orthodox woman rabbi. Miriam has taught Judaism at the Jewish schools of Milan and Trieste, at the State University of Milano – Bicocca, in several Theological Faculties and at the Catholic University of Milan, Italy.
Miriam writes regularly for Italian Catholic magazine Jesus, where she has a column on women, arts and religions, as well as Il Giornale di Rodafà, with her column The Rabbi is in. She's a regular contributor to Pagine Ebraiche and other papers.
Miriam published a book about food and religion, Ricette e Precetti (Giuntina, Firenze 2019), which will be published in German by the end of 2021. She's now working on a new translation and commentary of Song of Songs in Italian for RueBallu, an Italian publisher for teenagers.
Miriam is very active in interfaith work and lectures regularly about Judaism and all aspects of Jewish life, rituals and culture, biblical and rabbinical literature.
A theatre director, writer, singer and actress, she worked as assistant director with Cesare Lievi at the Opera House in Zürich and with Lorenzo Arruga at Teatro La Fenice in Venice.
She studied song with Lee Colbert and with Camilla Barbarito, as well as at Yiddish Summer Weimar, where she also performed in the Bobe Mayses project (2016, actress, singer) and directed Di Megile fun Vaymar in 2019.
She's the founder and artistic director of Benhashmashot, the first professional Jewish Theatre in Italy, based in Milan.

Among her projects, plays and shows:
Elie Wiesel's The trial of God (2005)
Golem (2008)
Un grembo, due nazioni, molte anime (2011) a theatre piece that tells the story of Italian Jewry
Il mare in valigia (2012) on the life and work of German - Jewish poetess Else Lasker-Schüler
Lo Shabbat di tutti (2013) a dinner - performance of the Jewish Sabbath
Caffe Odessa (2013) a concert in search of the true meaning of "Jewish music"
Chouchani (2014)
Messia e Rivoluzione (2017) a concert / reading on the Bund
Miriam and the others, on women in Jewish music (2019).

 

Photo: Shendl Copitman