Wednesday, January 27, 2010, 6:30 PM
Book presentation and projection of the video “Mama Rida” by Olivia Fincato
Viewing of the exhibition by Renato D’Agostin and reception
The exhibition will remain on view through February 10, 2010

A book based on the encounter with Lucia Servadio Bedarida, the youngest female doctor in Italy who became the first woman physician in Morocco, mindful of 106 years of life.      

In 1939 Lucia escaped to Tangier because of the introduction in Italy of  the racial laws which affected her whole family. After 40 years of work as a gynecologist in Morocco she joined her daughters in United States. Her mother and grandmother were deported and killed at Auschwitz. Lucia donated their last letters, written from Fossoli Camp, to the US Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, DC.

Lucia’s daughters, Mirella and Paola Bedarida, will participate to the event, together with Claudia Davidson, Lucia’s granddaughter, and doctor Ioana Razi, whose career path was inspired by Lucia’s wisdom.

Auditorium of the Embassy of Italy - Italian Cultural Institute of Washington, DC
3000 Whitehaven Street NW, Washington, DC 20008
Picture I.D. required – Please RSVP at www.iicwashington.esteri.it

THE EMBASSY OF ITALY IN RABAT, THE CONSULATE GENERAL OF ITALY IN CASABLANCA AND THE ITALIAN CULTURAL INSTITUTE OF RABAT

Cordially invite you to the presentation of the book "A day with Lucia" by Olivia Fincato and Renato D’Agostin

Book presentation followed by the exhibition of photographs and by a video based on the encounter with Dr. Lucia Servadio Bedarida (1900-2006)

The joungest jewish female doctor in Italy who moved, after the promulgation of the “racial law” of 1939 from Rome to Tangier, from Tangier to New York. Lucia worked in Morocco for more than fourty years and her assistance as surgeon, gynaecologist and obstetrician was extremely precious, everybody now remember her as “Mama Rida”

PROGRAM:

18.30 Opening remarks by S.E. Ambassador of Italy in Rabat, Umberto Lucchesi Palli

With the partecipation of:

Nicola Lener, General Consul of Casablanca, Giorgio Salerno, Director of the Italian Cultural Institute of Rabat, Olivia Fincato, journalist and Renato D’Agostin, photographer, Paola, Mirella, Adria, Lucia Bedarida’s daughters, Charles Zalber, Director of the Gallery PHOTO4 in Paris

Followed by:

The projection of the video “Mama Rida” by Olivia Fincato 

Memories of “Mama Rida” generation

Opening of the photo exhibition

Cocktail

Palace of the Italian Institutions (ancien palace Moulay Hafid)

23, Rue Mohammed Ben Abedelouhab, 90000 Tangier

The photo exhibition will be on view at Foundation Lorin from April 4th to May 31st 2009, 44 rue Touahine -Médina, Tangier