Thursday April 26 - 7 p.m./9 p.m. American Italian Heritage Association and Museum -1227 Central Avenue, Albany, New York 12205. This Jewish-Catholic Dialogue Lecture, led by La Rabinessa Liora Kelman of Congregation Beth Israel, will discuss how her family, the Saranos of Milan, were saved from the Holocaust in the small village of Mombaroccio where her Nonno (grandfather) saved thousands of lives by hiding the lists of the Milanese Jewish community.

A new book “Siamo Qui Siamo Vivi” (“We are here, we are alive”) is a result of research by Robert Mazzoli, who brought to light the diary of Alfredo Sarano, which was guarded for over seventy years in a drawer by his daughters Matilde, Vittoria and Miriam. The diary re-emerges from the past adding new, precious pages of history to the book of the genocide of the Jewish people, framing it in the historical context of the time and reporting the testimonies of the survivors.

It was presented in the Italian parliament on March 15th. In addition, a first-time screening of a short film, “Il Giardino Dei Giusti” (“The Garden of the Righteous”), will take place. This event is sponsored by the Jewish-Catholic Dialogue Committee, Jewish Federation of Northeastern NY, the Roman Catholic Diocese of Albany, and the American Italian Heritage Museum. Free and open to the public, a reception will follow.