Italian Club of Staten Island Foundation food drive benefits 320 local families in need this holiday season
The Italian Club of Staten Island Foundation, an organization that’s committed to community, ventured over to Jetro Restaurant Depot in Brooklyn, where members purchased $15,000 worth of food to be delivered to needy families. On Saturday, Dec. 14, with St. Christophers school serving as their staging area, club members, family and friends packed 6...
The Christmas Tree at Rockefeller Center: A Tradition with Italian Roots
The Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree, an iconic symbol of the holiday season in New York City, has its roots deeply embedded in Italian American history. This tradition, now celebrated worldwide, began humbly in 1931 during the Great Depression when Italian immigrant construction workers, employed at the Rockefeller Center site, came together to e...
BP Fossella named ‘Man of the Year’ by Italian American Civil Rights League
The Italian American Civil Rights League (IACRL), a nonprofit dedicated to the preservation of Italian American heritage and history, named Staten Island Borough President Vito Fossella “Italian American Man of the Year,” during the organization’s annual Christmas celebration and awards ceremony Sunday in the Little Italy section of Manhattan. The...
Our Lady of Peace Parish Celebrates 125 Years in Gowanus
Over the weekend of December 13, Brooklyn Bishop Robert Brennan led a parish’s 125th anniversary celebration: Our Lady of Peace Church in Gowanus marked the milestone with a Mass and dinner. The now Franciscan parish was founded by the Vincentians in 1899, but the Diocese of Brooklyn brought in the Franciscan province of the Immaculate Conception b...
Lombardia Style Arrives in New York
The Lombardia Style has landed in New York. "Destinazione Lombardia" was recently presented in New York at the exclusive Bar Milano of Eataly on 5th Avenue. An evening organized in collaboration with Enit, the national tourism agency, was dedicated to the "Lombardia Style", a new regional territorial marketing brand that identifies the excellences...
Long Island Bishop Lawrence Provenzano to step down in 2026
Long Island Bishop Lawrence Provenzano, whose New York diocese includes the boroughs of Brooklyn and Queens and the two suburban counties to the east, announced Dec. 10 he plans to step down in 2026 after 17 years as bishop. Provenzano was consecrated bishop in September 2009. He previously had served as a priest in the dioceses of Western Massachu...
A History of Mayor LaGuardia on WNYC, Adapting 'Nickel Boys' for the Screen with RaMell Ross, Making Music for Fostered Dogs
As WNYC celebrates its centennial this year, All Of It presents a special on the life of one of New York City's most important mayors: Fiorello La Guardia. La Guardia was the first Italian-American Mayor of New York who led the city during the aftermath of the Great Depression, Hitler's rise to power, and World War II. He was a Republican mayor in...
WWII Veteran Bonfiglio Celebrates 99th Birthday with Family
Rosemary Summers and her daughter, Sarah Summers, are both SUNY Oneonta graduates. Sarah wanted to honor her grandfather, Vincent James Bonfiglio, who recently turned 99 years young. She and her sister, Laura Summers, flew in from Austin, Texas and joined relatives and loved ones from Kentucky and New Jersey for the celebration. Bonfiglio is a Worl...
Port Jervis welcomes contingent from sister city in Italy
Port Jervis Councilwoman Maria Mann is a proud first-generation Italian-American and fluent in the language. Mann’s skills were on display last week when Port Jervis hosted a delegation from its sister city in Lapio, Italy. The group included Lapio Mayor Maria Teresa Lepore. “I got to speak the language with them and I hope to visit Italy next year...
Stolen children: How the Vatican sent babies of unwed mothers to US for adoption
John Campitelli started searching for his birth mother when he was only 11 years old. Born in 1963 in Turin, Italy, he was adopted two years later by an American Catholic couple in New York. For years, he believed his birth parents were dead, although no one had ever given him any explanation about why he was given up for adoption. In 1991, after y...
When Michelangelo's 'Pietà' Came to New York
Growing up in the New York metro area in the 1970s and early 1980s, the work of art I heard my parents discuss most often was Michelangelo’s Pietà. The famous sculpture, which resides inside St. Peter’s in Rome, features a beatific and serene Mary seated with the body of the crucified Jesus sprawled across her lap, evoking the great suffering of hi...
“The Sicilian Puppet Theater of Agrippino Manteo (1884-1947): The Paladins of France in America”
Thursday, December 5th, 6:00 pm. Suggested donation of $15 per person. Italian American Museum, 151 Mulberry Street, New York, NY. For reservations please send an email here. You are cordially invited to attend a Book Presentation and Talk by Dr. Jo Ann Cavallo who will discuss her book, “The Sicilian Puppet Theater of Agrippino Manteo (1884-1947):...
