Abstract: Communicative misunderstandings, cultural misinterpretations, and tribal hatreds are not phenomena that emerge and develop only in the digital world. Within platforms, conflicts explode and circulate mainly in crisis situations, but the relationship (constructive or destructive) with the similar and the different, as well as the narration of the symbolic meanings of specific cultural events, originate first and foremost in interpersonal relationships, institutional political contexts, and the representations (and consumption) of traditional media, such as the television space. Italian television is still one of the reference means of communication for the majority of the population, a figure that has been recorded especially during the recent pandemic emergency despite the significant collapse in advertising investments. Hatred, especially anti-Semitic hatred, is increasingly present in the information ecology, linked to nationalist narratives or aimed at restoring traditional values and fuelling an already highly polarised political debate in a now “dense” public sphere. In particular, during the health crisis, television journalists found it very difficult to report in depth on cases of discrimination or COVID-19.
Abstract: Throughout its centuries-long history in Russia, the Jewish minority knew oppression, pogroms and genocide, as well as inclusion and tolerance demonstrated by the Russian majority. The Jewry responded with escape (Palestine/Israel, the U.S. or elsewhere) or assimilation in the course of which those who remained in the Soviet Union abandoned their faith, language, traditions and ways of life. They tried hard to look and behave like standard Soviet Russians with a slight tint of "Jewishness," which helped them be very successful in chosen professions, science and art. During the last 20 years, those of the Jews (their number is small) who decided to stay have been enjoying unprecedented tolerance demonstrated by the authorities and common Russians. In this atmosphere, the dissimilation trends (back to Judaism and tradition) have flourished alongside with continued assimilation and emigration.
