Not even 70 years after Italy unified, Benito Mussolini’s staged march on Rome so unnerved the government that King Victor Emmanuel III named him prime minister, opening the door to Fascist rule. “And so then began the task of selling Italy: at home, abroad, and as an idea in itself,” according to “The Future Was Then: The Changing Face of Fascist Italy.”

Now on view at Manhattan’s Poster House, the exhibition examines the intersection of propaganda and art in Mussolini’s Italy. Featuring 75 works on loan from the Fondazione Massimo e Sonia Cirulli in Bologna and curated by photographic artist and author B.A. Van Sise, the show explores how the regime used bold design, vivid color and modernist imagery to shape the nation’s self-image and fuel the Futurist movement.

But beyond the bombast, the sleek typefaces and arresting compositions lies a deeper, more complicated story. At its heart is Mussolini’s longtime lover and muse, Margherita Sarfatti, a Venetian Jew whose aesthetic sensibilities helped define the visual language of Italian Fascism.

“It’s not a Jewish show, though a person could argue it has a huge Jewish element since everything goes back to Margherita Sarfatti, who’s as Jewish as they come,” Van Sise said. “Fundamentally, Sarfatti’s the core of the show. The entire Italian art establishment changes gears because Mussolini’s girlfriend likes Futurism.”

Born in 1880 into a wealthy Jewish family, Sarfatti became a journalist, art critic and socialite who served as Mussolini’s adviser, biographer and cultural strategist. She funded Il Popolo d’Italia and was, as the exhibition text notes, “the uncrowned queen of Italy.”

“Think Gertrude Stein with better couture,” Van Sise said. “Every single thing in this show exists because of her — the Duce’s girlfriend adored Futurist art, and her taste dictated the direction of Italy’s visual culture. Artists and movements jumped ship to follow her lead, obeying in advance.”

Her influence is evident in pieces such as Marcello Dudovich’s 1936 poster “Esposizione Rhodia Albene alla Rinascente,” which depicts two elegantly dressed women striding in lockstep, evoking Sarfatti’s emphasis on fashion, modernity and movement.

The exhibit unfolds in three sections — “Italy as an Idea,” “Italy at Home,” and “Italy in the World” — each highlighting how Italian identity was constructed through imagery that linked domestic life, political messaging, and global ambition.

“Cioccolato Ali d’Italia,” a poster from 1931, depicts a sleek silver aircraft soaring across the page. Created to commemorate Minister of Aviation Italo Balbo’s transatlantic flights to South America, the image showcases Italy’s growing aviation prowess. A small rendering of Columbus’ ship tucked in the corner underscores the regime’s imperial aspirations.

The 1933 “Ardita Fiat” poster highlights the introduction of the Fiat Ardita, a streamlined, torpedo-shaped car whose name, which means “the daring one,” embodied Fascist vigor. In it a woman sits behind the wheel, her white gloves and black fez hat mirroring those worn by the Arditi, Italy’s elite assault troops.

Van Sise said it was essential to acknowledge the significant, though often overlooked, role Italian Jews played in Fascism’s early years. Among them were Gino Arias, an economist who addressed the National Fascist Party shortly before it seized power in 1922; Elisa Majer Rizzoli, who led the party’s women’s wing; and Guido Jung, an Orthodox Jew who served as finance minister.

“It was really important to include the Jewish history of the Italian Fascist period because it’s partly my own,” Van Sise said. “My family were Tunisian and Libyan Jews who came to Italy, and some branches were old-line Italian families — there for centuries, if not a millennium.”

Eventually Jews were targeted in Italy. By 1938 Mussolini had enacted racial laws, forcing thousands of Jews, including Sarfatti and Van Sise’s grandfather, to flee. Sarfatti spent her exile in Switzerland, Argentina, and Uruguay before returning after the war, only to learn her sister was among the more than seven thousand Italian Jews murdered in the Holocaust.

Van Sise’s grandfather also returned, before the war’s end, and joined the partisans.

He provides the exhibition’s stark coda: a small black-and-white photograph showing the corpses of Mussolini and others hanging by their heels in Milan’s Piazzale Loreto. The photographer was Van Sise’s grandfather.

“It’s a brutal image,” Van Sise said. “But it brings the story full circle — art, politics and identity collapsing into history itself.”

“The Future Was Then: The Changing Face of Fascist Italy” runs through Feb. 22 at the Poster House.

The post How Mussolini’s Jewish lover changed Fascist art and design appeared first on The Forward.

A German and Israeli flag fly, on the day Chancellor Friedrich Merz meets with Israeli President Isaac Herzog for talks, in Berlin, Germany, May 12, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Liesa Johannssen

Germany on Monday moved to resume weapons sales to Israel that had been suspended since August over the war in Gaza, but said the decision is subject to the observance of the ceasefire and the large-scale provision of humanitarian aid.

Germany, the second-largest exporter of arms to Israel after the United States, announced a suspension of some arms exports to Israel in August, amid mounting popular pressure over the war.

The decision affected weapons and systems that could be used in Gaza but not others deemed necessary for Israel to defend itself from external attacks.

Berlin will lift the suspension order on Nov. 24 and return to a case-by-case review of arms exports to Israel, while continuing to monitor the developments on the ground, a German government spokesperson said on Monday.

HUMANITARIAN AID MUST CONTINUE ‘ON A LARGE SCALE’

The ceasefire between Israel and Hamas “is the basis for this decision, and we expect everyone to abide by the agreements that have been made – that includes maintaining the ceasefire,” a second government spokesperson said.

“It also means that humanitarian aid is provided on a large scale and that the process continues in an orderly manner, as agreed,” the spokesperson added.

Germany remains committed to supporting a lasting peace between Israel and the Palestinians on the basis of a two-state solution and would continue to engage in supporting reconstruction in Gaza, the spokesperson said.

Germany is one of Israel‘s staunchest supporters, in part because of historical guilt for the Nazi Holocaust – a policy known as the “Staatsraison.”

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz came under massive criticism from his own conservatives for the decision to partially suspend the deliveries, which he said was in response to Israel‘s plan at the time to expand operations in Gaza.

According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, Germany provided 30 percent of Israel‘s major arms imports in 2019-2023, primarily naval equipment including Sa’ar 6-class frigates (MEKO A-100 Light Frigates), which were used in the Gaza war.

ISRAEL CALLS ON OTHERS TO FOLLOW

Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar on X lauded Germany for its decision to lift the order.

“I call on other governments to adopt similar decisions, following Germany,” he wrote.

German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul said the decision, in which his ministry was closely involved, was “responsible and correct” and that the ceasefire appeared to be sustainable.

French gendarmes on a boat approach a group of migrants travelling on an inflatable dinghy leaving the coast of northern France in an attempt to cross the English Channel to reach Britain, from the beach of Petit-Fort-Philippe in Gravelines, near Calais, France, Aug. 25, 2025. REUTERS/Hannah McKay

Britain will set out an overhaul of its asylum system on Monday, making refugee status temporary and reinterpreting human rights laws to make it easier to deport migrants who arrive illegally, in bids to stem the rise of the populist Reform UK party.

Interior minister Shabana Mahmood will outline changes to how the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) should be interpreted by UK courts to give the government greater control over who can remain in Britain.

“These reforms will block endless appeals, stop last-minute claims and scale up removals of those with no right to be here,” Prime Minister Keir Starmer, a former human rights lawyer, said in a statement.

In what the center-left Labour government says is the most sweeping asylum policy overhaul of modern times, Mahmood will announce changes that include quadrupling to 20 years the time refugees will have to wait to settle permanently.

The government also threatened visa bans on Angola, Namibia, and the Democratic Republic of Congo unless those countries accepted the return of illegal migrants and criminals.

GOVERNMENT SETS OUT TOUGHER STANCE ON ASYLUM

Immigration has become the most important issue for voters in recent months, with those arriving in small boats from France the most visible sign of illegal arrivals. The issue has helped propel Reform UK, led by veteran anti-EU campaigner Nigel Farage, into a commanding opinion poll lead.

Zia Yusuf, a senior member of Reform, said the public were sick of being told there was no way to prevent people from arriving illegally on beaches, but said existing laws and likely opposition from Starmer’s lawmakers meant Mahmood’s proposed changes were unlikely to ever happen.

Tony Vaughan, a Labour lawmaker and senior lawyer, was one of the first to publicly criticize the proposals, adding the rhetoric would encourage “the same culture of divisiveness that sees racism and abuse growing in our communities.”

In the year to the end of March, 109,343 people claimed asylum in Britain, up 17 percent on the previous 12 months. Still, fewer people claim asylum in Britain than in its EU peers France, Germany, Italy, or Spain.

Most migrants arrive legally. Net migration reached a record high of 906,000 in the year to June 2023, before it fell to 431,000 in 2024, partly reflecting tighter rules.

MAHMOOD WARNS DARK FORCES AT PLAY ON MIGRATION

Mahmood said Britain had always been a tolerant and welcoming country to refugees, and she realized that her proposals might receive backlash from some in her own party, who said that it was wrong to deport people recognized as refugees.

But she said an asylum system prone to abuse was allowing “dark forces” to stir up anger, such as protests outside hotels housing migrants.

“Unless we act, we risk losing popular consent for having an asylum system at all,” Mahmood, whose parents moved to Britain from Pakistan in the late 1960s and 1970s, wrote in the Guardian newspaper.

“A country without secure borders is a less safe country for those who look like me.”

Under her proposals, the government wants to change the interpretation of Article 8 of the ECHR, governing the right to a family life. It would make clear that a family connection means immediate family, such as a parent or child, preventing people from “using dubious connections to stay in the UK.”

It added that Britain would also work with like-minded countries to review the application of Article 3, which prohibits torture. It argued that the “definition of ‘inhuman and degrading treatment’ has expanded beyond what is reasonable,” making it too easy to challenge deportations.

The changes stop short of leaving the ECHR altogether, as Reform and the Conservative Party have advocated. But human rights charities still lamented the moves.

Sile Reynolds, Head of Asylum Advocacy at Freedom from Torture, said the rules would “punish people who’ve already lost everything,” adding this is “not who we are as a country.”

Polls suggest the country is divided on the issue. However, a YouGov survey in August found 45 percent of Britons would support admitting no more new migrants and requiring large numbers who had arrived in recent years to leave.

“I can understand why there’s been protests,” Jenny Fenwick, 56, a personal assistant, told Reuters at London’s Charing Cross train station. “I think asylum seekers come here because they know that they’re going to get given accommodation, money, you know, a good life.”