Ninety-two years have passed since ISDA was founded, 45 National Biennial Conventions have been held, and we’re proud to say that Italian Sons and Daughters of America is stronger and more influential than ever.
The latest ISDA National Convention — held in August 2021 in Cleveland, Ohio at the Downtown Hilton — featured a robust slate of events for ISDA delegates and members, from Rock ‘n’ Roll tours, boat cruises and Little Italy excursions, to high-rise meetings, black-tie traditions and live music acts.
Flip through the photo slideshow, here:
The Convention Highlights:
- National President Basil M. Russo was unanimously reelected to lead ISDA, which will allow him to continue the mission of uniting Italian Americans across our country.
- Joe Rosalina was elected National Vice President; Ronald DiMichele, Danielle M. Salasavage and Joe Cirillo have joined the Board of Directors; and Elise Carson is now the District National VP of West Virginia.
- Under the leadership of Basil, Jim Laick and Joann Blackwell, ISDA Financial Life member assets have grown from $60 million in 2015 to $277 million at the end of 2021 — a 362 percent increase!
- More than 1,000 new members have joined ISDA over the last three years.
- The keynote speaker, U.S. Congressman Tom Suozzi, from New York City, pledged he would work closely with the ISDA community on pressing cultural initiatives, including defending Columbus Day and working to pump federal resources into Italian American history initiatives.
- Click here for our updated list of order/fraternal national officers, vice presidents and directors.
A Timeline: From the Old School to the New Age
2015: Basil and his daughter, Angela Russo-Otstot, launch the Italian Sons and Daughters of America website, a world-class digital hub that brings ISDA to the forefront of 21st-century communication.
2017: John Deike joins the ISDA community to expand the organization’s audience through content and multi-media initiatives that preserve and promote Italian American history, values, traditions and heritage.
2018: ISDA’s digital following takes off as hundreds of thousands of Italian Americans across the U.S. embrace our homespun stories, historical perspectives, authentic recipes and Columbus Day activism.
2019: Basil, ISDA District National VPs John Viola and Pat O’Boyle, and John Deike start developing a documentary-style YouTube and Facebook series, Greetings From Italian America, that would explore the Italian side of America, one city/neighborhood at a time.
2021: From 2017 to the present, 5.2 million people have visited the ISDA website, more than 1.2 million people have viewed Greetings From Italian America and more than 720,000 people have followed our social media platforms. Peruse some of the digital highlights below.
Greetings From Italian America
Episodes are posted to the ISDA Facebook page and The Italian American Podcast YouTube page. Coming Soon: we’ll be releasing episodes from San Diego, San Pedro, LA and San Francisco!
Watch all the episodes here.
The Feast and History of San Gennaro
Little Italy’s San Gennaro Feast, one of the world’s largest celebrations, has endured for decades thanks to generations of Italian Americans. The 11-day “Feast of All Feasts” brings together time-honored traditions, cherished recipes and centuries of history. Join us as we explore it all.
Columbus Day: Then and Now
The holiday’s namesake navigator launched 500 years of immigration to America, attracting peoples from throughout the world seeking a better life for their families — this is the spirit we champion and are fighting to preserve.
Christmas in the Bronx
Arthur Avenue in the Bronx leads you straight into the warm glow of the Italian American Christmas experience. The Feast of the Seven Fishes, Natale antipasto, never-ending desserts, old school gifts and your fellow paesani can all be found in NYC’s real Little Italy.
The Old School New Haven
Authentic St. Joseph’s Day zeppole, to-die-for buffalo mozzarella, 150-year-old pizza ovens and the country’s highest percentage of Italian Americans can all be found in New Haven, Conn. Here, we turn back history’s pages and tap into our cherished heritage and culture.
Click here to see our complete catalog of episodes.
La Nostra Voce (“Our Voice”)
Every month, La Nostra Voce Executive Editor Patricia E. Russo, Managing Editor John Deike and Designer Debbi Paterno work with a carefully curated roster of contributors and authors to fill the highly popular newspaper with relevant and resonant articles and photographs. Want to contribute? Send an email to JDeditor@orderisda.org. Not a subscriber? Click here.
The Italian American Podcast
Apart from his role in the ISDA, John Viola is the host of The Italian American Podcast, Co-hosts include ISDA National District VP Pat O’Boyle and Rossella Rago (a celebrity chef from Brooklyn who created her own line of best-selling cookbooks, called Cooking with Nonna.)
Click here to follow and listen to John, Pat and Rossella’s weekly online radio show:
The New ISDA Financial Life Website
Meanwhile, Basil, Joann Blackwell, Jim Laick and John Deike have been busy launching a brand new ISDA Financial Life website, that features a brand video we shot in the streets and neighborhoods of Pittsburgh. Explore it all, here:
The Italian American Museum of Cleveland
On Columbus Day 2020, Italian Sons and Daughters of America provided the seed money to launch The Italian American Museum of Cleveland (#IAMCLE). Basil, John Deike, IAMCLE Director Pamela Dorazio Dean and designer Gary Pilla collaborated on the branding, signage and website.
The Work That is Reshaping the Italian American Narrative
A special shoutout to our brilliant collection of authors and contributors who have built ISDA into the most-visited digital destination for Italian Americans (click the images below to open the articles).
Basil Russo:
Tony Traficante:
Marianna Gatto:
Francesca Montillo:
John Deike:
