Claudia de Benedetti, Vice President of UCEI and the members of her team, Gloria Arhib, General Secretary and Emmanuele Ascarelli, in charge of information and external relations, were warmly welcomed and shared the latest news concerning this centuries old Jewish community. “We are lucky. If statistics are anything to go by, the Italian legal system is proving itself to be one of the most effective, among other European systems, in discouraging racism and anti-Semitism. Italy is one of the countries where anti-Semitic manifestations are the fewest and least serious,” explained Claudia de Benedetti.
“We have to concentrate on preserving Jewish history in Italy, and bring to the fore the contribution made by Jews in shaping Italian and European culture and civilisation.”
These Italian leaders offered us a very dynamic model, even though the Jewish community is being hit by the drop of the birth rate that is affecting Italy as a whole. UCEI claims 22 000 Jews in Italy, organised around 21 communities, for a total population of 60 million inhabitants.
Pursuing their goal of injecting new life, Italy’s Jews have not chosen to turn in on themselves. The small communities are able to meet much larger communities of American, Israeli and even Serb Jews, in the context of educational programmes for youth.
Relations between Israel and Italy are excellent, according to Claudia de Benedetti, who emphasised the major role played by her organisation in developing and consolidating cooperation between the two countries. While Israel has never been able to take part in the Mediterranean Games, the UCEI Vice-President said that she was working hard to obtain Israel’s participation next year.
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