Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Breaking News

Italian Jews Stand Behind First Black Minister

Italy’s Jewish leadership expressed “all the solidarity of Italian Jews” to an Italian government minister who is black and who has been the target of racist slurs and death threats.

The most recent slur against Minister for Integration Cécile Kyenge, who immigrated to Italy from the Democratic Republic of the Congo nearly 30 years ago, came from the vice president of the Italian senate, Roberto Calderoli.

Speaking at a rally of his Northern League party Saturday, Calderoli compared Kyenge, Italy’s first black national official, to an “orangutan.”

In a statement Sunday, Renzo Gattegna, the president of the Union of Italian Jewish Communities, called Calderoli’s remarks “shameful” and “an offense against the institutions and against Italian society as a whole.”

He added, “There are no misunderstandings when phrases like this are concerned, only a sense of profound uneasiness and shame for whoever has made them. All the solidarity of Italian Jews goes to minister Kyenge.”

Since being named to Prime Minister Enrico Letta’s center-left government two months ago, Kyenge has had to contend with an avalanche of hate speech mainly from extreme right political groups. Death threats have been posted on Facebook.

Letta called Calderoni’s words “unacceptable, beyond all limits.” Other politicians also condemned Calderoli and some called for his resignation.

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse..

Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.