– The international soccer governing body FIFA slapped a more than $30,000 fine on Italy’s national soccer team for the anti-Semitic behavior of some of its fans at a match in Haifa. FIFA fined the Italian team 30,000 Swiss Francs, or about $31,000, for the “improper and discriminatory” behavior of team Italy fans who gave the fascist…
ROME – Italy’s Jewish community pledged aid to the areas of central Italy hit by a deadly earthquake early Wednesday morning. Noemi Di Segni, the president of the Union of Italian Jewish Communities, or UCEI, issued a statement saying Italy’s Jews expressed full solidarity with the victims of the quake and were also ready to mobilize “in…
Italian police issued arrest warrants on Thursday for six people suspected of conspiring to join Islamic State, and court documents said three of them had been discussing possible attacks on the Vatican and the Israeli embassy in Rome. Four of the suspects – a couple living near Lake Como, a 23-year-old-man and a woman, all…
Steven Spielberg’s upcoming film with Mark Rylance, “The Kidnapping of Edgardo Mortara,” will shine a light on an obscure battle between the Papacy and an Italian Jewish family that led to outrage and controversy in Europe and the United States in the mid-19th century. Based on true events, the story focuses on a six-year-old Jewish…
The widow of a Jewish artist and doctor has denied reports that she is a mysterious Italian author who writes under the pen name Elena Ferrante. Italian novelist and professor, Marco Santagata suggested that ‘Ferrante’ could be Marcella Marmo in a lengthy article published over the weekend in the literary supplement of the daily Corriere…
A Torah scroll from the synagogue in the northern Italian town of Biella has been identified as probably the oldest in the world still owned and used by a Jewish community. Dario Disegni, the president of the Foundation for the Preservation of Jewish Heritage in Italy, told a meeting of the Foundation board in Rome…
The Italian government has released thousands of previous classified documents related to fascist and Nazi war crimes committed in Italy during World War II. The documents were declassified from a parliamentary commission that had investigated the concealment of files related to these crimes. Specifically, the commission had dealt with what was dubbed the “cabinet of…
In 1986, Pope John Paul II made history by paying a visit to Rome’s Great Synagogue. In 2010, Pope Benedict XVI visited that synagogue again. In 2016, Pope Francis visited for the third time. As our ancient rabbis were fond of saying — and as Rome’s current chief rabbi Riccardo Di Segni pointed out during…
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