Meir Ouziel, who wrote a column in Maariv for 30 years before being ousted because of his right-wing views by editor Amnon Dankner, met with Renzo Gattegna (pictured), the newly-elected president of the Italian Union of Jewish Communities (UCEI). Excerpts from the interview:
Gattegna: "There is an Italian law, passed eight years ago, that says that 8/10 of 1% of one's taxes can be transferred, at the discretion of the taxpayer, to the official bodies of various religions. Most of this, of course, goes to the Catholic Church, and some to the Protestants, and then come us, the Jews... The Moslems, for instance, have not yet signed this agreement, and therefore they cannot receive this money, and no one can ask to transfer his taxes to them."
Ouziel: "I have heard that not only Jews request to transfer these tax percentages to the Jewish communities."
Gattegna: "Correct. The number of signatures we receive [for transfer of tax money] is more than the number of Jews living in Italy. We get tax money from places in which not even one Jew lives. For instance, in southern Italy there are many families that give this money to the Jewish Communities, and we can't understand exactly why they are doing this..."
Once every four years, the Ucei holds a convention to discuss the situation of Jewish communities throughout Italy. Rattegna was elected at the most recent one, this past July. "Some 90 representatives came to Rome for the convention," he said. "One of our great problems is the small number of Jews in the communities, and especially the small number of young people. The young have problems when they want to organize cultural activities and get together. There is little opportunity for them to get to meet each other. Therefore, one of the decisions we made was to establish a special office to deal with Jewish youth and to help them get to meet each other, despite the long distances between the various Jewish centers."
"The Jewish population is dropping," he said. "Twenty years ago we were 45,000 Jews, and now we are 30,000. Some say there are more, but we go by the number of officially registered Jews - which not everyone is."
Four Large Communities
"There are some 20 Jewish communities in the country, some of them very small. Half the Jews, about 15,000, are in Rome, in Milan there are 8,000, and Turin and Florence have 1,000 each. The southernmost Jewish community, a small one, is in Naples. Jewish communities used to exist further south, but they disappeared. In Trani, there is a small group that wishes to reestablish the city's Jewish community, which disappeared centuries ago. This is the first time such an idea has arisen. There are some Jews living there and nearby, as well as some Israelis who work there, and they want to open the ancient synagogue and the communal offices, and we're trying to help them."
Gattegna says that many "non-Jews, and those with a very distant connection to Judaism, are showing great interest in Judaism. They ask about our culture and about Jewish life. But we are cautious. We are involved in public affairs, but never on a political level. We must avoid a situation in which it is said that all the Jews are Socialists, or all the Jews are Liberals."
The new president explained how decisions are made in the UCEI: "There is a council comprised of 15 members, and three rabbis in addition. There is also a smaller body of five members and a rabbi that is sort of like the government. All the decisions are made by these two bodies, and not just by the president alone."
Moslem Provocation
Gattegna, whose family settled in Rome over 500 years ago after the expulsion from Spain, explained the Ucei's reaction to recent newspaper ads paid for by Moslem groups comparing Israel to the Nazis: "There was wide public outrage, because they compared Israel's actions in Gaza to the Nazis' massacre of more than 300 Romans (including 73 Jews) at Fosse Ardeatine - an event that is very widely remembered and mourned. We also adopted a strong stand against it..."
"Under Italian law," Gattegna said, "there is a ministerial committee for War Against Anti-Semitism, including nine different government offices. They consulted with us as to how to react, and we said that we are not officially requesting the expulsion of the responsible group from the Moslem Council, but we did ask for an investigation as to which group really controls the country's Moslems... We also asked all the Moslem groups in the Council for a guarantee to respect Italian law and all the traditional Italian cultures."
The groups have thus far not agreed, however, "and UCEI remains alone," Gattegna said. The Moslem community in Italy numbers over a million people - less than 2% of the country, but growing.
Gattegna: "There is an Italian law, passed eight years ago, that says that 8/10 of 1% of one's taxes can be transferred, at the discretion of the taxpayer, to the official bodies of various religions. Most of this, of course, goes to the Catholic Church, and some to the Protestants, and then come us, the Jews... The Moslems, for instance, have not yet signed this agreement, and therefore they cannot receive this money, and no one can ask to transfer his taxes to them."
Ouziel: "I have heard that not only Jews request to transfer these tax percentages to the Jewish communities."
Gattegna: "Correct. The number of signatures we receive [for transfer of tax money] is more than the number of Jews living in Italy. We get tax money from places in which not even one Jew lives. For instance, in southern Italy there are many families that give this money to the Jewish Communities, and we can't understand exactly why they are doing this..."
Once every four years, the Ucei holds a convention to discuss the situation of Jewish communities throughout Italy. Rattegna was elected at the most recent one, this past July. "Some 90 representatives came to Rome for the convention," he said. "One of our great problems is the small number of Jews in the communities, and especially the small number of young people. The young have problems when they want to organize cultural activities and get together. There is little opportunity for them to get to meet each other. Therefore, one of the decisions we made was to establish a special office to deal with Jewish youth and to help them get to meet each other, despite the long distances between the various Jewish centers."
"The Jewish population is dropping," he said. "Twenty years ago we were 45,000 Jews, and now we are 30,000. Some say there are more, but we go by the number of officially registered Jews - which not everyone is."
Four Large Communities
"There are some 20 Jewish communities in the country, some of them very small. Half the Jews, about 15,000, are in Rome, in Milan there are 8,000, and Turin and Florence have 1,000 each. The southernmost Jewish community, a small one, is in Naples. Jewish communities used to exist further south, but they disappeared. In Trani, there is a small group that wishes to reestablish the city's Jewish community, which disappeared centuries ago. This is the first time such an idea has arisen. There are some Jews living there and nearby, as well as some Israelis who work there, and they want to open the ancient synagogue and the communal offices, and we're trying to help them."
Gattegna says that many "non-Jews, and those with a very distant connection to Judaism, are showing great interest in Judaism. They ask about our culture and about Jewish life. But we are cautious. We are involved in public affairs, but never on a political level. We must avoid a situation in which it is said that all the Jews are Socialists, or all the Jews are Liberals."
The new president explained how decisions are made in the UCEI: "There is a council comprised of 15 members, and three rabbis in addition. There is also a smaller body of five members and a rabbi that is sort of like the government. All the decisions are made by these two bodies, and not just by the president alone."
Moslem Provocation
Gattegna, whose family settled in Rome over 500 years ago after the expulsion from Spain, explained the Ucei's reaction to recent newspaper ads paid for by Moslem groups comparing Israel to the Nazis: "There was wide public outrage, because they compared Israel's actions in Gaza to the Nazis' massacre of more than 300 Romans (including 73 Jews) at Fosse Ardeatine - an event that is very widely remembered and mourned. We also adopted a strong stand against it..."
"Under Italian law," Gattegna said, "there is a ministerial committee for War Against Anti-Semitism, including nine different government offices. They consulted with us as to how to react, and we said that we are not officially requesting the expulsion of the responsible group from the Moslem Council, but we did ask for an investigation as to which group really controls the country's Moslems... We also asked all the Moslem groups in the Council for a guarantee to respect Italian law and all the traditional Italian cultures."
The groups have thus far not agreed, however, "and UCEI remains alone," Gattegna said. The Moslem community in Italy numbers over a million people - less than 2% of the country, but growing.