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Changing Mood in Italy
A New Found Interest in Judaism
After Mussolini and Hitler
by DR. OTTO MILJEVIC
(J.T.A. Correspondent in Italy)
Italian Jews have, during the
past decade, gone through a meta
morphosis which, while not as
complete as that of the German
Jews, was still drastic. In some
senses the Italian Jews were as
assimilated within the Italian cul
ture as the German Jews within
the Germanic way of life. The vast
majority of the Jewish population
was not interested to any measur
able extent in Jews of other coun
tries, nor for that matter, in any
aspects of Jewish philosophical,
political and cultural thinking that
was not also reflected in Italian
trends. In short, the greatest bond
between the Jews of Italy and the
Jews of the rest of the world was
the religious tie.
The Jews of Italy, up to the mid
dle ’30’s, listened to the concept of
a Jewish state with complete lack
of comprehension of what Zionism
would mean for Jews throughout
the world. Their attitude toward
the Jews of other countries was
that of a stranger.
Complete assimilation within
the Italian way of life was evident;
their way of life automatically
alienated them from Jews in other
lands, and from Jewishness, per se.
Consequently, the Italian Jews
never evinced any interest in the
Hebrew language. They were un
able to sympathize with the suffer
ings of persecuted Jews elsewhere.
Life in Italy was a liberal, tole
rant one for the Jew. Sidney Son-
nino, a Jew, was Prime Minister;
Luigi Luzzatto, a Jew, was Minis
ter of Finance; certain generals and
admirals were Jews. An Italian
Jew had the opoprtunity to become
a Cavalliere, Commendatore, Baron
or Count. Secure in their way of
life, Italian Jewry was, in the past,
only a religious segment of world
Jewry. There was little, or no,
concern for or interest in the con
cept of a Jewish state. There ap
peared to be no need for a separate
Jewish state as far as Italian Jewry
was concerned.
Most of the Jews in Italy were
merchants, manufacturers, engi
neers and high government offi
cials. A great number were work
men or artisans. Few professions
were closed to the Jews. They
were in the Army and Navy, not
only as enlised personnel but as
ranking officers They were heard
in local, state and national politics.
Mimo Sereni had been a Minister
in one of the first Cabinets of the
new Italian Government following
World War I; Ugo della Setta was
a Senator; Terracini, another Sen
ator, had been President of the
Chamber. Many Jews were teach
ers, in secondary schools and uni
versities, such as the renowned
Professor Ascoli of the University
of Palermo (Medicine), and the
equally noted Professor of Philoso
phy Adolfo Rava of the University
of Rome.
Today, the spiritual fibre of the
Italian Jew has undergone a tre
mendous change; the inner face has
become more Semitic rather than
Latin.
Joseph Goebbel’s anti-Semitic
propaganda before and during the
war soon eliminated the sense of
security of the Italian Jew. The
Italians, it was true, condemned
and flatly rejected Goebbel’s meas
ures against the Jews — hiding
them, aiding them to escape, and
providing kosher food on high holi
days for those who were hidden
in the great Roman Basilica in
Vatican territory. The Nazis, the
Jews knew, encountered opposi
tion and difficulties from the na
tives when acting against Italian
Jews. Actually, not only the Italian
civilians, but also the Italian au
thorities sabotaged their own laws.
Before the Nazis came, there
never really existed any great
schism between the Italian non-
Jews and the Jews of Italy, al
though the Jewish population, in
past centuries, lived in ghettoes.
The ghetto concept was not espe
cially significant. In the Roman
ghetto today, indescribable pover
ty, unhygienic conditions, crowded
living quarters and illiteracy, pre
vail. But the ghetto is no different
from any other poor non-Jewish
district in Rome. Only the religion
of the inhabitants differs.
The impact of the Nazis left its
mark in Italy. It emphsized to the
Jews that they were Jew's like all
others. The Gestapo in Italy lent
impetus to the transformation of
the Italian Jew to where he has
become more Jew than Italian.
The Jews saw the misery of Jew
ish refugees — homeless wanderers
from country to country. Now,
they, too, had lost their security.
They have come to understand and
appreciate Zionism. They have
learned that it was not merely a
question of isolation. It was an
ideal that bound Jew to Jew. It
was a concept that made a Jew the
equal, both as an individual and on
the international scale, of any peo-
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