Introduction by UCEI President Noemi Di Segni to the CDEC’s “Annual Report on Antisemitism in Italy 2021”.
The report is of great interest, and photographs a country in chiaroscuro: if in fact Italy almost always appears in the lower part of the “scale” of the most antisemitic countries in Europe, sad primacy firmly in the hands of Eastern Europe and some large nations with complex internal problems, it cannot fail to surprise how a widespread anti-Jewish sentiment is present in Italian society with percentages that are by no means negligible and connotations that clearly recall centuries of relations between church and Jewish communities or the Fascist era, not at all concluded in its influence with the end of the war in Italy.
The annual report on antisemitism in Italy by the Observatory of the Center for Contemporary Jewish Documentation takes stock of a phenomenon that year after year takes on different contours, while at the same time maintaining deep ramifications in society, in ways that range from generic prejudice to aversion more convinced, from the monosyllabic endorsement of others to planned propaganda to propagate anti-Jewish hatred or even violent action.
Although Italy continues to be a country less exposed than others to more radical antisemitic drifts – which, as the report points out, always go hand in hand with the worst xenophobic, homophobic, Islamophobic and more generally racist drifts -, we must take note that a set of prejudices and feelings hostile to the Jewish world are spreading through society, including a pervasive aversion to the State of Israel, whose denigration and delegitimization is an integral part of the phenomenon and has a return in echo of hatred also towards the Jewish communities .
One of the key points of this year’s survey is the disturbing presence of antisemitic stereotypes within the no vax propaganda: antisemitism has always been nourished by conspiracy, and the no vax phenomenon, with its paranoia towards presumed supranational powers that would be experimenting with vaccines on all of us or that would even have created the pandemic ad hoc, is perfectly inserted in the framework of classical antisemitism. The pandemic has also brought out a phenomenon of distortion of the Memory of the Shoah, with the combination of the green pass with the “yellow star” and with despicable parades of people wearing clothes and symbols of the deportees to Nazi camps, appropriating what happened in history to describe one’s alleged evil. A phenomenon, and a dangerous way of thinking that ultimately leads to violence, which we strongly denounced, because the antisemitism that gradually translates into explicit hatred also passes through the trivialization, abuse and distortion of the Memory of the Shoah .
While the episodes of blatant terrorist attacks create a shock, generate identification movements and call all institutions to prompt action, the daily scatter of multiple micro-episodes is assimilated as an inevitable obviousness, thus effectively legitimizing their existence. Instead, the fight against antisemitism must oppose the whole thing – the plan to wipe out Israel and Jewish communities as well as a simple tweet of repeated prejudice.
This is the picture.
How can we act to stem this insidious spread of prejudices, hateful words, threats and real hostile and violent acts?
First of all, we must make the best use of the most important tools we have in our hands: education, culture, the dissemination of a knowledge of the Jewish people, its profound values and its history so intertwined with the history of the country as a whole. to be an absolutely living and integral part of it.
Secondly, it is necessary to continue the work of prevention and contrast together with the institutions, including the rethinking of some rules and the current setting of some crimes. They have done and continue to do a great deal in this sense, with close connection and listening but much still needs to be done in terms of implementation within a national and European framework that recognizes itself in values that are diametrically opposed to antisemitism and for this very reason it presupposes a correct recall of fundamental freedoms which must not be abused to spread hatred.
It is up to us not only to collect and analyze but to understand how we must act starting from the assumption that antisemitism requires an institutional network action – not Jews alone, not for Jews – but for Italy and even more so for life. within a European perimeter that guarantees dignity and values of life. It is a responsibility that presupposes consistency all the way. Even on the part of those who take action it should be made clear that a piece of antisemitism is not chosen to fight and defend. It is a whole and if you do not understand the depth, gravity and changeability of the phenomenon as a whole, it cannot be tackled.
