NEWS Thousands Join “Run for Mem” in Rome

UCEI and Maccabi Host Commemorative Race with World Jewish Congress and European Jewish Congress support

By Pagine Ebraiche staff
 
Thousands of people took part in the non-competitive race “Run for Mem” in Rome on Sunday.  
 
The initiative was organized by the Union of Italian Jewish Communities, together with Maratona di Roma and Maccabi Italia and with the support of the Presidency of the Council of Ministers.
It also received the crucial support of a number of international Jewish organizations, including the World Jewish Congress and the European Jewish Congress.

The non-competitive race aimed at raising awareness on the importance of Holocaust Remembrance. The route included several streets and squares that witnessed pivotal episodes of the history of the Holocaust in the Italian capital.
 
Attending the race was also Shaul Ladany, a former Israeli athlete who survived Bergen-Belsen as a child and the Munich massacre at the Olympics in 1972 as an adult.
 
“We are here today to preserve the Memory of the Holocaust, to maintain it alive,” Ladany said.
 
Among the participants also the undersecretary for the European affairs Sandro Gozi, who welcomed Ladany on behalf of the Italian government.
 
Introducing the race were the President of the Union of Italian Jewish Communities Noemi Di Segni, the President of the Maratona di Roma Enrico Castrucci, and the President of Maccabi Italia Vittorio Pavoncello, and the deputy mayor of Rome Luca Bergamo.
 
“People run every day, but today we have to carry with us the milestones of our past and remember that the journey ahead of us starts from the one which was created by the events of the past,” said President Di Segni. “Sometimes people fall and are hurt. They have made us fall, they have hurt us, but we have gotten back to our feet and we have started again. We have started to live again, as individuals, as a people, as a community, as Italian citizens, as Europeans.”