NEWS UCEI President Di Segni Looks at the Future of Italian Jewish Life

By Pagine Ebraiche staff

The new president of the Union of Italian Jewish Communities Noemi Di Segni was in Venice last week. The trip marked her first official visit to one of 21 Italian Jewish communities. It was an occasion to speak about the present and the future of Italian Jewish life.

In Venice Di Segni attended some the initiatives connected to the 500th anniversary of the establishment of the Ghetto in the city: she attended the special production of “The Merchant of Venice” performed in the square of the Ghetto for the first time. The mock trial of an appeal hearing for the main character Shylock was presided over by US Supreme Court judge Ruth Bader Ginsburg. She visited the exhibition “Venice, the Jews and Europe; 1516-2016” at the Doge’s Palace.

On the agenda was also a meeting with the president of the Jewish Community of Venice, Paolo Gnignati, the Community board, and the chief rabbi, Scialom Bahbout. Attending the meeting were also local UCEI council member Sandra Levis, and president of the Jewish Community of Padua and UCEI council member, Davide Romanin Jacur.

Among the topics discussed were the importance of every single Community for Italian Jewish life and the richness and diversity that all of them bring to the table.

“If today the Italian Jewish community wants to be an active and influential actor in our society, it has to do so through the Union and the willingness to cooperate among the different realities,” Di Segni emphasized.