NEWS Florence celebrates a new chief rabbi

By Pagine Ebraiche staff

Rabbi Gadi Piperno has taken office as the new chief rabbi of Florence. He has replaced Rabbi Amedeo Spagnoletto, who served in the position for two years.

Many members of the community gathered on Sunday for a day of learning celebrating both rabbis.

“I’ve just arrived here and there are many things that I still need to understand. But one thing I can say for sure: This is a community with many souls and sensibilities and my feeling is that everyone collaborates positively. There is a lot of potential,” Rabbi Piperno said.

Piperno, 46, worked as an engineer before transitioning to the world of Jewish education in 2010, when he started working in the Education and Culture Division of the Union of Italian Jewish Communities.

He was ordained as a ‘chacham,’ a full rabbi, in 2017. He has already served as the community rabbi for Casale Monferrato. He is also a quality manager of the Talmud Project to translate the most fundamental work of the rabbinic literature into Italian.