Nethanyahu in the Synagogue of Rome: “Israel and the Diaspora are one people”

In Rome, where the Jewish people have been marked “by great tragedies but also successes, we must remember that we are all brothers and sisters. We must remember it especially in these days of debate and disagreements in Israel: we have a common past and a shared future. For this reason, we must calm the situation and find an agreement. For this reason, all initiatives are welcome, including that of the President of Israel, to reach the broadest possible agreement in order to be able to continue together as brothers and sisters”.
So Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, speaking on Thursday in the Spanish Temple of the Jewish Community of Rome. In his speech, the PM reaffirmed the friendship between Italy and Israel, talked of the necessity to counter Iran’s nuclear race, and highlighted the commitment to broadening relations with Arab countries, specifically with the Saudi Arabia.
After the Prime Minister, the President of the Jewish community of Rome Ruth Dureghello, the President of the Union of the Italian Jewish Communities Noemi Di Segni, and Rabbi of Rome Riccardo Di Segni took the floor.
During the evening, news arrived of a terrorist attack in Tel Aviv. “We send our best wishes for a speedy recovery to the injured” Netanyahu said. “We have strengthened security and will find the terrorist. This night and the ones to come. We will continue to strengthen our roots, build our nation and our common future”.
Ruth Dureghello then recalled the ancient history of the Jewish community of Rome and the bond between the Jewish world and Jerusalem with quoting the psalm “If I forget you, Jerusalem, let my right hand be paralyzed”. “Dear Prime Minister, – she said – I can assure you that the Jewish community of Rome has not only never forgotten Jerusalem but, as no community in the Diaspora has been able to do, it has always been and will always be on the side of the Jewish state, of the its capital Jerusalem one and indivisible”.
Speaking after the PM, Dureghello recalled the ancient history of the Jewish community of Rome and the bond of the Jewish world with Jerusalem, quoting the psalm “If I forget you, Jerusalem, may my right hand forget its skill”. “Dear Prime Minister, – she said – I can assure you that the Jewish community of Rome has not only never forgotten Jerusalem, but, as no community of the Diaspora has been able to do, it has always been and will always be on the side of the Jewish state, of the its capital Jerusalem one and indivisible”.
The wounds of the Shoah as well as of October 9, 1982, when a Palestinian terrorist commando attacked the Great Synagogue killing the child Stefano Gaj Taché, were then evoked. “Our closeness to Israel, to its people, and to its democracy cannot be questioned”, she concluded. “We are necessary to each other. The strength of Israel is in the Jews of the Diaspora, and the strength of the Jews of the Diaspora is in Israel.” With regards to political issues, according to the president of the Roman Jewish community “the choices of the Israeli government concern Israeli citizens, who have the right, as in any democracy, to express dissent and different positions. We Jews of the Diaspora do not have this privilege; we are on the side of the state of Israel”.
It was then the turn of UCEI president Noemi Di Segni to bring the salute of the 21 Italian Jewish communities. “Italian Jews have been following the Israeli reality day by day, minute by minute, for months, years, decades, forever, as they feel part of the great Zionist dream and the building of the Jewish State which we witness passionately. Israel is part of our identity and destiny”, she said.
Dwelling on the situation in Israel and the protests against the reform of justice carried on by Nethanyahu’s government, she shared “the deep feeling of concern regarding the split that is emerging within Israel and that inevitably is also reflected in our Communities, accentuating in our contexts of reference the distorted judgment on the morality of the State of Israel of those who are systematically prone to criticising”. UCEI President added that “The behaviour of those who incite hatred and violence towards their neighbours – hilonim, left-wing, Arabs or Palestinians –, of those who take justice into their own hands, cannot be proudly Jewish. One cannot be proudly Israeli, nor proudly Jewish, if in the name of a Jewish identity, the violence of the individual and the ministerial legitimization of acts of revenge are offered as a response to terror and mourning”.
Finally, she said, “it is is our obligation, as Jewish institutions in the diaspora, to make those who as outsiders do not possess the deep knowledge of Israel and degree of identification understand the focal issues that have been the subject of voting in the last weeks. At the same time, we must not lend ourselves to situations that accentuate accusations and hatred towards Israel as a whole”.
It was Rabbi Di Segni to break to the audience with the news of the terrorist attack in Tel Aviv. “It is a situation that makes us aware of a reality always complicated and dramatic. Our worrying is also a sign of what PM said: we are am echad (one people). A wound in a part of it, hits all of us”. Reflecting on two portions of the Torah, the rabbi then stressed that one “may always settle any laceration, and the solution is within the family, starting from the parents. And a people like ours is a big family”.