The New UCEI Council: All the Elected Members
After nine and a half years under the leadership of Noemi Di Segni, the Union of Italian Jewish Communities will have a new president starting mid–January. The responsibility of choosing the new president will fall to the new Council, which was formed following the December 14 elections. The members of three Jewish communities (Rome, Milan, and Livorno) voted their representatives, while the other 18 community Boards appointed a councilor each to represent them in the highest assembly of Italian Jewry.
In Rome, 20 councilors were elected, and 27.98% of eligible voters participated. The first list was Dor Va Dor, led by Monique Sasson, with 48.2% of the votes. Dor Va Dor will have ten members in the UCEI Council: Sasson was elected along with Victor Fadlun, Amos Tesciuba, Huani Mimun, Daniela Debach, Emilia Di Veroli, Angelo Sed, Elio Tesciuba, Gabriel ElZarugh, and Benedetto Alessandro Sermoneta.
The second most voted list was Lev Echad, led by Ruth Dureghello, which will have six councilors in the new UCEI council. Along with Dureghello, Alex Zarfati, Ruben Della Rocca, Daniel Di Porto, Fabio Perugia, and Gianluca Pontecorvo were also elected. Four members were elected from Ha Bait (20.62%), led by Livia Ottolenghi: Davide Jona Falco, Sabrina Coen, and Guido Coen.
In Milan, where turnout was 43%, five councilors were elected from each of the Beyahad and Milano per l’Unione lists. In order of preference, Walker Meghnagi, Michele Boccia, Dalia Gubbay, Sara Modena, Raffaele Besso, Antonella Musatti, Milo Hasbani, Massimiliano Tedeschi, Sara Manuela Sorani, and Sabrina Cohen will represent the second largest Jewish community in Italy. The first five ran with Beyahad and the other with Milano per l’Unione. In Livorno, where members had to choose one councilor, Vittorio Mosseri was elected.
The other 18 councilors are Marco Ascoli Marchetti (Ancona), David Menasci (Bologna), Daria Carmi (Casale Monferrato), Andrea Pesaro (Ferrara), Sara Cividalli (Florence), Angiolo Veroli (Genoa), Aldo Norsa (Mantua), Elisabetta Rossi Borenstein (Merano), Arturo Bemporad (Modena), Sandro Temin (Naples), Davide Romanin Jacur (Padua), Riccardo Moretti (Parma), Andrea Gottfried (Pisa), Sara Levi Sacerdotti (Turin), Joram Bassan (Trieste), Rossella Bottini Treves (Vercelli), Paolo Gnignati (Venice), and Ester Israel (Verona).
They will be joined by three members of the Italian Rabbinical Council. The Board will choose them from a shortlist of five names indicated by the Italian Rabbinical Assembly: Alfonso Arbib, Gad Fernando Piperno, Giuseppe Momigliano, Ariel Di Porto, and Riccardo Di Segni.
Among this body’s powers is the appointment of chief and deputy chief rabbis serving in the communities, as well as oversight of the Italian Rabbinical College and institutions responsible for training rabbis, teachers of Judaism, and religious officials.
One of the new UCEI Council’s first tasks will be electing the Executive Committee, which will work closely with the president through the various departments. According regulations, the meeting will be called by the most senior member of the Council. Andrea Pesaro, 88, from Ferrara, now in his third consecutive term at the UCEI.