Italy’s Liberation Day Falls on Shabbat: UCEI Celebrates in Advance
The Union of Italian Jewish Communities will not participate in the national demonstration in Milan on April 25 celebrations for Italy’s liberation from Nazi-fascism. Instead, the UCEI participated in Bologna’s celebrations on April 21. “April 25 falls on a Saturday this year, which coincides with Shabbat,” explained UCEI Vice President Milo Hasbani to Pagine Ebraiche. “Individuals are free to join the Milan rally if they wish. We will guarantee our support, including security, along with the authorities,” he added. Hasbani led the UCEI delegation in Bologna alongside Vice President Monique Sasson.
Hasbani remarked that participating in Bologna’s celebrations was a choice made autonomously, not in opposition to the demonstration in Milan. “Italy’s Liberation touches us in a very direct way. It is paramount for us to honor it and remember the meaning of April 25. We are sorry to see how a celebration day has been politicized and distorted. These are difficult times, and I cannot deny that, in some contexts, we have perceived clear hostility toward the Jewish presence.”
April 21 celebration in Bologna
“In Bologna, the municipal ceremony on April 21 has always been sober and focused on the values of liberation, with no exceptions or protests,” explained Daniele De Paz, president of the local Jewish Community. “In other Italian cities, however, it has often become a different setting in which other flags prevail and the historical meaning is distorted. For example, Palestinian flags are present, or the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem’s alliance with Hitler is omitted.”
Moreover, the Jewish Brigade has always been part of the celebration in Bologna, at least symbolically. The Brigade, the Jewish volunteer corps of the British Army recruited in Mandatory Palestine (the future State of Israel), played a pivotal role in liberating Italy. Nonetheless, it has often become the target of pro-Palestinian protests at recent rallies. In Bologna, however, “its role in breaking the Gothic Line along the Apennine ridge in the final stages of WWII has always been clear and uncontested,” De Paz concluded.
April 26 in Milan
The situation in Milan is quite different. The Jewish community announced that it will not take part in the April 25 celebrations because they fall on the Shabbat holiday. However, an official message outlines a broader reason. More than 80 years after Liberation Day, the message states, “Italian Jews still need protection to fully participate in public life.” The message continues that it is a clear sign that the constitutional principle of equality “has not yet been achieved.” The environment “has made it increasingly difficult for us to participate serenely in the celebration and has made the Jewish presence feel “alien or delegitimized” on a day that “deeply belongs to us.”
Walker Meghnagi, the president of the Milan Jewish Community, pointed out that “the tension is evident.” “But we will not keep our heads down. We want to be respected for who we are.” During the preparations for the national rally, Meghnagi said, “There have been harsh interventions and sentences that I would call discriminatory. But I want to reiterate that April 25 is our home. We are not guests, but an integral part of the Italian Resistance.”
Thus, on April 26, the Jewish Community will commemorate Italy’s Liberation Day at Milan’s War Cemetery. “We will honor those who lost their lives to liberate the country. This will be our message: We are here in the way we consider right.”
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Photo: Liberation Day celebrations in Bologna on April 21, 2025