For the 36th consecutive year, the Chabad movement has brought the tradition of Hanukkah to the heart of Rome, lighting the menorah in the historical Piazza Barberini. This year, the ceremony held particular significance considering the ongoing situation in the Middle East. The UCEI Presidente Noemi Di Segni participated in the ceremony with the President of the Jewish Community of Rome Viktor Fadlun, the US ambassador to Italy Jack Martell, the Canada ambassador Elissa Goldberg, and the Deputy Mayor Silvia Scozzese. \u201cThe Jewish people are a single body: when one part of it is in pain, the entire organism feels the consequences. We are all involved\u201d said the Chabad leader in Rome Rabbi Yithak Hazan. \u201cWe too, here, can do something: help our brothers with all our souls, pray for them, recite another psalm. Nobody is exonerated.\u201d As Hanukkah teaches us, added the Rabbi, \u201cone can defeat evil also by lighting a light, invoking peace for Israel e for the entire world\u201d. Our first thought, remarked Noemi Di Segni, \u201cis for those who are still in the dark, in the tunnels, for the hostages held by Hamas, praying that they could go back to see the daylight before Hanukkah ends.\u201d \u201cEvil \u2013 said Fadlun \u2013 is absence of goodness, darkness is the absence of light. Our duty is to seek and pursue always only the good. This way, evil will disappear into nothingness, because it comes from nothing.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"