Having trouble viewing this email? Click here

July 23, 2019 - Tamuz 21, 5779
header

news

UCEI strengthens its efforts for the reception and integration of migrants

img header

By Pagine Ebraiche staff

“You shall not give up to his master a slave who has escaped from his master to you. He shall dwell with you, in your midst, in the place that he shall choose within one of your towns, wherever it suits him. You shall not wrong him”. Also: “If your brother becomes poor… you shall support him as though he were a stranger and a sojourner, and he shall live with you”.

These are just some of the passages from Torah in which there are references to helping the other. It is an obligation from which we cannot escape provided that “these actions are not harmful to us”, as the Sages of the Talmud recommend.

It is from this double idea that the Council of the Union of Italian Jewish Communities (UCEI) has approved during its last session a project to back up local communities promoting initiatives for migrants and refugees.

It has been presented by the Office for Social Policies with the support of a special commission and UCEI Vice-president Giorgio Mortara as supervisor. This project has been launched with the awareness of “the obligation that we have towards refugees insofar as it does not attack our vital interests”. Therefore “we cannot reject people who cross our borders in search of integration and a future, but neither can we take responsibility for an unlimited amount of migrants without jeopardizing our already precarious economic system”. However, the presentation has clarified, “the discomfort of incomers is a key point of the Jewish moral conscience, which is favored by our memory of the past.”

“The events of the last weeks and months,” UCEI president Noemi di Segni said, “shift the focus back to issues such as reception of migrants, solidarity and integration. These extremely complex topics require mature and effective solutions and certainly not an eager quest for visibility. In this respect, the Italian society has plenty to learn from the Jewish experience. This is the principle behind our project, which reinforces our engagement in favor of human dignity and recognition of the other.”

She added, “Our commitment to reception and integration has its roots in Torah and the other fundamental texts of Judaism. This is an issue that we hold dear, because of what our texts state and what our experience has been over the centuries. Our first priority is to reiterate our leading and indispensable values, which are increasingly endangered”.

She finally said, “This initiative aims to provide significant support to local communities which have distinguished themselves in this area, boosting the existing devices and broadening the fields of assistance. It is a challenge which has developed under the sign of acceptance, but also of real and genuine integration. We intend to give central importance to the respect of fundamental rights and duties which those being helped are endowed with towards the community.

The idea of financing through the profits from Eight per thousand those communities who have, or at least would like to, put into place reception and support projects comes from the assumption that the acceptance of migrants is a duty for the Jewish Italian Communities, so long as it is viable and does not cause any trouble to them.

Among the initiatives worth mentioning is the commitment of the Jewish Community of Milan, with the collaboration of the associations Oasi del Clochard, City Angels, Betè Avon, Gruppo Giovanile Hashomer Hatzair AME and Benè Berith, and the one from the communities of Turin and Florence, which both propose reception projects with Vice-president Alda Guastalla and the social worker Alice Gamba as supervisors in Turin and President Daniela Misul and Assessor David Palterer in Florence.

Our final objective is to create a network of subsidiarity and help in order to improve the conditions of people in difficulty and contribute to their integration, “also relying on the collaboration with public health structures and other voluntary organizations, with the purpose of boosting help.”

This project has been developed in the name of Tzedakah, a pillar of Jewish identity, and has received support in various forms: healthcare, clothes, education, help for integration, and accommodation for medium and short stays.

(In the picture there are some of the guests in the facility run by the co-operative Il Cenacolo in a venue owned by the Jewish Community of Florence and rented at a controlled price. Coordinator Marina Cascella is with them).

*Translated by Mattia Stefani and revised by Claudia Azzalini, both students at the Advanced School of Modern Languages for Interpreting and Translation of Trieste University and interns at the newspaper office of the Union of the Italian Jewish Communities.

Read more

 
moked è il portale dell'ebraismo italiano
Follow us onFACEBOOK  TWITTER

This newsletter is published under difficult conditions. The editors of this newsletter are Italian journalists whose native language is Italian. They are willing to offer their energy and their skills to give international readers the opportunity of learning more about the Italian Jewish world, its values, its culture and its traditions.
In spite of all our efforts to avoid this, readers may find an occasional language mistake. We count on your understanding and on your help and advice to correct these mistakes and improve our publication.

Pagine Ebraiche International Edition is published by the Union of Italian Jewish Communities (UCEI). UCEI publications encourage an understanding of the Jewish world and the debate within it. The articles and opinions published by Pagine Ebraiche International Edition, unless expressly stated otherwise, cannot be interpreted as the official position of UCEI, but only as the self-expression of the people who sign them, offering their comments to UCEI publications. Readers who are interested in making their own contribution should email us at desk@ucei.it
You received this newsletter because you authorized UCEI to contact you. If you would like to remove your email address from our list, or if you would like to subscribe using a new email address, please send a blank email to  desk@ucei.it stating "unsubscribe" or "subscribe" in the subject field.

© UCEI - All rights reserved - The articles may only be reproduced after obtaining the written permission of the editor-in-chief. Pagine Ebraiche - Reg Rome Court 199/2009 – Editor in Chief: Guido Vitale.
Special thanks to: Francesco Moises Bassano, Susanna Barki, Amanda Benjamin, Monica Bizzio, Angelica Edna Calò Livne, Eliezer Di Martino, Alain Elkann, Dori Fleekop, Daniela Fubini, Benedetta Guetta, Sarah Kaminski, Daniel Leisawitz, Annette Leckart, Gadi Luzzatto Voghera, Yaakov Mascetti, Francesca Matalon, Jonathan Misrachi, Anna Momigliano, Giovanni Montenero, Elèna Mortara, Sabina Muccigrosso, Lisa Palmieri Billig, Jazmine Pignatello, Shirley Piperno, Giandomenico Pozzi, Daniel Reichel, Colby Robbins,  Danielle Rockman, Lindsay Shedlin, Michael Sierra, Rachel Silvera, Adam Smulevich, Simone Somekh, Rossella Tercatin, Ada Treves, Lauren Waldman, Sahar Zivan.

Questo notiziario è realizzato in condizioni di particolare difficoltà. I redattori di questo notiziario sono giornalisti italiani di madrelingua italiana. Mettono a disposizione le loro energie e le loro competenze per raccontare in lingua inglese l'ebraismo italiano, i suoi valori, la sua cultura e i suoi valori. Nonostante il nostro impegno il lettore potrebbe trovare errori e imperfezioni nell'utilizzo del linguaggio che faremo del nostro meglio per evitare. Contiamo sulla vostra comprensione e soprattutto sul vostro aiuto e sul vostro consiglio per correggere gli errori e migliorare.

Pagine Ebraiche International Edition è una pubblicazione edita dall'Unione delle Comunità Ebraiche Italiane. L'UCEI sviluppa mezzi di comunicazione che incoraggiano la conoscenza e il confronto delle realtà ebraiche. Gli articoli e i commenti pubblicati, a meno che non sia espressamente indicato il contrario, non possono essere intesi come una presa di posizione ufficiale, ma solo come la autonoma espressione delle persone che li firmano e che si sono rese gratuitamente disponibili. Gli utenti che fossero interessati a offrire un proprio contributo possono rivolgersi all'indirizzo  desk@ucei.it

Avete ricevuto questo messaggio perché avete trasmesso a Ucei l'autorizzazione a comunicare con voi. Se non desiderate ricevere ulteriori comunicazioni o se volete comunicare un nuovo indirizzo email, scrivete a: desk@ucei.it indicando nell'oggetto del messaggio "cancella" o "modifica".

© UCEI - Tutti i diritti riservati - I testi possono essere riprodotti solo dopo aver ottenuto l'autorizzazione scritta della Direzione. Pagine Ebraiche International Edition - notiziario dell'ebraismo italiano - Reg. Tribunale di Roma 199/2009 - direttore responsabile: Guido Vitale.
Realizzato con il contributo di: Francesco Moises Bassano, Susanna Barki, Amanda Benjamin, Monica Bizzio, Angelica Edna Calò Livne, Eliezer Di Martino, Alain Elkann, Dori Fleekop, Daniela Fubini, Benedetta Guetta, Sarah Kaminski, Daniel Leisawitz, Annette Leckart, Gadi Luzzatto Voghera, Yaakov Mascetti, Francesca Matalon, Jonathan Misrachi, Anna Momigliano, Giovanni Montenero, Elèna Mortara, Sabina Muccigrosso, Lisa Palmieri Billig, Jazmine Pignatello, Shirley Piperno, Giandomenico Pozzi, Daniel Reichel, Colby Robbins,  Danielle Rockman, Lindsay Shedlin, Michael Sierra, Rachel Silvera, Adam Smulevich, Simone Somekh, Rossella Tercatin, Ada Treves, Lauren Waldman, Sahar Zivan