Not to excuse Italian Fascism, but my experience in Italy and my knowledge of Italian history certainly make me even more despondent about the current anti-Israel and anti-Jewish sentiment in Italy. Having spent ten years taking college honors students on a month-long study abroad in Urbino, Italy, and falling in love with Urbino, I’ve been especially disturbed by the huge anti-Israel marches in Italy and the blatant misapplication of the term “genocide” to Israel by many Italians. Of course, these anti-Israel protests are happening all over Europe, but because I have a personal relation to Italy, I find the developments there especially upsetting. On the left, United Nations Human Rights Council Rapporteur Francesca Albanese argues endlessly that Israel’s treatment of Gazans meets the criteria of the Genocide Convention definition of genocide. By no stretch of the imagination, does that makes sense. The IDF rules of engagement in Gaza do not involve the intent to destroy all of the Palestinians because they are Palestinians, and the definition of genocide involves the intent to destroy a people as such. If the Israelis were committing genocide, there would be no Palestinians. On the right, Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s pointed rejection of the anti-Semitism of the fascist tradition and her support for Israel is encouraging, but members of Gioventu Nazionale, the youth movement of Meloni’s Brothers of Italy, shouting “Sieg Heil” at a rally and mocking senator Ester Mieli for her Jewish origins is as disturbing as Nick Fuentes thinking Hitler was cool.

But the history of the Jews in Italy is long and complex. In studying the Italian Renaissance in Urbino, my students and I discovered that Federico da Montefeltro, who ruled Urbino in the late 15th century, was—relative to the norm at that time—extremely tolerant toward Jews. We viewed the remains of a Jewish synagogue dating back to the 14th century. Our dear friends Chiara and Davide took us on a tour of the Jewish ghetto in Venice, the oldest ghetto in Europe. The word ghetto originated there, based on the Venetian word for foundry, “geto” (Venetians don’t have a double “t”). That is the area of the city where the foundries were located in ancient times. The Venetian ghetto was created in 1516 by a decree of Doge Leonardo Loredan and the Venetian Senate. Jews were compelled to live in that ghetto, but that ghetto featured five synagogues and communities with different ethnic identities and languages. In spite of its forced segregation, it was a vibrant center of Jewish learning and culture. Today, well preserved, it is a living museum of the history of European Judaism. Italians now see it as part of their own history and an important part of contemporary Italy. On a personal note, I love the fact that Daniel Silva’s main character, Israeli intelligence agent Gabriel Allon, marries the daughter of the head rabbi of Venice and retires there.

When it comes to the Second World War, current Italians tend to emphasize the resistance and downplay the Fascists. The beautiful park overlooking the town of Urbino is Il Parco della Resistenza. Chiara’s mother, not too long before she died, received an award for carrying messages in her shoes to the resistance fighters as a young girl. Contemporary Italians perhaps over-emphasize the reluctance of Italians to help with Hitler’s “final solution.” Certainly, if the Italians handled the deportation of Jews the way they handle everything—after all, the Italian answer to the question “when” is usually “domani”—one would expect less efficiency than from the Germans, whatever the intentions. But many Italians did intentionally protect Jews from deportation

Jews were probably more assimilated in Italy than in any other European country. Indeed, eighty-five percent of Italian Jews survived the Holocaust. The Italian-occupied areas were certainly safer for Jews than those occupied by the Germans. Between 1941 and 1943, it was common for Jews who escaped German-occupied areas to flee to Southern France, Greece, Yugoslavia, and Tunisia, occupied by the Italians. It is a low bar to say Italians were better than the Germans during the Holocaust, but, given the complex history of the Jews in Italy, the anti-Semitism of Francesca Albanese and the left-wing protestors is unforgivable.

So given my complex history with the Jews that I have recounted in this four-part blog, what can I conclude?

Without a personal connection to the Jews, I would still find the Holocaust inversion that transfers the guilt of genocide to the Israelis appalling—and blatantly unfounded. I would still believe that Israel has a right to exist and a right to defend itself. I have addressed the arguments and evidence for those beliefs elsewhere, as have many commentators. But I am probably more passionate about these issues because of that personal relation. Because of it, I felt great sorrow when my wife said she’s glad her mother is not alive to experience the current surge of anti-Semitism. Whether the current surge of anti-Semitism will be overcome, I’m not sure.  What I do know is that non-Jews as well as Jews should be committed to the motto that, according to historian Raul Hilberg, first appeared on handmade signs created by inmates at Buchenwald in 1945 after U.S. forces liberated the camp:  Never Again.

© The Times of Israel (Blogs)