ROME (EJP)---Riccardo Pacifici, a 44-year-old fashion businessman, whose election as new president of the 15,000-strong Jewish community of Rome was confirmed Tuesday at a Board meeting, says he is committed to supporting Israel and fighting anti-Semitism.
Pacifici succeeds Leone Passerman who has led the community for the last eight years but didn’t renew his term.
A former vice-president and spokesman for the Jewish community, Pacifici is well aware of the challenges he faces in his new position.
He told EJP: "I see three main activities in the coming months. First, continuing the activity of contacts with the media and politicians. Secondly, supporting Israel as Italian public opinion appears to be more favorable towards Israel. And third, warning the public opinion against the danger of radical Islam."
As general elections are to be held in Italy April 13 -14, Pacifici stressed that the two main candidates – Walter Veltroni, a former Rome Mayor and leader of the centre left new Democratic Party, and media tycoon and former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi for the centre-right People's Freedom Party, who leads in the opinion polls, are praised for their relations with Israel.
Elections have been called after outgoing Prime Minister Romano Prodi’s centre-left coalition government lost a confidence vote in January.
“The problem in the Prodi government for us was Foreign Minister Massimo D’Alema Former who several times stated his position in favour of talks with Hamas and Hezbollah,” Pacifici said, deploring that despite several meetings with the minister, “he didn’t change his opinion,”
All the candidates phoned to congratulate me on my election,” the new president says. “But in my position it is impossible to appeal to vote for one or another candidate.”
He is convinced that “the new Italian leadership will be good for us and for Israel.”
Pacifici, whose grandfather was a rabbi in the city of Genoa and died in Auschwitz, wants also to develop Jewish religious, cultural and sport life in Rome, by opening a new synagogue, Jewish schools, more kosher butchers and sport centres.
He also wants to encourage greater participation in the Jewish community from local residents as well as Israelis living in Rome, and to see more of what he called “invisible” members who only appear at religious celebrations.
“But first of all, I want to help the needy people who have been hardly hit by the economic situation in the country and particularly in the fashion business.”
Jewish street vendors
He mentioned the particular economic situation of Jewish vendors of souvenirs in the markets and the streets – especially around the main places like St Peter’s Square -whose activities have been restricted by the authorities. Of the 9,000 Jewish families living in Rome, at least 400 hundred engage in street selling activities.
"I want to explain the next Rome Mayor of the need to support such activity," Pacifici told EJP.
"The Jews in Rome live in a particular city bordering the Vatican," he said. "For this particular reason, we consider ourselves as a bridge for the dialogue with the Church, with the Pope"
The Jewish community in Rome is known to be the oldest Jewish community in Europe.
Around 30,000 Jews live in Italy, half of them in the capital, 8,000 in Milan while there are also 19 tiny Jewish communities across the country.