Rosh Hashanah 2009 - South African Jewish Board of Deputies

JEWISH AFFAIRS ROSH HASHANAH 2009absurdum”. This addressed the ‘absurdity’ ofallowing the then present state of affairs with regardto the Jews to continue and led to the confinement ofJews to the ghetto. Jews were allowed only onesynagogue, ownership of real estate was outlawed,Jewish men were forced to wear a yellow hat andJewish physicians were no longer permitted to treatChristian patients. 37 The ghetto spread across Italyand ushered in a dark period for Italian Jews, lastingfor around 300 years.Paul IV had been an unpopular pope, and as helay dying in 1559 the mob dislodged a statue of himon Capitoline Hill, crowned its head with one of theyellow hats he had forced the Jews to wear and usedit as a football in the streets.Each ghetto had its own character. Some wereovercrowded and unhealthy, as was Rome’s. Otherswere more spacious and comfortable, as wasVenice’s. Cecil Roth wrote about conditions in theRome ghetto:Nowhere in the entire country – nowhere perhapsin all Europe – did the Jews live under worseconditions. The Ghetto was situated in the fetid,low-lying quarter on the left bank of the Tiber,frequently inundated by the overflowing of theriver and heavily visited at time of plague… 38It was necessary for the Jewish community togreet each new pope. This ceremony took place nearthe Arch of Titus. The Jewish community broughtwith them the Torah, which the pope returned tothem. In the 17 th Century, Pope Urban VIII added anew and hardly credible humiliation to the ceremonywhen he decreed that the Jews might no longer kissthe foot of the pope, but only the spot where it hadstood. 39In 1796, Napoleon Bonaparte commenced hisvictorious Italian campaign and was hailed by theJews as their saviour. After liberating the ghettos,Napoleon proclaimed equality for the Jews and PopePius left Rome as a captive never to return. Napoleon’sdefeat at Waterloo in 1815 was a disaster fordemocratic Italians and Jews; the popes were restoredand the Jews were driven back into the ghetto. 40The Risorgimento, or Reawakening, is thenational liberation movement to which modern Italyowes its being. Under the political leadership ofMazzini and the military leadership of Garibaldi, itsaim was to free Italy from papal and foreigndomination. This process commenced in 1848 andwas completed by 1870, with Rome becoming thecapital of a united Italy. The rabbis supported thecause and preached recruitment sermons from thepulpit; Jews took part in this movement and paid aprice out of all proportion to their numbers. 41Italian Jewry now became one of the bestintegrated Jewish communities in Europe. Roth wrotethat twenty two years had sufficed to bring theemancipation of Jews in Italy to fruition. In 1848,there was no European country (except Spain, fromwhere they were entirely excluded) where therestrictions placed upon them were more galling andmore humiliating, whereas after 1870, there was noland where conditions were better. 42Benito Mussolini oscillated all his life betweenphilo- and antisemitism. 43 When the Fascistmovement was formed in 1919 it initially showed notrace of antisemitism. Jews were in fact among theoriginal founders and were active in every branch ofit. Mussolini came to power in 1922 and in 1929observed that “The Jewish problem does not exist inItaly”. In 1930, he publicly denounced antisemitismas “Unworthy of a European nation…stupid andbarbarous”. 44 In 1933, he called for the establishmentof a Jewish State in Palestine and in 1934 describedhimself as a “Zionist” in a talk with NahumGoldmann. 45 It was only in 1938, with the formationof an alliance with Nazi Germany, that severediscriminatory laws modelled on the NurembergLaws were enacted in Italy. After the introduction ofthese laws, among those dismissed from theirpositions were no fewer than fifty high ranking navalofficials; in the army, the process of elimination wasno less drastic. Colonel Segre paraded his regimentand blew out his brains in their presence, whileGeneral Ascoli did the same, but in private.On 25 July 1943, Mussolini was dismissed fromoffice and on 8 September Italy surrendered to theAllies. However, the Germans reacted, and the greaterpart of the country, from Rome northwards fell undertheir control. Unfortunately for the Jews, over thepast four and a half centuries Jewish life in Italy hadshifted from the south to the north of the country;south of Rome, only a few hundred Jews lived.Prior to this Mussolini, despite enormous pressurefrom Germany, refused to have anything to do withthe Final Solution. 46 It was only now that Himmlerwas able to draw Italy into it. On 24 September 1943,he sent instructions to his SS boss in Rome, HerbertKappler, that all Jews were to be rounded up and sentto Germany. But the German ambassador in Rome,whose Italian mistress was hiding a family of Jews inher home with his approval, gave no help and themilitary commander said he needed the Jews to buildfortifications. Kappler used his order to blackmailthe Jewish community and demanded fifty kilogramsof gold within 36 hours otherwise 200 Jews woulddie. When the two leaders of the Jewish communityasked to be allowed to pay in Lira, Kappler sneered,“I can print as much of that as I want”. The gold wasdelivered within four days. 47Immediately prior to World War II 35 000 Jewswere living in Italy and roughly 80% survived thewar 48 (which, in occupied Europe, is the highestpercentage after Denmark). 49 Nevertheless, ItalianJewry suffered a crushing blow. In the words of CecilRoth, “…Not only had the habit of Jewish life beeninterrupted, but in many places its setting haddisappeared – the lovely old synagogues ruined, theartistic and literary treasures despoiled, the historicarchives dispersed. Such a blow could not fail toleave a lasting impression”. 50Roth further notes that many Jews owed theirlives to Christian neighbours and the active supportof the Christian Church. A great, or perhaps greater40