Leonardo Sciascia was an Italian writer, novelist, essayist, playwright, and politician. Some of his works have been made into films, including Porte Aperte, Cadaveri Eccellenti, Todo Modo and Il giorno della civetta. He is one of the greatest literary figures in the European literature of the 20th century.
Judeo-Italian is a groups of endangered and extinct Jewish dialects, with only about 200 speakers in Italy and 250 total speakers today. The dialects are one of the Italian languages and are a subgrouping of the Judeo-Romance Languages. Some words have Italian prefixes and suffixes added to Hebrew words as well as Aramaic roots. All of the dialects except Judeo-Roman are now extinct.
Fiamma Nirenstein is an Italian-Israeli journalist, author and politician. In 2008 she was elected to the Italian Parliament for Silvio Berlusconi's The People of Freedom party and she served as Vice President of the Committee on Foreign Affairs of the Chamber of Deputies for the length of the legislature, ending in March 2013. On 26 May 2013 she immigrated to Israel. In 2015, Nirenstein was nominated by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as the future ambassador to Italy, but subsequently withdrew for what she stated were personal reasons. She is Senior Fellow of Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs (JCPA) and currently works there, at the Israeli-based think-tank of JPCA. She writes for the Italian right-wing daily Il Giornale and contributes articles in English to the Jewish News Syndicate. She is also on the Board of ISGAP and of the WJC.
Asher Salah is an Israeli historian. He is one of the leading specialists in the literature of the Italian Jews, and a translator of Hebrew literature. He has written extensively in cinema studies and contemporary Middle East politics working as a columnist for several Italian newspapers.
Ettore Ovazza was an Italian Jewish banker. He was an early financer of Benito Mussolini, whom he was a personal friend of, and a strong supporter of Italian fascism. He founded the anti-Zionist journal La nostra bandiera. Believing that his position would be restored after the war, Ovazza stayed on after the Germans occupied Italy. Together with his wife and children, shortly after the Fall of Fascism and Mussolini's government during World War II, he was killed near the Swiss border by SS troops in 1943.
Alain Elkann is an Italian novelist and journalist. Elkann is the conductor of cultural programs on Italian television. He is president of the Scientific Committee of the Italy–USA Foundation. A recurring theme in his books is the history of the Jews in Italy, their centrality to Italian history, and the relation between the Jewish faith and other religions. He is a writer for La Règle du Jeu, Nuovi Argomenti, A, and Shalom magazines.
Amos Luzzatto was an Italian-Jewish writer and essayist, born in a family of ancient tradition. His mother's father, Dante Lattes, was one of the most important representatives of Jewish Italian culture in the 20th century. His father's great-great-grandfather, Samuel David Luzzatto (Shadal), was teaching at the Rabbinical College in Padua and was an Italian representative of the "Wissenschaft des Judentums".
Riccardo Calimani is a writer and historian, specialising in Italian and European Judaism and Jewish history.
Gabriele Nissim is an Italian journalist, historian and essayist whose works discuss Eastern Europe.
Carlo Angela was an Italian doctor, who has been recognized as a "Righteous Among the Nations" for his efforts during World War II in saving Jewish lives. He is the father of TV journalist and science writer Piero Angela and grandfather of Alberto Angela.
Cavalier Angelo Donati was an Italian banker and philanthropist, and a diplomat of the San Marino Republic in Paris.
Monsignor Francesco Repetto was an Italian priest and librarian. He is honoured by Jews as a Righteous Among the Nations for his leading role in the clandestine DELASEM organization, which contributed to the saving of thousands of Jews during the Holocaust in Italy during the German occupation.
Lelio Vittorio Valobra was a Jewish Italian lawyer and the chairman of DELASEM, an exponent of the Jewish resistance. In 1935, Valobra was a leading member of the Jewish community of Genoa, and was the keynote speaker at the new synagogue in the city, stating: "The pride of being able to raise a temple ... is nourished in us by the political climate in which we live, ... and exaltation of sacrifice, that returned pride unto Italians themselves and the internal order which is essential to becoming a nation." In October 1938, after the passage of racial laws in Italy and the flight of Jews fleeing after the "annexation" of Austria by the Third Reich, Valobra, on recommendation of the Union of Italian Jewish Communities, of which he was vice-president, was commissioned to organize the relief activities and coordinate the stay of Jewish refugees in Italy.
Raffaele Cantoni (1896–1971) was an anti-fascist Italian Jew who is best known for his efforts, perhaps daring, in saving Italian Jews from the Holocaust.
Stolpersteine is the German name for small, cobblestone-sized memorials placed around Europe by the German artist Gunter Demnig. They commemorate the victims of Nazi Germany who were murdered, deported, exiled or driven to suicide. The first Stolpersteine in Milan, the capital of the Italian region of Lombardia, were established in January 2017.
Carlo Fidanza is an Italian politician who has served as a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) since 2019, previously holding a seat from 2009 to 2014. He is a member of Brothers of Italy (FdI).
The Ferrara Ghetto was established by an edict of Cardinal Cennini dated 23 August 1624, in one of the oldest areas of the city, a short distance from the Cathedral of San Giorgio (Ferrara) and the Castello Estense. It was permanently closed in 1859.
Giacomo Segre was a Jewish Italian military officer during the Risorgimento.
Liliana Picciotto Fargion is an Italian historian who specializes in the history of the Jews in Italy.
