Shimon Peres personally extended an invitation for Pope Francis I to visit Jerusalem, in the first meeting with the new pontiff by an Israeli official. The Israeli president landed in Rome today for the visit, which also included a face to face with Italian Prime Minister Enrico Letta. During his time in Italy, Peres is scheduled to meet with leaders of the local Jewish community and receive an honor in the city of Assisi. “I am departing for a special visit to Rome and the Vatican today,” Peres …More

Jorgen Nilsson, an officer in the Swedish military and a Knight Hospitalier in the Order of St. Lazarus, has arrived in Israel after a six-month journey on foot from his home in Sweden, Israel Hayom reported. Nilsson arrived in Jerusalem on Sunday, where he was given a medal of honor on behalf of the city. He took more than 7 million steps in a walk through Denmark, Germany, France, Italy and Greece on his way to Israel, and timed his journey so that he would arrive for the start of the First International …More

FDR and the Jews. [NYT] Remember Jew in a Box? It's spreading. [Tablet] The president of Poland remembers the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. [Haaretz] Meanwhile, a survivor of the Ghetto remembers life behind the walls, 70 years later. [Washington Post] After a two-year decline, Israeli researchers see a 30 percent rise in worldwide anti-Semitism. [Washington Post] A teacher in Italy told a Jewish student she would have been more attentive had she "been in Auschwitz." [Ynet] A lack of kosher meat forces Polish Jews …More

The last Jews of Egypt. [Daily Beast] Lord Ahmed apologizes for "Jewish conspiracy" comments. [HuffPo] Israel's Jewish population passes 6 million mark. [Ynet] Reaching out to the "hidden Jews" of southern Italy. [Arutz Sheva] Belarus Jewish leader admits to tax evasion. [Times of Israel] A Haredi weekly paper censors female Holocaust victims. [Ynet] Reviving the spirit and schmaltz of the Jewish deli. [NPR] Stanley Kubrick's lost Holocaust film. [Tablet] …More

Father Don Gaetano Tantalo was a deeply spiritual Catholic—so much so, he respected the faiths of all believers, no matter the religion they practiced. In 1940, Father Tantalo became acquainted with two Jewish families vacationing in the Italian village of Magliani dei Marsi, where the priest lived nearby. The families--the Orvietos and Pacificis--met with Father Tantalo again in the summer of 1941 and again in the summer of 1942, becoming good friends. Things changed in September 1943, when Italy …More

Italy awarded Moshe Kantor, the president of the European Jewish Congress, its highest decoration given to a non-Italian. Kantor was honored earlier this week with the Knight’s Grand Cross of the Order of Merit “for his work in promoting tolerance and reconciliation, human rights and interfaith dialogue, and his struggle against anti-Semitism and racism,” the European Jewish Congress said in a statement Wednesday. Kantor was in Rome as part of the World Jewish Congress steering committee, which …More

Naples is getting Italy's third Jewish library. An exhibition called “Judaism and the Shoah in 500 Books from Five Centuries” opened Wednesday in the local Tucci library. When the exhibition is over, the 500 books will remain to form a Judaica section of the library, the Italian Jewish portal Moked reported. The books are in various languages, including English, French and Hungarian, in addition to Italian. The oldest book in the collection dates from 1632, but most of the others deal with the …More

The lead singer of an Italian pop group reportedly will skip a live performance at Italy’s most famous popular song festival because he observes Shabbat. Singer Raiz (Gennaro Della Volpe), of the Neapolitan reggae-dub group Almamegretta, will not sing live on stage during Friday night’s broadcast of the annual San Remo song festival, according to the La Stampa newspaper. Instead, the newspaper reported, the group may perform without him or they will run a pre-recorded video. La Stampa said Raiz …More

Enrico Pescantini and Maria Giovanna Callea received some weird looks when they were vacationing in Israel this past August. The Italian couple may have looked like typical tourists, visiting the sites and shooting photos, but it was the objects in their photos that attracted the curious stares. Accompanying the couple during their travels, were Barbie and Ken, the iconic plastic dolls. During their visits to Jerusalem, the Golan Heights, Tel Aviv, Nazareth and the Dead Sea, Pescantini and Callea shot photos of …More

The Italian Air Force left Israel after finishing a cooperation exercise with the combat squadrons of the Israeli Air Force. This was the Italian Air force's third visit to the Southern Ovda Airbase. "We have a lot of appreciation for the Israeli Air Force, which is famous for its professionalism," said Major Marco, Head of the Italian representatives. "In order for us to work together, we have to understand each other's standards." During the first week of the training, the Italian AMX Tornado pilots practiced …More

The Coliseum has plans to dim its lights in protest of anti-Semitic acts by Hungary’s far-right Jobbik party. The Roman site announced the intention yesterday, with representatives saying the lights would dim on the evening of January 27, International Holocaust Remembrance Day. The Coliseum has a history of dimming its lights in protest of international plights, and the spot is often the scene of peaceful demonstration. Jobbik has taken flak in recent months for a slew of anti-Semitic behavior. In …More

If all goes according to plan, a starkly modern, $30 million Holocaust museum will soon rise on the site of fascist dictator Benito Mussolini’s Rome residence. The site, also the location of ancient Jewish catacombs and now a city park, will be home to a museum first proposed in 2005 but held up repeatedly by financial and bureaucratic problems. “I hope construction begins this summer,” Leone Paserman, the president of the Museum of the Shoah Foundation, told JTA. “Of course in Italy, it …More