Yesterday, 29 January an event was held at the Foundation Museum of the Shoah in Rome to mark the International Holocaust Day.
This event was organized by the Catholic Friends of Israel Association, the Embassy of Israel to the Holy See and the Foundation of the Museum of the Shoah.
Greetings from the Jewish community were delivered by Riccardo Di Segni, Chief Rabbi of Rome, Mario Venezia, President of the Foundation Museum of the Shoah, Ambassador Oren David and Dott. Giovanni Cubeddu President Associazione Cattolici Amici d’Israele. The main speakers were Francesco Rutelli, Presidente ANICA and Don Andrea Palamides head of Cumunita della Riconcilazione.
Among the distinguished guests were: Noemi Di Segni, President of the Union of the Italian Jewish Communities (Ucei), Ruth Dureghello, President of the Roman Jewish Community ,Senior officials from the Vatican Secretariat of State, members of the curia, Ambassadors to the Holy See and rectors of Pontifical Universities.
The Ambassador of Israel to the Holy See, Oren David, highlighted the importance of being reunited in the heart of the Ghetto of Rome, "A place which has been so wounded by the barbarism of Nazism. A place where many Jews lived, and called home, and from which they were torn away and brought to die in concentration camps. This was possible also because, at that time, the State of Israel did not exist to welcome and save the persecuted Jews."
Ambassador David concluded with an invitation: "All of us, each according to his own possibilities, have the responsibility to fight the scourge of anti-Semitism which, unfortunately, continues to claim innocent victims whose only fault is that of being Jews."