NAOMI RAGEN BLOG
May 31, 2014

I [recently] accepted an invitation to be a guest speaker at Torino’s 2014 Salone Internazionale del Libro, the largest book fair in Europe outside of Frankfurt.

The invitation was issued by the founder of the fair himself, Italian bookseller Angelo Pezzana, a well-known human rights activist and perhaps Israel’s most devoted friend in Italy. Naturally, I assumed he must be Jewish, because who else would have the incentive and courage to stand up to the growing ugliness of anti-Semitism in Europe, which only this week took a bloody toll in Belgium’s Jewish Museum.

Italy, while not the most anti-Semitic country in Europe (Greece holds that honor), it has certainly earned its place on the list. Anti-Jewish prejudice and anti-Semitic episodes almost doubled in Italy in 2012. Only this past January a black swastika was found on a memorial plaque in Torino, while in February in Fiuggi, someone spray painted the statements:“Anne Frank is a liar” and “the Holocaust is a fraud,” along with swastikas. Elections held in February, 2013 saw Beppe Grillo’s anti-Israel Five Star Movement party receive 25 percent of the vote, making it the largest party in Italy. Grillo’s Facebook page is full of hate-filled rhetoric, calling Jews “God’s cursed people,” and “Zyklon B for you, peace and justice in Palestine.”

Mr. Pezzana is no stranger to the viciousness of Israel’s detractors. In fact, in 1988, following a week of demonstrations, his Luxembourg Bookshop was firebombed…..

READ MORE