Italy’s small Jewish community, which today numbers only 33,000, is in danger of demographic extinction as a result of a declining birth rate, migration and the effects of Nazi and Fascist persecution 25 years ago.
This conclusion was drawn from a statistical study just completed by two Italian Jewish graduate students, Sergio Della Pergola and Franco Sabatello. They found that there is a natural decrease of 4.7 percent among Italian Jewry, compared to an annual increase of 8.7 percent for the Italian population as a whole. The average age of the Jewish population is 41 years, compared to an average of 34 years for the general population.
During World War II, the Fascist regime and, later, the Nazis deported about 8,300 Italian Jews. About 5,000 Jews abandoned the Jewish community, and a considerable number of Jewish youths emigrated from Italy. The decrease in the Jewish population is especially noticeable in small and medium size communities from which there has been a steady internal migration to larger cities. The largest Jewish centers in Italy today are Rome with 13,000 Jews and Milan with 8,500.
The study by Pergola and Sabatello shows that 36 percent of Italy’s Jews are actively employed. Of these, 60 percent are independent, and 40 percent are employes. Fifty-seven percent of all actively employed Jews are in commerce, 16 percent are professionals, and 14 percent are workers and technicians.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
