Eighty of the 120 Torah scrolls in the Florence synagogue were damaged in the devastating flood which hit Florence and other Italian cities last week, Jewish officials here reported today. Damage to Jewish institutions and property in the floods is provisionally estimated today at $200,000.
The only Jewish casualty was the death in Florence of a Rome Jewish merchant, Luciano Camerino, 40, the father of three children, who accompanied to the stricken city a carload of food and medical supplies raised by the Rome Jewish community. When Camerino saw the devastation in the Florence synagogue and Jewish communal buildings, he collapsed with a heart attack and died a few hours later. Camerino was one of the few Italian Jewish survivors of Auschwitz.
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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.