Cultural and Commercial Ties Between Italy and Israel Rising

The municipality of Leghorn today formally invited the mayor of Bat Yam, a suburb of Tel Aviv, to visit Leghorn cementing the formal ties established recently between the two coastal towns by a visit from the Mayor of Leghorn to Bat Yam.

Announcement of the friendly Leghorn-Bat Yam liaison has pointed up the fact that there has been a marked increase in Italo-Israeli cultural and commercial exchanges in the last six months. An Italian parliamentary delegation and three separate groups of Italian agronomists have recently visited Israel. On the other hand, visits here by leading Israelis active in commerce and industry have been arranged by the Italy-Israel Chamber of Commerce in Milan. Finance Minister Trabucchi, of Italy, visited Israel twice in the last six months as a guest of the Israel Government.

At present, two separate Italian archaeological expeditions are conducting excavations in Israel. Prof. Sabatino Moscati, of Rome University, is digging at Ramat Rachel on Jerusalem’s southern outskirts. Prof. Frova is conducting excavations at Caesaria, on the Mediterranean, for the Instituto Lombardo of Milan. Recently an Israeli mission composed of officials of the Ministries of Foreign Affairs and Agriculture, and of the Jewish Agency’s department for colonization, visited Sardinia at the invitation of the European Organization for Cooperation and Economic Development.

“Intal,” Israel’s Yemenite ballet group, scored a great success when it appeared in Milan and Florence. Frank Pelleg and the Ramat Gan Chamber Orchestra were also well received, and there were many other Israeli participants in various performances and festivals in Italy during this period. One of Italy’s finest chamber ensembles, the 12-member “I Music,” will participate in the forthcoming music festival in Israel.