Organising Italian Jewry: Advocate Ravenna Old Zionist Worker and Friend of Theodore Herzl Appointed

Advocate Felice Ravenna, the President of the Ferrara Jewish Community and a former Vice-President of the Jewish Consistory (Conzorzio) has been appointed Royal Commissioner for the new Federation of Jewish Communities which became compulsory in Italy under the provisions of the Jewish Communities Law published in the “Official Gazette” in January.

As Royal Commissioner Advocate Ravenna will summon for 1932 the Congress of all the Jewish Communities in Italy which is to elect the various lay and Rabbinical organs which will represent the general interests of Italian Jewry and will engage in general, religious and social activities affecting the interests of Judaism in Italy.

Advocate Ravenna is an old Zionist worker. From the beginning of the Zionist movement until 1923 he was President of the Italian Zionist Federation. He was a friend of Dr. Theodor Herzl, who visited him at Ferrara, mentioning him several times in his diaries as “my good Ravenna”. He was instrumental in helping Dr. Herzl to obtain his interviews with the King of Italy and with the Pope.

At the same time, Advocate Pio Tagliacozzo, who has till now been chairman of the Jewish Orphanage in Rome, has been appointed Government Commissioner for the Jewish Community of Rome. The Government Commissioners in the various towns will under the provisions of the Jewish Communities Law conduct the affairs of the Jewish Communities for the next six months, until the elections to the new administrative bodies take place. The Government Commissioners are appointed by the Minister of Education and Public Worship after consultation with the local Jewish Communities. The Government Commissioners, according to the law, must be members of the Jewish Faith.

The appointment of Advocate Tagliacozzo brings to an end the long period of service as head of the Rome Jewish Community of Advocate Angelo Sereni, who has been President of the Rome Jewish Community for the last 40 years.

The intention of the new law on Jewish Communities, it has been explained, is to unify and modify the legislative provisions affecting the Jews of Italy, since many of the existing provisions date back to prior to the formation of the Italian Kingdom, having been promulgated at various times by the King of Sardinia, the Archduke of Tuscany, the Emperor of Austria, and other rulers over various territories now constituting the Italian Kingdom. The Italian Government has sought to provide that the Jewish Communities, whose standing has hitherto varied from legally recognised and vested collective organisations to mere de facto associations, should henceforth all be legally established under one single category, and grouped together in a Union similar to the syndicates which in the corporate Fascist State have become legal bodies. This is the consequence of the alterations brought about in 1929 in the National Statute, whereby religious communities other than the Roman Catholic were no longer “tolerated”, but became “officially admitted”. The new measure is in the logical line of development of Fascist legislation, the keynote of which is that all the activities of citizens should be harmonised and directed by the all-pervading structure of the State and that all associations with practical aims must be brought under State control.

The new law, Professor Mario Falco, Professor of Canon Law at the University of Milan, who was a member of the Special Commission appointed by the Italian Government to draft the Jewish Communities Law, said in an interview with the J.T.A., accomplishes at last the unification of Italian Jewry, at which attempts have been made continuously since 1865. The Jewish Communities in Italy are now recognised as public bodies, regulated along the lines of Jewish traditional structure. One of the great things achieved by the law is that it has once and for all settled the question that withdrawal from the Jewish Community can be effected only by the conversion to another faith, or by a public declaration that one owes no allegiance to Judaism and does not consider on-self a Jew. It is no longer possible for a man to claim to be a Jew and yet refuse to accept the obligation of helping to maintain the work of the organised Jewish Community. The Federation of Jewish Communities set up under the law is a most important fact, especially since it is empowered to raise funds by compulsory taxation, collected by the revenue officers of the State with all the powers of the State behind them.

Advocate Sereni, the retiring President of the Rome Jewish Community and of the hitherto existing Federation of Jewish Communities in Italy, sent Signor Mussolini a telegram of thanks last October declaring that the Jews will be happy to enter the ranks of State organisations.