ROME (JTA) — Posts targeting Italian Jews on a virulently anti-Semitic website have prompted alarm.
The website HolyWar.org late last week ran photographs of nine prominent Italian Jews, calling them “Nazi-Jewish members of the Italian Jewish mafia cupola” and “slaves of Satan” who want to destroy the Roman Catholic church.
The pictures were copied from a list of contributors to the website of the Rome Jewish community.
A statement from the Rome Jewish Community said it had reported the matter to the Italian postal police. HolyWar subsequently removed the page.
“For some time, anti-Judaism, especially that expressed online, has assumed ever more aggressive tones,” the community statement said. “HolyWar is one of the most virulently anti-Jewish websites, full of sections that are all built around one theme: a fierce anti-Semitism that is exuded from every page.”
Among other things, the site includes numerous anti-Semitic cartoons, the text of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion and documents accusing Jews of ritual murder.
The Rome Jewish Community statement said that HolyWar is run by a Norwegian, Alfred Olsen.
Renato Gattegna, president of the Union of Italian Jewish Communities, called the HolyWar posts “disgusting and unacceptable ravings” that had made “dark threats” against contributors to the Rome Jewish community website. He warned that “a dangerous campaign of hatred and criminal incitement” was under way.
