{"id":10806,"date":"2026-06-03T12:10:20","date_gmt":"2026-06-03T10:10:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/torinoebraica.it\/senza-categoria\/turin-anti-semitism-and-the-bill-why-this-city-why-this-law\/"},"modified":"2026-06-03T12:10:20","modified_gmt":"2026-06-03T10:10:20","slug":"turin-anti-semitism-and-the-bill-why-this-city-why-this-law","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/torinoebraica.it\/en\/articles\/turin-anti-semitism-and-the-bill-why-this-city-why-this-law\/","title":{"rendered":"Turin, anti-Semitism and the bill: why this city, why this law?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Democratic Antibodies<\/em> is no coincidence: it is the first of two public events promoted by the UCEI on the bill to combat anti-Semitism, held in Turin at the Social Center on the evening of May 25th. In recent months, Turin has become one of the most vulnerable places in terms of anti-Semitism.
\nThe second event in the series will be held in Rome<\/a><\/span><\/strong>. On both occasions, the goal is not only to illustrate the content of the bill with its main authors, but to build a network: to bring together existing associations, academics, and civil organizations that share the UCEI’s belief that anti-Semitism has a historical and phenomenological specificity that cannot be reduced to general categories, and that precisely for this reason requires dedicated, clear, and shared tools.
\nTurin was chosen for a symbolic reason: on May 15, 2025, at the Luigi Einaudi Campus of the University of Turin, a group of self-proclaimed pro-PAL protesters stormed the venue for the event “For Universities as Places of Democracy and the Fight against Anti-Semitism,” <\/em>promoted by the signatory associations of the National Manifesto for the Right to Education\u2014including the Union of Young Italian Jews\u2014insulting, threatening, spitting, and physically assaulting speakers and organizers. The conference never began. UGEI President Luca Spizzichino<\/strong> recounted having his hostage pin ripped away and attempts to drop it, describing the incident as “the lowest point in Italian universities,” where “a red line was crossed” and physical violence was allowed to flourish. Spitting and other assaults were also reported. Earlier, students from the Cambiare Rotta and Progetto Palestina collectives had stormed the session of the Academic Senate of the University of Turin. Then, in November 2025, dozens of pro-Pal protesters stormed the Turin editorial office of La Stampa, nearly empty due to the journalists’ strike, graffitiing the walls, dumping manure, and destroying posts.
\nIt is in this context that the bill to combat anti-Semitism, approved by the Senate and now before the Chamber of Deputies, takes on its full weight. Above all, it represents a concrete response to the prevention of anti-Semitic acts, strengthening existing tools and measures with greater coordination. This comprehensive law addresses all sectors where anti-Semitism currently occurs (including schools, universities, the police force, etc.) in a coordinated manner.
\nAs Senator Malpezzi emphasized on the evening of May 25th, “the bill is a systematization of existing laws, with a greater emphasis on prevention and monitoring.” Prevention therefore means involving schools, universities, and various associations.
\nFurthermore, the parliamentarians present, namely the Hon. Piero Fassino<\/strong> (PD), the Hon. Andrea Orsini<\/strong> (FI), the Hon. Alessandro Giglio Vigna<\/strong> (Lega), and Senator Simona Flavia Malpezzi<\/strong> (PD), in addition to representing the two houses of Parliament and therefore illustrating the law as a transition between the two chambers, explained that it is an important bill also for the fruitful institutional dialogue that has emerged. The text has been significantly modified, removing all criminal and sanctioning content precisely to allow for approval with the largest possible majority, as requested by Senator Liliana Segre.
\nThe UCEI has supported this process in the Senate and now in the Chamber of Deputies with a written contribution submitted to the First Constitutional Affairs Committee, which fully reflects the positions expressed by President Noemi Di Segni in the Senate hearing on January 15, 2026. At the heart of the measure\u2014and the debate\u2014is the adoption of the operational definition of antisemitism developed by the IHRA (International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance) for the sole purposes of the provisions of the law itself. This choice is neither symbolic nor arbitrary, as the definition has already been adopted and has been the basis of all anti-Semitic policies in Italy over the past six years. Since 2020, that definition has been the cornerstone of Italian public policies on the matter, adopted by the Conte II Council of Ministers, used in the 2021 Guidelines of the Ministry of Education of the Draghi Government, and the only definition used in the Global Guidelines for Countering Antisemitism signed in July 2024 by Angelosanto, coordinator for the fight against anti-Semitism. The IHRA definition is necessary because anti-Semitism is not a generic form of racism: it has its own phenomenology\u2014conspiracy theories, Holocaust denial, anti-Zionism that translates into hatred of Jews as such\u2014which requires dedicated definitional tools. The text limits the application of the definition to legal provisions only, explicitly safeguarding the freedom of political criticism. The urgency is confirmed by the numbers: in 2025 alone, the CDEC recorded over nine hundred incidents of anti-Semitism, including insults, threats, vandalism, assaults, and online content. This phenomenon does not disappear but resurfaces\u2014as demonstrated recently by events in Rome: the Rome Pride coordination denied Keshet Italia, the only Italian Jewish LGBTQIA+ association, first access to the coordination and then even the right to march with its own float. The UCEI expressed serious concern, emphasizing that this decision made the participation of Jewish associations dependent on prior adherence to specific political positions, contrary to the principles of pluralism and inclusion that are the very foundation of Pride demonstrations.
\nIt is precisely this mechanism\u2014anti-Semitism masquerading as political positioning\u2014that the bill seeks to name, recognize, and combat.
\nUCEI, in statements by its President, Livia Ottolenghi<\/strong>, hopes for a swift conclusion of the parliamentary process by the Chamber of Deputies. <\/p>\n

Sara Levi Sacerdotti<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“Democratic Antibodies” is no coincidence: it is the first of two public events promoted by the UCEI on the bill to combat anti-Semitism, held in Turin at the Social Center on the evening of May 25. In recent months, Turin has become one of the most vulnerable places in terms of anti-Semitism. By Sara Levi Sacerdotti. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":10799,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[103],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10806","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-articles"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/torinoebraica.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10806","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/torinoebraica.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/torinoebraica.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/torinoebraica.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/torinoebraica.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10806"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/torinoebraica.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10806\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/torinoebraica.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10799"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/torinoebraica.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10806"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/torinoebraica.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10806"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/torinoebraica.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10806"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}