Here is a letter that we received from an Italian friend and
colleague who is a professor of philosophy at Università di Roma
“Sapienza.”

Donatella Ester Di Cesare served last semester as a visiting
professor at Penn State University.

In her letter, she writes, “We ask your solidarity. A word, a
gesture could be important.  We have learned it from history.” I
hope that Ester’s letter on JFR will encourage a reaction by
colleagues and friends.

[Her bi-lingual site: http://www.donadice.com fotografia e resume.]

Dear students, dear colleagues, dear friends,

Many of you, in Italy and abroad, might already know that yesterday
in a neo-Nazi blog, appeared on the Web site “il cannocchiale”, has
been published a list of Jewish professors labelled as “Jewish
lobby” that would monopolize Italian universities. The names in the
list are about 160 (some are not Jews). The Web site has been shut
down yesterday by the Italian Postal Police under initiative of the
Minister of Interior Amado. At the same time, the Minister of
University and Research has self-represented.

The professors stigmatized in the list are accused of being Jews, of
being Zionists, of being philo-Israeli, of living in Italy while
obeying, instead, to a “sovranational community”, namely Israel, and
hence of corrupting young people. The list was surrounded by slogans
inciting to boycott Israel, but also to “boycott the Jewish
community”. The distance is after all short.

I would have never thought to see my name in a list like that, or
rather I would have never imagined to see a suchlike list in my
life, and let alone in Italy. For a while I thought I was reading a
report of the 30’s. But next to mine there were many other names, of
friends and of colleagues I know.

Unfortunately the political and cultural climate in Italy has
already degenerated quite a long time ago. For those who live abroad
this is hardly presumable. All that went with the controversies
around the Turin International Book Fair, around the “boycott of
Israel”, invited to take part in it on the occasion of the
anniversary of the foundation of the state of Israel, is a clear
sign. The new anti-Semitism comes from afar but, precisely, is
rather new. It nourishes itself on the Middle East Conflict, it
sternly profits from the tragedy of two peoples. Who goes along with
the boycott of Israel has to take his responsibilities, has to be
conscious of the effects it produces.

The hate once directed against Jews is now addressed against the
state of Israel, which has become the pariah state, the symbol of
any evil in the world. The Jews, “celebrated” as victims on the
Remembrance Day, become the day after the Israeli “executioners”.
The accusations addressed against the Jewish professors in the
neo-Nazi site are eloquent.

The recent positions of the Catholic Church, which respond in no way
to the ideas and to the feelings of the Catholics, and, above all,
the last declarations of Pope Benedict XVI, his reactionary
initiatives (for instance the one to restore the Good Friday prayer
for the conversion of the Jews) do not help the dialogged at all. On
the contrary, they have contributed, and still contribute, to
creating a climate of a useless and harmful hostility and
contraposition.

It is not even a chance that the ones to be addressed are university
professors - in particular those from Università di Roma “Sapienza.”
The aggression towards intellectuals is the first sign of the savagery.

We ask your solidarity. A word, a gesture could be important. We
have learned it from history. I send you this letter to let you know
so that you can inform friends and colleagues.