Courtesy of JTA. Photo credit: Photo by Marco Bertorello/AFP.
A man rides his bicycle past Duomo of Santa Maria Assunta in Reggio Emilia, on May 15, 2019
(JTA)—The mayor of Reggio Emilia, Italy, apologized after educators from Jewish schools across the U.S. canceled a study trip amid a dispute over whether the hosts would require participants to sign a declaration distancing themselves from Israel’s actions in Gaza and the West Bank.
“I acknowledge it was a mistake to seek an agreement with the two delegations through a declaration concerning Gaza and the occupied territories,” Mayor Marco Massari said in a statement, adding that the proposal was subsequently abandoned. “I want to apologize, especially to those who did not feel welcome in Reggio Emilia.”
The controversy has drawn accusations of antisemitism from Jewish educators and from Italian Jewish community leaders. It has also sparked a political dispute in Italy. In his statement, the mayor rejected accusations of antisemitism as “unfounded.”
In an email sent to participants on Oct. 9, the American organizers, the Paradigm Project, said they canceled the trip because of “antisemitic pressure being placed on the group.” In a Zoom call with the participants, the organizers also cited safety concerns amid the scrutiny of the Jewish school educators’ personal profiles by pro-Palestinian activists who were agitating for the declaration, a participant said.
In a leaked audio recording broadcast Monday evening by Italy’s Tg3 TV news program, the president of the host organization Reggio Children, Maddalena Tedeschi, discussed asking participants to sign declarations distancing themselves from the “occupation of territories and genocide.” The recording is of an Oct. 6 meeting of the city’s early childhood education council.
In an interview with the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, Reggio Children spokesperson Francesca Severini said the request — intended to appease local pro-Palestinian activists — had never become an official participation requirement, but acknowledged that the additional wording had been discussed.
The Paradigm Project, a professional development network for Jewish early childhood educators, organized the trip for 68 Jewish educators. A separate delegation of 22 educators from Israel arrived in Reggio and was participating in the program this week.
“Now, more than ever, we must bring back the light and keep the bridge between us strong,” the Israeli educators said in opening remarks.
Reggio Children, an educational organization partly owned by the municipality, promotes the city’s internationally influential approach to early childhood education and provides training for educators. The city’s education official Marwa Mahmoud did not respond to requests for comment. The mayor issued his apology after this article’s initial publication.
The cancellation, which came in a phone call from Paradigm to Reggio Children on Oct. 7, follows months of tensions in the city, where pro-Palestinian activists had protested the participating schools’ ties to Israel. During the weeks preceding the trip, activist Cosimo Pederzoli had publicly accused some of the schools of supporting the Israeli military.
At the Oct. 6 meeting, Reggio Children presented a charter, titled “For a Democratic and Participatory Education,” asking visiting groups and partners to uphold human rights, oppose discrimination, reject war, and condemn genocide. The charter, which was approved and is now on the organization’s website, also opposes violations of human rights in occupied territories worldwide, without naming Israel or Gaza.
