Unidentified individuals on Monday defaced a synagogue monument commemorating a two-year-old Jewish child who was murdered by terrorists in the city in 1982.
The perpetrators spray-painted the plaque commemorating Stefano Gaj Taché, who was murdered by Palestinian terrorists in an attack on the Great Synagogue of Rome. The plaque was affixed to the wall of another synagogue, Beth Michael.
The vandals also wrote anti-Israel slogans.
The incident drew sharp condemnations from Italian politicians, Jewish community leaders and Jewish groups abroad.
Victor Fadlun, the president of the Jewish Community of Rome, told the Corriere della Sera newspaper that the incident was “part of a climate of intimidation” against local Jews, adding that “antisemitism has become a tool of political protest, the most abject possible.”
The incident “is an act that outrages the Jewish community and deeply wounds it, because this plaque is dedicated to a child murdered by Palestinian terrorism, and this is a meeting place where young people and children meet,” said Fadlun.
Rome Mayor Roberto Gualtieri called the graffiti “a despicable act that wounds the Jewish community and offends the entire city,” adding that he had ordered an immediate restoration of the plaque.
The European Jewish Congress also condemned the vandalism, adding that “Defacing a memorial honouring a murdered child is an act of profound disrespect.”
Davide Romano, director of the Jewish Brigade Museum in Milan, told JNS that the incident exposed the nexus that connects antisemitism and anti-Zionism.
“It is good to condemn antisemitism, but also anti-Zionism, which leads to antisemitic acts, must be condemned. Anti-Zionism is the leading cause of killing Jews for 80 years. It is time to legally and culturally equate anti-Zionism with racism, antisemitism and homophobia,” he said.
