<,‘
:.-gations or practicing rabbis here.
And, unlike the system of congrega-
tions in the United States, Italy, like
other European countries, has a kehilla
system.
One joins the kehilla, or local com-
munity, not a congregation — and
those not recognized as Jewish by the
Orthodox rabbinate are excluded.
Just the same, most Italian Jews are
4.ot observant and even Orthodox
Jews are traditionally highly accultur-
ated, with a strong Italian identity.
The rate of intermarriage is 50 percent
or more.
The conversion issue, however,
reflected more widespread strains,
based on mounting concern among
rabbis and others that secular Jews had
\-1--Ist sight of what it meant to be
Jewish.
"At root is a widespread and
advanced loss of Jewish identity, in
religious, family and social terms,"
Rabbi Giuseppe Laras, president of
Italy's Rabbinical Assembly, told the
Union's congress. Jewish continuity, he
warned, was under threat.
In recent years, some younger peo-
'3le who returned to Orthodox obser-
vance became militant in criticizing
Jews who were less stringent in their
observance. These new Orthodox were
in turn branded as "fundamentalists"
by secular Jews.
Adding to the complications has
been the Italian Jewish community's
unique status in Europe, both for its
antiquity and for the divergent ele-
rnents within such small numbers.
Jews have lived in Rome for more
than 2,000 years, making theirs the
oldest continuous Jewish community
outside the Holy Land.
"We lived in Rome long before
Lubavitch existed and long before
Polish Jews knew there was a Poland,"
said Franco Pavoncello, a board mem-
ber of Rome's Jewish community.
Today, about 15,000 Jews live in
Rome, and about 10,000 in Milan.
Some Italian Jews have expressed
the fear that the historic character of
their community, with its tradition of
integration, is under siege. In an arti-
cle published in April, the man who
will soon head Italian Jewry made
clear he felt that Italian Jews must
learn to coexist in a flexible unity.
"There should be a dialogue among
everyone," Luzzato wrote in a Jewish
magazine. He appealed for a situation
"where the rabbinate is not divided
into opposing Orthodox and liberal,
but is one sole entity, and is, with this,
quite flexible."
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