Italian rabbis have expressed concern about the significant increase in assimilation among Jews in the country.
They discussed ways of reducing the implications of the phenomenon last week during the first conference of Italian rabbis in Milan hosted by the Rabbinical Center of Europe (RCE), an umbrella organization of European rabbis dedicated to meeting the religious and spiritual needs of Jewish communities in Europe.
The rabbis, who came from the cities of Milan, Rome, Turin and Genoa told Rabbi Jeremiah Cohen, who chairs the Paris rabbinical court and is one of the leaders of the Council of European Rabbis that assimilation in Italy "requires massive advocacy activities and educational projects to strengthen Jewish identity among Jews," the RCE said.
Rabbi Aryeh Goldberg, the RCE’s vice president, promised to assist Italian rabbis with an operative program in the combat against assimilation. The rabbis also discussed the issue of conversions conducted in Italy and debated about the need to clarify the nature of those wishing to convert and to convert only according to Halacha, the Jewish law.
In his address to the conference, Rabbi Abraham Yossef, son of Israel’s Chief Rabbi Ovadia Yosef and chief rabbi of the city of Holon, asked the Italian rabbis "to become stricter in the conversion process."