Antisemitism across Europe continues to escalate: A storm erupted in recent days after a delegation of Jewish educators from the United States and Israel canceled their participation in a professional study program in northern Italy, following demands that they sign an official anti-Israel declaration as a condition of entry. According to a report by Jewish Insider, the delegation included about 100 early childhood educators who planned to travel this month to the northern Italian city of Reggio Emilia to study the world-renowned local pedagogical method, which is widely used in Jewish preschools. However, ahead of the trip, participants were presented with a mandatory declaration requiring them to disavow “the occupation in Gaza and violations of the rights of children and human beings in the occupied territories, as well as anywhere in the world.”
The report indicated that the demand emerged following agitation by a faction of parents associated with the local host institution, who opposed the Jewish educators’ presence on grounds that they support Israel and the IDF. The participants categorically refused to sign the political pledge and subsequently canceled their travel. The host body, Reggio Children, had reportedly formulated an institutional position paper calling for the “demilitarization of schools.”
Pesha Kletenik, principal of the Manhattan Day School in New York and one of the intended participants, addressed the cancellation in a letter to her school community, describing the hostile vetting the educators faced. “Our identities were publicly exposed, and our personal and institutional social media profiles were scrutinized and portrayed as evidence of our support for Israel and the IDF,” she stated.
The Milton Gottesman Jewish Day School in Washington, D.C., also addressed the collapsed trip. A senior staff member at the school called the cancellation a painful community loss, emphasizing that educators and students would miss the planned pedagogical experience. The official remarked that the episode demonstrates “the ripple effects of global antisemitism.”
The incident provoked sharp political blowback within Italy. Senator Ivan Scalfarotto of the center-left Italia Viva party wrote on X: “Asking Jews, as Jews, to disavow the policies of the Israeli government is antisemitism.” Scalfarotto added that the fact that this occurred in Reggio Emilia, a city with deep democratic traditions, is deeply shocking. The controversy unfolds against alarming statistical indicators regarding antisemitism in Italy. According to the Foundation Contemporary Jewish Documentation Center (CDEC), 963 antisemitic incidents were recorded across the country in 2025, accompanied by a sharp uptick in physical assaults.
Reported incidents include the desecration of a Rome synagogue with Nazi graffiti, violent assaults targeting Jews in Milan, and street harassment in Venice. A recent nationwide poll revealed that roughly 15% of Italians consider assaults on Jews “justified.” The CDEC warned that antisemitic rhetoric is normalizing throughout Italian civil society, progressively shrinking the safe public spaces in which Jews can openly express their identity.