Security Tightened at Rome Synagogue

Authorities tightened security at Rome’s main synagogue after a series of anti-Semitic outbursts alarmed members of Italy’s Jewish community, officials said Friday.

Five members of a neo-fascist youth group, the Fronte della Gioventu, were arrested Wednesday night after they were found scrawling anti-Semitic graffiti in a public square.

Most of it was related to the Israeli crackdown in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip that has left 26 Palestinians dead. “Zionists-assassins, free Palestine,” read one slogan.

Similar writings were found in Milan and Bologna, and the Rome synagogue reported receiving threatening telephone calls and telegrams.

Tullia Zevi, president of the Union of Italian Jewish Communities, said authorities have tightened security at Jewish institutions, including the Rome synagogue and the Israeli Embassy.

Fearing a rise in international terrorism linked to the disturbances in the Israeli-occupied territories, authorities also have increased security at Italian borders, ports and airports, news reports said.

Rome’s chief rabbi, Elio Toaff, compared the climate in Italy to that of mid-1982, after Israel had invaded Lebanon. There had been a sharp rise in anti-Semitic incidents that climaxed with the Oct. 9 attack on the Rome synagogue by Palestinian terrorists. The attack killed a 2-year-old boy and injured 34 worshipers.

“We’re not quite to the atmosphere of 1982,” said Toaff, who has criticized media coverage of the Palestinian unrest as biased against Jews. “But if the newspapers continue this way, we will arrive there soon.”

Italy is home to between 35,000 and 40,000 Jews, most of whom live in Rome.