seated tradition of anti-Jewish prejudice and stereotypes, they would not express them in public, they were not considered admissible. Now it appears that they are.
• In Milan, M. P. reports that prior to a water aerobics lesson at the Bacone municipal pool, there was a discussion of a shooting that had just occurred in the Milan courthouse.“ At a certain point, one of the women in the class exclaimed,‘ This guy manages to enter the court building with a pistol and nobody stops him while in Stresa there are fifty police officers defending those piece-of-shit Jews!’ She repeated it twice to make sure we got the point. No one said anything. Shocked and appalled, neither did I. The lesson was about to begin and I let it slide. But then as I was leaving the locker room I said to her,‘ Byebye from a piece-of-shit Jew.’ Pandemonium, the usual excuses that she didn’ t have anything against me, she was talking about a specific case(?), that she didn’ t mean to offend me, etc. Except for one woman, who timidly said she agreed with me, all the others either kept quiet or defended the woman by making me out to be a hothead.”( April 9, 2015)
Graffiti and posters
Writings on walls are one of the earliest forms of public communication, and for many years, prior to advent of the Internet, they were perhaps the principal and most widespread vehicle for anti-Semitic expression in Italy.
• A few days after the death of Elio Toaff( April 19, 2015), Chief Rabbi emeritus of Rome, at the age of 99, wall writings were observed in various parts of the city by the neo-Nazi organization Militia:“ Today Toaff tomorrow Pacifici 1”( near the Coliseum);“ Toaff, we’ ll be dancing on your grave!”( Via del Colosseo, at the intersection with Via Cavour);“ The Fuhrer is grateful for the birthday present … bye-bye Toaff!”( Piazza Indipendenza);“ Toaff... one less pig”( Via Gallia);“ The worms await you, Toaff you sleazebag”( Via dei Normanni). At the Olympic village they wrote“ Happy birthday Adolf Hitler! Your present is one less Jew” in reference to the coincidence that the leader of the Nazis was born on April 20, 1889 and that Toaff, who had fought with the Partisans, died on April 19.( April 21, 2015). On Facebook, individuals and groups inclining toward the radical right posted a host of comments, many of them mocking, trivializing and brutally anti-Semitic(“ one less pig”,“ piece of shit”, etc.).( April 22, 2015)
Publishing houses and books with anti-Semitic content Publishing houses that issue anti-Semitic materials are becoming increasingly active and prolific, especially those associated with the radical right. Every year new titles are added to their catalogues, mainly classics in anti-Semitic ideology, works by Nazi theorists, and pre-Vatican II Catholic, anti-Zionist, conspiracy theory and negationist apologetics.
1 Riccardo Pacifici, president of the Jewish Community of Rome.
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