Memorandum on the position of the Jews of Italy and Tripoli

Memorandum on the position of the Jews of Italy and Tripoli 

Memorandum on the position of the Jews of Italy and Tripoli 

1 electronic resource (7 pages) 

Due to the Axis Berlin-Rome the fascist regime allowed the unhindered defamation of Italian Jewry in the Italian media and public in accordance with the German demands of disenfranchisement and anti-Bolshevik propaganda. Despite the German demands to discriminate Jews and fight Bolshevism, various stakeholders in Italy influence the government's policies, such as the Catholic Church, the Monarchy, and the position of Italy as a Mediterranean power. The connections of the Church with the fascist regime are based on mutual interests such as anti-clericalism, anti-Bolshevism and others. The monarchy is positively motivated towards the Italian Jewry, since many Jews have helped it come to power and the royal family is therefore clearly philo-Semitic. The position of Italy as a Mediterranean power demands it to have a somewhat more pragmatic stance towards the Jews in the Mediterranean area than to its domestic Jewish population as the government finances rabbinical seminars in order to spread Rabbis across the Mediterranean with a positive attitude towards Italy. However, this Italian policy towards Mediterranean Jewry is contrasted by the demeanor of its officials in the North African colony of Tripolitania, which at some point heavily discriminate the Jewish population, in order to gain favor with the Arabs, on another mitigate those policies in order to maintain the support of Tripolitanian Jewry.