The Jewish Chronicle reports on a complex situation that has been brewing for several months in Mantova (Mantua), in northern Italy, where contested interests have raised issues over the derelict site of a centuries-old Jewish cemetery.
A group of Israeli and North American Orthodox rabbis say they have found archival evidence — in Budapest — that eminent 16th and 17th century kabbalists were buried in the cemetery, which was established in the mid-15th century and closed in 1786. The site was sold by the Jewish community to authorities in the 1850s, when Mantova was under Austrian rule, and it was later transferred to the ownership of Italian state. The city of Mantova currently owns the site.
As the Jewish Chronicle article, by Julie Carbonara, states:
the rabbis re-claimed ownership of the cemetery and asked to be allowed to “map the burials, clean up and restore the cemetery and build a museum of remembrance”.
The problem is that the site, known as San Nicolò, is currently state property, having been sold by the community in 1852. During the war it was taken over by the Nazis, who built on it and turned it into a concentration camp. There is also a Napoleonic armoury, which is a listed building.
To complicate matters even more, the area has been earmarked by the municipality as one of the sites to be redeveloped in the 18 million euro “Mantova Hub” regeneration project for the town’s eastern suburbs.
The project, as envisaged by star architect Stefano Boeri, is still sketchy but involves refurbishing the five Nazi-built structures to create public centres dedicated to the environment, sustainability, social innovation and local goods. The armoury will be converted into a “house of remembrance” to remind visitors of the area’s history and its former use as a cemetery and concentration camp.
A press release from the London-based Committee for the Preservation of Jewish Cemeteries states that the sale of the cemetery to Austrian authorities in the 1850s was made under duress.
And the sales contracts includes 5 key conditions, which ensured that the sanctity of the cemetery be protected. In addition there are plenty of matzevot (burial stones) … and [currently] a plaque on the outside of the cemetery clarifies (in Hebrew and in Italian) who is buried in the cemetery.
Rabbis representing the CRC (Central Rabbinical Congress of the USA and Canada), a Haredi group association with Satmar Hasidism, and Asra Kadisha, a Haredi group that preserves Jewish cemeteries, went to Mantova in December to meet with local officials, including Mayor Mattia Palazzi. Palazzi rejected the rabbis’ proposal and said the development of the site would go forward, but that the site would not suffer damage.
In December, the city used heavy machinery to clear the site of brush, sparking fears among the rabbis that graves could have been disturbed and prompting calls from Italian Jewish leaders to clarify the situation.
In recent weeks, the CRC’s executive director wrote to Italian Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni, decrying the “profanation” of the cemetery and calling for the development plan to be cancelled.
Palazzi also met in recent months with Italian Jewish officials, including the president of the Union of Italian Jewish Communities (UCEI), Noemi Disegni, and the head of the tiny Mantova Jewish community, Emanuele Colorni (who has stated his opposition to the intervention of the outside rabbis).
According to the newspaper Il Fatto Quotidiano, Disegni said that a plan had been agreed that would safeguard the integrity of the cemetery but allow the overall development to proceed. Italian Jewish community representatives would be in involved.
The newspaper quoted Disegni as saying that foreign Jewish communities had to recognize that “the institutional entity of reference in cases like this is the UCEI.”
In Italy, there are laws and institutional procedures to follow and it is we, as the UCEI, who must deal with the city of Mantova to ensure that the area of the San Nicolo cemetery is adequately protected and enhanced within a development project that must not be halted.”
Italian rabbis, meanwhile, issued a statement this month stressing that Halachic rules had to be observed and that the Italian Rabbinical Association would be the final arbiter of what is done.
The area of the ancient Jewish cemetery in Mantova must be treated like any other Jewish cemetery, according to the rules of Halacha which, in the first place, prohibit any building on top of the graves (let’s remember that the sale of the cemetery by the Jewish community of Mantova does not change its status). The Italian Rabbinical Assembly reiterates that it is not lawful to invalidate this principle and that any proposed solution to the problem must still have the prior approval of the Rabbinical Council, pursuant to its statute.
Andrea Murari, the councilor in charge of town planning, told the Jewish Chronicle that the city was “working with UCEI to conduct an in-depth survey to establish with certainty what lies below the ground.”
We will be working with them and their experts on the final planning phase which will start very soon. We are not building anything new, we are just redeveloping an area that had fallen into heavy decay. Our project will involve the restoration of the pre-existing structures (the five buildings and the listed Napoleonic armoury) and will be as unobtrusive as possible. The idea is to leave the area of the old cemetery as undisturbed as possible while continuing with our project. We are willing to collaborate with anybody.
Read the full article in the Jewish Chronicle
Read a March 20, 2017 article (in Italian) about the case in the newspaper Il Fatto Quotidiano
Read an article from December (in Italian) in Gazzetta di Mantova