Jewish educators told to denounce Israel before attending Italy conference — report
Jewish Insider says group of some 100 preschool teachers from US and Israel canceled trip after being asked to sign statement condemning Israel's 'occupation of Gaza'
A group of some 100 Jewish early childhood educators from the US and Israel decided to cancel their planned study trip to Italy after they were told to sign a statement condemning Israel and its actions in Gaza and the West Bank, Jewish Insider has reported.
According to the report, the group of teachers was set this month to visit Reggio Emilia, a city in the northern Emilia-Romagna region, where they were planning to study the Reggio Emilia Approach for early education, a method that the outlet described as being “long embraced” by Jewish preschools.
But before the trip, the teachers were told that they had to sign a statement saying: “I distance myself from the occupation of Gaza and the violation of children’s and human beings’ rights in the occupied territories as well as in every place [sic] in the world.”
According to the report, the statement was the result of a protest by some parents associated with the local organization that was set to host the Jewish educators, who objected to their participation over alleged support for Israel and the Israel Defense Forces.
Choosing not to sign the statements, the participants decided to cancel the trip, Jewish Insider said.
The outlet also said Reggio Children, the host organization, had been drafting a statement calling for “militarization out of schools,” before the participants decided not to come.
“Our identities were made public, and our personal and institutional social media profiles were reviewed and characterized as demonstrating our support for Israel and the IDF,” Manhattan Day School head Pesha Kletenik, one of the intended attendees, said in a statement to her community.
Melissa Davis, of Washington DC’s Milton Gottesman Jewish Day School, said that the canceled trip was “a loss for our community in the near term — our teachers, and in turn, their students will not be enriched by this experience,” and attributed the situation to “the ripple effects of global antisemitism.”
Italian senator Ivan Scalfarotto, a member of the center-left Italia Viva party, commented on the report on X: “Asking Jews, as Jews, to distance themselves from the policies of the Israeli government is antisemitism.”
“That this happens in Reggio Emilia, a city with a deep democratic tradition, leaves one appalled,” he added.
The report comes as antisemitic incidents continue to rise in Italy. According to the Center of Contemporary Jewish Documentation (CDEC), 963 incidents were recorded nationwide in 2025, including a sharp increase in physical assaults. Incidents have included synagogue vandalism in Rome with Nazi slogans, physical assaults on Jewish individuals in Milan, and verbal harassment in Venice.
A survey found last year that around 15% of Italians view attacks on Jews as “justifiable.”
The CDEC warns that antisemitic discourse is becoming increasingly normalized in Italian society, shrinking the social spaces in which being Jewish is regarded as acceptable under constitutional protections.