Italy opens anti-Semitism hotline

Call center is an experimental project meant to ‘deepen knowledge of anti-Jewish prejudice and hostility’

A hotline to report anti-Semitic incidents has been launched in Italy.

Renzo Gattegna, president of the Union of Italian Jewish Communities, announced the creation of the anti-Semitism Antenna in a statement published Tuesday on his umbrella group’s information website.

The hotline is an experimental project by the group and the Milan-based Center for Contemporary Jewish Documentation Foundation, or CDEC, Italy’s main anti-Semitism monitoring institution.

Victims of and witnesses to anti-Semitic acts can report the incidents to CDEC’s anti-Semitism monitor section by calling a Milan phone number – 0233103840 – or filling out a form on the CDEC website.

The announcement said the reports received will be verified, saved and “used to

Callers’ identities will not be divulged to third parties, it said.

Italy, much like the rest of Europe, has reported a surge of anti-Semitic incidents following Operation Protective Edge in Gaza.

In August, a collaboration of left- and right-wing extremists was discovered to have plastered fliers throughout Rome urging the boycott of Jewish-owned stores and businesses.