Episode 2: Not Under the Threat of Bombs

In April 2026, ICCT Senior Fellow Kacper Rekawek sat down with Noemi di Segni, who led Italy's Union of Jewish Communities (UCEI) for nine years, to unpack a counterintuitive story: Italian counter-terrorism has been remarkably effective at keeping bombs and mass-casualty plots away from the country's 25,000-strong Jewish community since October 7th, 2023. But that same success has pushed the danger elsewhere.

Di Segni explains how tightened security around synagogues and schools, achieved through close cooperation with police and government, has displaced the threat rather than eliminated it. Italian Jews increasingly face isolation and social ostracism, often viewed not as fellow Europeans but as stand-ins for Israeli government policy. The result is a community newly reliant on those willing to stand with them outside the walls of Jewish institutions - a quieter, harder-to-police threat than any bomb.

A conversation about what protection really means when the danger moves from the perimeter to everyday life.

Photo Credits: Waldemar Brandt on Unsplash