36 JEWISH TELEGRAPH Friday August 26, 2011

NEWS |PROFILE|

DOREEN WACHMANNmeets a dedicated womanwho considers her job ‘adream come true’

SHE’S ALWAYS ON A PLANE . . . FOR WORK OR TO SEE BOYFRIEND IN ITALY

Melissa boosts linkswith all of Europe’s

Jewish communities Europe, is one of the EU’s leadingproviders of diversity educationand training.

Its ideals exactly match thosewhich Melissa formulated grow-ing up in Rome.

She says: “I grew up in the hugeJewish community of Rome,which is one of the oldest in theDiaspora. My life from the verybeginning was a great example ofinter-religious co-existence.

“I went to a Jewish school andalso to Catholic schools. In ItalyCatholic education is very goodfor historical reasons.

“So although I came from avery Orthodox, traditional fami-ly, I was able to meet all kinds ofpeople and be open-minded.

“Growing up in a non-Jewishenvironment, schoolgirls wouldask me questions about Judaism,about why we did not celebrateXmas. This made me moreresponsible than the other girls.

“A commitment to the Jewishworld has always been with me. Ifelt an obligation. Jewish issueshave always been a priority in mylife.”

So much so that before andafter graduating in political sci-ence and international relationsin Rome, Melissa dedicated her-self to working for Italian Jewishorganisations.

She began as an editorial assis-tant and journalist for the JewishItalian magazine Shalom and vol-unteered as a press officer for theUnion of Italian Young Jews,organising events to help IranianJewish groups in Italy to fight fortheir rights.

From 2009-10, she co-ordinated aresearch project about youngJewish identity in Italy for theItalian Jewish Cultural Associa-tion. The report, funded by theJoint Distribution Committee, isdue to be published by the end ofSeptember. She also ran a youngleadership training course for theIJCA.

When Melissa saw a CEJIadvert for a community affairsco-ordinator at the end of lastyear, she thought this could bethe way she could realise all herideals.

She said: “The organisation is

committed to fighting all kindsof discrimination. I always feltJudaism means also being open-minded.

“There was a kind of continuitybetween what I did in Italy andwhat I’m doing right now. I lovethe work. This Jewish organisa-tion really embodies the way I’vealways thought about Judaism.”

Melissa’s role as communityaffairs co-ordinator is to increaselinks with all the Jewish commu-nities and organisations inEurope. She also manages twoprojects — CEJI’s Diversity Tourand Facing Facts!.

The Diversity Tour, which ispartly financed by the DutchJewish Humanitarian Fund,brings one-day diversity work-shops into Jewish communities inEastern Europe.

The workshops, which began inPoland in May, “make people

more conscious of their own prej-udices, more aware of other diver-sities and facilitate them to findnew ideas and work proactivelywith other diversities”.

Melissa reckons we all haveprejudices — even someone asopen-minded as herself.

She said: “In Italy I always con-sidered myself very open-mindedand was always engaged in Jew-ish-Muslim dialogue.

“But when I arrived in Belgiumin January I started to deal withthe real issues.”

Compared with Rome, whereMelissa had met few visible Mus-lims, Brussels hosted a hugeimmigration from Arabic coun-tries.

She says: “I met Muslims withbeards and typical clothes goingto mosques, listening to themuezzin. This was really new tome. There are no muezzins in

Rome. I found myself askingmyself why they had weirdbeards.”

Melissa took a diversity work-shop to Manchester Limmudrecently.

Describing Limmud as “anincredibly, exciting event”, sheasked workshop participants toput themselves in other people’sshoes for an hour. Participantswere given life cards with identi-ties like Orthodox, single parentand disabled.

One participant, she said, hadthanked her for raising the issueof disability. The woman, whocame from an Orthodox family,was dyspraxic and dyslexic, whichprevented her from reading andwriting Hebrew. This made herfeel discriminated against by theOrthodox and more comfortablewith the Liberals.

In contrast, Melissa said,Krakow with its small Jewishpopulation of 300, of whom only100 participated in Jewish life,was a great example of co-exis-tence between the Orthodox andthe Liberals.

She said she was very impressedby the new generation of PolishJews who, following the downfallof Communism, discovered theirJewish heritage only 10-20 yearsago.

She added: “They are workinghard to find again their Jewishroots. They are really focused oncreating new sexier Jewish activi-ties. The new generation of Jewsis so energetic and pro-active.”

Melissa said that this commu-nity was “proud to be the only onein Europe without its own securi-ty network”.

And she went on: “That is a signthat they don’t feel the threat ofantisemitism. They don’t knowthe new antisemitism.”

Melissa’s other project, FacingFacts!, which is financed by theEuropean Commission in co-ordi-nation with the British CST, aimsto standardise European criteriafor monitoring hate crimes.

Melissa praised the British CSTand the police’s thoroughness inmonitoring hate crimes, but said:“European governments have dif-fering criteria.

“Jewish communities havegreat experience of antisemitismand other hate crimes. We want toenlarge this knowhow to othercommunities, like the gypsies,and want to involve all 27 Euro-pean countries.

“We are going to submit a ques-tionnaire to all the organisationsthat collect data on hate crimesin Europe, meetings with experts,create standards, guidelines and anew manual for other NGOs.”

She planned to be training rep-resentatives of different commu-nities, like Jews, Muslims, gays,gypsies and the disabled commu-nities who were victims of hatecrime, on a shared monitoringprogramme by the end of 2012.

Naturally, Melissa’s workentails much travel besides herfrequent trips back to Italy.

Just returned from a Summerof Change programme in collabo-ration with Sweden’s Jewish com-munity, she sighed: “My life rightnow is a kind of mess.

“Although I work hard, I havetime for a social life. It is not akind of a jail.

“But my Jewish boy friend fromLivorno works in Turin. We try tosee each other every two weeks. Iam always on a plane, as I alsotravel a lot for work. I have a verytraditional Jewish mum whowould love to see me married.

“That would be great but I don’tknow how and when, if we don’t atleast live in the same city.”

Nevertheless she said: “I amreally enthusiastic about my job.It is a dream come true.”

MELISSA SONNI-NO describes herlife as “a bit of amess” as she fliesfortnightly to

meet up with her ItalianJewish boyfriend whoworks in Turin.

But the Rome-born 27-year-old still wouldn’t give up her“dream job” with the Brussels-based CEJI.

For the ideals of CEJI, A JewishContribution to an Inclusive

Melissa SonninoBORN: Rome, 1984 EDUCATED: LUISS Guido CarliUniversity, Rome POSITIONS: Journalist, JewishItalian magazine Shalom; pressofficer, Union of Italian Young Jews;young leadership trainingcoordinator, Italian Jewish CulturalAssociation Hans Jonas;community affairs co-ordinator,CEJI, A Jewish Contribution to anInclusive EuropeHOME: Brussels

MELISSA: ‘I workhard but still havetime for a social life.I have a verytraditional Jewishmum who would loveto see me married’.

Letters Extra

A READER wan-ted to knowwhat hadhappened tochrane which

had a “kick”. Well, lookno further.

My wife is known as theWayne Rooney of thehorseradish.

In fact, when she offersher particular rendering itis somewhat similar to aforeign power threateningto explode a nuclearweapon.

She can command somuch power with a radishthat we have named it“Chranium”.

When you take the firstmouthful you don’t bite it,it bites you!

The blessing, however, isthat it anaesthetises thethroat and upper part ofthe eating organs so thatyou think after the firstshock, “Well, that’s not sobad”.

But it is in the latterpart of the night thatthings start to happen.

To quote the song madefamous by Frank Sinatra,there are “strangers in the

sight”. So, dear reader, donot ever sample our“Chranium” unless you area natural survivor.

DR M I DINERSTEIN,Whitefield,

Manchester.

CHASSIDIC ROWTHE Jewish communityprotests at The Guardian’sriot-report reference to“some from Tottenham’shassidic Jewish

community” were ineptand tactically andpolitically wrong.

The report stated: “Themake-up of the rioters wasracially mixed. Most weremen or boys, someapparently as young asten.”

So far so good.If, in fact, there were

others “who gathered towatch and jeer at police “and who were identifiableas chassidic Jews, it is theyour community leaders

should criticise. In those circumstances,

The Guardian report wouldbe accurate and by virtueof identification of thechassidim from theirclothing an element of“material significance”, torefer to the response ofLucille Cohen, president ofthe Manchester JewishRepresentative Council.

I hold no brief for TheGuardian and abhor itsattitudes towards – andreporting of – Jewish andIsraeli matters.

Precisely because wemust always aim ourresponses on a correctbasis and accuratelyagainst our targets, I

criticise on this occasionthe community spokesmenand women for breakingout in strident andinaccurate criticism of avalid journalistic basis inthe reporting of thepresence of chassidim inthose riots.

It is the chassidim whoshould be criticised by thecommunity for theirbehaviour on this occasion– tantamount to a chillulHashem as it broughtshame upon our people – whether reportedor not .

MICHAEL BRUNERT,Modi’in,

Israel.

The Rooney of horseradish