(NEWS) Introducing Non-Jewish Europeans To Jewish Life

"In Italy, where there are only about 25,000 affiliated Jews in a population of 60 million, most Italians have never knowingly met a Jew.

'It's unfortunate,' said the Italian Jewish activist Sira Fatucci, 'but in Italy Jews and the Jewish experience are often mostly known through the Holocaust.'

Fatucci is the national coordinator in Italy for the annual European Day of Jewish Culture, an annual transborder celebration of Jewish traditions and creativity that takes place in more than 20 countries on the continent on the first Sunday of September -- this year, Sept. 5."