In Italy, an Honest and Serious Man

There was the Italian journalist Indro Montanelli, who went from skeptic to admirer after his visit to Israel in 1960, and once wrote that perhaps the best thing to happen in the 20th century was the establishment of the State of Israel. There was the intrepid leftist journalist Oriana Fallaci, who went from antipathy to fierce support for Israel and, not surprisingly, delivered her furious denunciation of those she called the “sons of Allah” after the 9/11 attack in her book The Rage and the Pride. Fallaci wrote that “I find it shameful that in Italy there should be a procession of individuals dressed as suicide bombers who spew vile abuse at Israel, hold up photographs of Israeli leaders on whose foreheads they have drawn the swastika, incite people to hate the Jews.…”

And to this line of Italian admirers of Israel we can add the name of the novelist Erri De Luca, Napoletano, while both Montanelli and Fallaci were Tuscans. Erri De Luca’s first name does not exist in Italian. It was an attempt by his parents to give him the name “Harry” after Harry Truman, who was president when De Luca was born. He just now has delivered via Zoom his talk at the International Writers Festival in Jerusalem. More on his talk can be found here: “Italian author Erri De Luca: ‘I am prepared to lose everything’ for backing Israel,” by Hannah Brown, Jerusalem Post, May 29, 2026:

‘I am prepared to lose everything for my convictions,” said acclaimed Italian author Erri De Luca at an event at the International Writers Festival in Mishkenot Sha’ananim in Jerusalem, speaking about his support for Israel and his connection to the Hebrew language.

Sadly, due to the uncertain situation with Iran, De Luca was not able to attend in person but spoke with Prof. Uri S. Cohen via video chat, which was projected on a screen.

It was clear that De Luca, known for his deep engagement with biblical Hebrew and Jewish texts and for having visited Israel in the past, would have preferred to be in Jerusalem on Monday rather than speaking via video.

The festival program described De Luca as a writer who is “not only a formative novelist and poet, but also a social activist, a speaker of Yiddish and ancient Hebrew, who translated the Bible in a way unlike anyone else.”

Although he is not Jewish, he has translated a number of biblical books into Italian, including Jonah, Ruth, and Ecclesiastes, as well as Yiddish literature….

Erri De Luca offers a stark contrast to that other Italian whose name comes up so often when Israel is being discussed. I am thinking of Francesca Albanese, the U.N.’s Special Rapporteur for Conditions in the Palestinian Territories, the one who is consumed with anti-Israel hatred and now with antisemitism. Albanese is una serpe, while Erri De Luca by contrast is what was said in Latin of Cato the Roman, “vir probus et gravis” — an “honest and serious man.”