In Reggio Emilia, Italy, a local foundation called Reggio Children invited a delegation of Jewish kindergarten teachers from America to visit the Italian city, famous for the excellence of its early childhood education, to sit in on classes and meet with their Italian counterparts. Plans were made, tickets were bought, itineraries set, and then came a disturbing message from the Italian side: No one in the group would be allowed to participate unless that person denounced the Jewish state for “genocide.” Since Israel has not committed “genocide” either in Gaza or anywhere else, none of the Jewish participants was willing to condemn it, and they called off the whole visit. More on how these American teachers were punished for their “thoughtcrime” of not parroting the “genocide” charge against Israel, as was demanded of them can be found here: Michele San Pietro, an inhabitant of Regio Emilia, responded to Reggio Children’s cruel attempt to force the Jewish teachers to denounce Israel. “Now Jews must state their views on Gaza to be welcome in an Italian town,” by Michele San Pietro, American Thinker, October 24, 2026:
I live in Reggio Emilia, a town of 150,000 inhabitants located in Northern Italy between Parma and Modena, just about 40 miles west of Bologna.
Reggio Emilia is famous for Parmesan cheese. It’s also known as a town with a very efficient early childhood education, to the point that its kindergartens are said to be the best in the world, visited every year by delegations from all over the planet.
At the same time, it’s a town where most people are politically on the left. Ever since the end of World War Two, which gave democracy back to Italian childhood education, the mayor has always been from that political area.
Recently, a local foundation named Reggio Children invited a delegation of American kindergarten teachers of Jewish faith to a meeting whose only subject was to have been early childhood education — nothing else. However, the local far left protested strongly, stating that those teachers should not have set foot in town without signing a declaration condemning the alleged genocide going on in Gaza. Reggio Children sided with them and drew up a document the American teachers would have had to sign to be allowed to take part in the meeting. Of course, they refused, and the meeting did not take place.
This unheard-of event received considerable coverage in the Italian and American media. All the American teachers discriminated against were deeply disappointed, because they were treated so badly by authorities of a country they have always regarded as a friend of the United States.
As a citizen of Reggio Emilia, I’m ashamed of the disgraceful behavior of my town’s authorities. I think the mayor and the city councilor for education should resign; of course, they haven’t, since in this country, nobody hands in his resignation unless compelled to do so, not even politicians convicted at first instance by a court of law.
I hope I will never again see something so shameful in my country. Personally, I’m not under the impression that a genocide is going on in the Gaza Strip. The Israeli army is there to defeat a terrorist organization, not to exterminate the Palestinian people. I would rather call genocide what Hamas did in the south of Israel on October 7, 2023, when they butchered thousands of innocent and defenseless Israelis, including many women and children.
The Israelis have made a tremendous effort to minimize civilian casualties in Gaza, by dropping millions of leaflets, sending millions of text messages, making millions of robocalls, and using the “knock-on-the-roof” technique, all to warn civilians away from sites about to be targeted. Is that “genocide”? Israel facilitated the entry into Gaza of 2 million tons of humanitarian aid — food and medicine. Is that “genocide”? The Israelis ensured that one million children in Gaza were vaccinated against polio. “Genocide”? The Israelis took hundreds of Gazan children who needed special medical attention and delivered them to Jordanian medical personnel. Would you call that “genocide”? Of the 74,000 people who have died in Gaza since October 8, 2023, 25,000 were Hamas terrorists, 24,000 — a calculation based on historical records —have died of natural causes and accidents, and another 3,000 died not from Israel weapons, but from rockets and missiles that Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad launched at Israel. That means 22,000 civilians died as a result of Israeli fire, constituting 1% of the total Gazan population of 2.2 million. Does that 1% amount to “genocide”?
So those Jewish kindergarten teachers won’t be going to Reggio Emilia this year. That means fewer people in the U.S. will hear about the Italian city’s fabled early education. It’s not just the teachers’ loss; it’s the city’s loss. As for those teachers, why don’t they arrange a visit to pre-k schools in Finland, widely believed to be the best in the world?
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