In April, when a group of pro-Palestinian activists pressured Florence’s city hall to have the local honorary Israeli consul resign, they also took aim at a politician, Sara Funaro, who was running for mayor.
“We’re sorry that we haven’t heard one word of condemnation of the Israeli government’s behavior from Marco Carrai,” the honorary consul, the activists said. “Just as striking is the silence of Councilor Funaro, who has actually wished this person well in his work.”
Funaro didn’t respond — and doesn’t appear to have publicly addressed the statement at all. Two months later, she won the mayoral election, becoming the first woman and first Jew to lead the city known as the birthplace of the Italian Renaissance.
The April petition incident reflects how Funaro, 48, has navigated being a Jewish politician in Italy.
She has expressed support for Israel, talked about what led her to embrace Judaism as an adult and, after Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel, received police protection due to antisemitic attacks.
But she also has not placed Judaism or Israel at the center of her career, instead trying to respond to hate against her with a poker face and framing her public persona around her family’s deep roots in the Tuscan city.
“When you put yourself out there in the context of an electoral campaign as mayor, you know that someone will try to exploit certain things against you,” Funaro told Corriere della Sera, a leading Italian newspaper, after facing antisemitic invective last year on social media. “It happened also in the past. I have always responded with great peace of mind.”
Funaro, who declined the Jewish Telegraphic Agency’s request for an interview, comes from a family that has taken leading roles in Florence’s politics as well as its Jewish community.
The Jewish community was mentioned in writing as far back as the 14th century, according to its website. Today the city has around 1,000 Jews among a total population of more than 350,000, and a grand synagogue famous for its late 19th-century Moorish Revival architecture. Funaro’s father, an architect by profession, serves as president of the Opera del Tempio Ebraico di Firenze, a not-for-profit organisation established to maintain the synagogue.
Funaro’s mother, a Catholic, is the daughter of Piero Bargellini, a centrist who served as the mayor of Florence in the 1960s. His term is best known for the catastrophic 1966 flood of the Arno River, which killed dozens and devastated the city and many of its artworks. He later served as an Italian senator.
Funaro was born and raised in Florence, where she studied psychology at the local Università di Firenze. When she was 20, she started working with children with disabilities, and shortly afterward, she became an educator in a care home for psychiatric patients.
Funaro says she and her brother were raised without any formal religion. But two decades ago, during a stint working with underprivileged children in Brazil, she decided to formally convert to Judaism. Italy’s official Jewish communities, like traditional Jewish movements globally, adhere to the standard that only those born to a Jewish mother are Jewish, but Funaro told the Corriere della Sera, “In reality I didn’t have a conversion: I embraced Judaism.”
“Both my dad and mom had a very strong religiosity, but they understood it was a very important individual choice,” she recalled in an interview with the paper. “Growing up, I began studying Torah and Talmud. I held long conversations with the rabbi. At 26, during my experience in Brazil among needy children, I made my decision.”
Funaro has remained involved in the city’s Jewish community, attending synagogue on holidays, said Ugo Caffaz, a friend of her father. “She studied for many years to get converted; she really wanted it,” he said.
She first ran for City Council under the leadership of the center-left mayoral candidate, and future Italian prime minister, Matteo Renzi. She lost, but won a seat five years later with the center-left Democratic Party, and was reelected in 2019.
