«On the evening of the 18th, welcomed by the choir singing the Baruch Abba accompanied by the Administrators and the Deputation of the cult, Dr. Prof. Alfredo Toaff, the new Major Rabbi of our community, entered the Holy Temple».
Thus the newspaper “Israel” opens its correspondence on the installation ceremony (18 April 1924) of the second major rabbi of the Community of Livorno.
Second as the successor of the first, one of his Masters, Rabbi Samuele Colombo, who passed away in September 1923. For the Jews of Livorno, “Sor Colombo”, who in 1900 had assumed the position in the Labronica community governed until then by an elective rabbinical committee made up of three people.
In the writings of Rav Alfredo Toaff the poignant description of the meeting with his Master, in Florence for treatment, had months earlier when he went to him, now close to his earthly end, for the wishes of Rosh Hashanà, receiving a sort of investiture moral and religious which the administrators of the Community will then transform into an official act of appointment.
Almost all the Italian rabbis were present at the ceremony (many from Livorno at that time or trained in the local Rabbinical College) and representatives of the communities: an impressive list of names, significant for an entire historical period.
Toaff spoke the following day, comments the anonymous writer of the note, before the reading of the Sefer. «Not for your valor, not for your virtue, but for my inspiration, says the Lord. These words with which more than two thousand years ago Zechariah, the Prophet of the Return, confirmed the authority of Zerubbabel, temporal leader of the Jews returning from the Babylonian exile, have come to my mind insistently in recent days and have led me to hope” the debut of the new major rabbi, to affirm that if he had to rely on his own strength “the illusion would only have lasted a very short hour”. Furthermore, it would have been sufficient if I had looked a little behind me, and the long line of illustrious Masters who illustrated this glorious chair for three centuries would have appeared before me; the gigantic stature of those greats compared to my smallness would have dismayed me, even annihilated me.”
Following is the list of some of these many world-famous Masters, certainly not being able to miss a mention of Elia Benamozegh as well as, naturally, a thought is addressed to his Master and predecessor: «A worthy continuer of the work of many greats was Samuele Columbus. He, who left us so much mourned, was a vigilant and tenacious guardian of the tradition of the Livorno rabbinate; his knowledge, his faith, his goodness have imprinted his name in our hearts and even before time, an inexorable but just judge, has fulfilled its role, our mindful conscience is grateful for what he did for the Community and for Judaism, he has already decreed its rightful place alongside those greats.”
The rav then continues, with a great declaration of humility, invoking the widest collaboration and also asking for at least “a little affection”, appealing for a greater return to the Torah “proud of ourselves and of our past”.
A long rabbinate, that of Rav Alfredo Toaff, ended with his earthly death in November 1963, leaving the baton to his deputy and student, Rav Bruno Ghereshon Polacco. A unique and dramatic historical journey, with the passage of the war and the Holocaust, the Livorno community was also affected by the losses and the symbolism of the splendid ancient synagogue which, to the great regret of Rav Toaff and many others, will not be able to be rebuilt, reaching the inauguration of the modern Temple, in September 1962, when although already tried he will preside over the ceremony assisted by his son Rav Elio and his collaborator Rav Polacco, not without failing to significantly want Professor Colombo, son of his predecessor, at his side, together with rabbi and professor Menasci and to the authorities of the Community, starting from the president Israel Renzo Cabib. The mass of writings left behind are precious and immense and trace, in parallel to his rabbinical activity, a profound history of the Jewish settlement of Livorno and its Masters.
A precise biographical profile on the figure of Alfredo Sabato Toaff is owed among those of Treccani to his nephew, the professor and rabbi Ariel Toaff and, for its competence and completeness, it is useful to refer to it.
Gadi Polish
Tags: LIVORNO years settlement Rav Alfredo Toaff
