Pacifici, Riccardo
PACIFICI, RICCARDO
PACIFICI, RICCARDO (1904–c. 1943), Italian rabbi and scholar. Born in Florence and trained there at the Collegio Rabbinico Italiano, Pacifici served as assistant rabbi in Venice in 1928–31. He was the head of the rabbinical seminary (and later rabbi) in Rhodes, and in 1936 was appointed rabbi of Genoa. His published works (1929–36) include monographs on Venetian Jewish history (including a volume on the inscriptions in the Jewish cemetery in the Lido; 1929), historical accounts of the Jews of Rhodes (1933, 1935) and of the Genoese community (1939, 1948), and a selection of sermons and addresses, Discorsi sulla Torà (1968). At the height of Nazi and Fascist persecution he published a Midrash anthology. After making great efforts to assist the victims of Nazi terror (delasem; Delegazione Assistenza Emigranti Ebrei), he was arrested and deported by the Germans in 1943, his subsequent fate being unknown.
bibliography:
Milano, Bibliotheca, index; A. Segre, in: R. Pacifici, Discorsi sulla Torà (1968), xii–xxxiii; A. Luzzatto, Riccardo Pacifici (1967), incl. bibl.
[Alfredo Mordechai Rabello]