Fiamma Nirenstein

Nirenstein was born in Florence and later lived in Rome.[1] Her family background was defined by the intersection of Jewish identity, anti-fascist resistance, and the Holocaust. Her mother, Wanda Lattes, was a partisan courier during the Nazi-fascist persecution in Italy: expelled from school and university under racial laws, Lattes adopted forged documents identifying her as Elena Lattanzi and carried partisan pistols in her bicycle basket while evading the Nazi-fascist manhunt.[2] Her father, Alberto Nirenstein, was a Holocaust historian whose family in Poland had been deported to Sobibor; he came to Italy with the Jewish Brigade and remained in Florence after World War II, where he met and married Wanda.[2][3] Both parents were journalists, and Nirenstein described Israel and Zionism as constants in her childhood home, saying: "Israel was always in our home, as was Zionism, so what I am doing today is a very natural continuation of what I saw and received from them."[3]

Despite this Zionist upbringing, Nirenstein went through a period of political leftism shared by much of her generation. As she later recalled: "I, too, was a communist — the same as the rest of my generation. However, I sobered up by the end of the 1970s."[4] A turning point came in 1967, when her parents sent her to Kibbutz Neot Mordechai, near the Golan Heights, a few months before the Six-Day War. She experienced the war at the kibbutz, later recounting that "we remained at the kibbutz, had missiles fired at us at night, and saw the MiGs in the sky above us" — and that she escorted children to shelters during the fighting.[4][5] The reaction she encountered upon returning to Italy sharpened her awareness of her Jewish identity and deepened her connection to Israel.[4]

Nirenstein holds a bachelor's degree in modern history from the University of Florence.[6]

Nirenstein's journalism emphasized reporting from Israel rather than covering it from afar. She served as an Israel correspondent for La Stampa and Panorama from 1991 to 2006.[7] She also wrote as a correspondent and columnist for the Italian daily Il Giornale and the weekly Panorama.[8] Her Il Giornale column, titled "Fuoco e Fiamma" ("fire and flame"), became a signature platform for her writing on the Middle East and antisemitism.[4] She also taught Middle Eastern history at LUISS University in Rome and at the Institute for Advanced Studies in Lucca.[8]

Her reporting took her into some of the most dangerous episodes of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. She covered both the First and Second Intifadas and, during the battle of Jenin, came close to stepping on a Palestinian mine.[5] She was present when Yasser Arafat arrived by helicopter in Bethlehem, Jericho, and Ramallah, and traveled to Gaza University to speak directly with Hamas members.[4] She also interviewed Hamas leaders Sheikh Ahmed Yassin and Abdel Aziz Rantisi.[5]

Profiles differ in how they count her output: JNS lists fifteen books, while a 2024 Jerusalem Center notice says she has authored more than twenty.[6][9] Her books include Jewish Lives Matter and October 7, Antisemitism and the War on the West.[5][9] An earlier author biography lists Israel Is Us (2009).[10] Her work has focused on antisemitism, the Middle East conflict, Islam, terrorism, and human rights.[6] She edited the Jerusalem Center volume Lessons from Israel's Response to Terrorism[11] and a collection concerning Israeli-European relations associated with a March 2018 discussion at the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs.[12] Over the course of her career, she has received more than twenty journalism awards.[6]

Nirenstein was elected to the Italian Parliament in 2008 as a member of Silvio Berlusconi's center-right People of Freedom party.[13] She served in the Chamber of Deputies until the legislature ended in March 2013, holding the position of Vice President of the Committee on Foreign Affairs.[13][14]

Her parliamentary work was closely oriented toward Israel and the fight against antisemitism. She established and chaired what has been described as the first Parliamentary Committee for an Inquiry into Antisemitism, and also established an Institutional Cooperation Committee between the Knesset and the Chamber of Deputies.[11][10] A 2011 report on the commission's findings said approximately 44 percent of Italy's population held prejudice or hostile attitudes toward Jews, a result Nirenstein described as shocking given the scale of antisemitism in Italy and Europe.[15]

Beyond these institutional initiatives, Nirenstein encouraged Italian lawmakers to attend pro-Israel rallies, proposed that Iran and Hamas be placed on Italy's list of terrorist organizations, brought Jewish refugees from Libya to parliament to highlight the plight of Jews expelled from Arab countries, and urged Italy not to participate in the Durban conference on racism.[1][3] She also helped found the steering committee of the Interparliamentary Coalition on Combating Anti-Semitism and served on the boards of European Friends of Israel and the Friends of Israel Initiative.[16]

Following the defeat of Berlusconi's party in the 2013 Italian elections, her parliamentary term ended and she returned to daily journalism, publishing a column in Il Giornale.[3] On May 26, 2013, she made aliyah, moving from Rome to Jerusalem.[13] She described the move as an expression of lifelong Zionist conviction: "One cannot just talk about Zionism; it's time for deeds too."[1] Her sister and her sister's children already lived in Israel, and her husband was Israeli.[1]

After settling in Jerusalem, Nirenstein continued an active role in policy and public affairs. She served as a senior fellow at the Jerusalem Center for Security and Foreign Affairs, leading its European Project, and as a senior research fellow at the Institute for the Study of Global Antisemitism and Policy.[11][6] She is a member of the Israeli Council on Foreign Relations of the World Jewish Congress and sits on NGO Monitor's advisory council.[6] She previously served as President of the World Jewish Parliamentarians Association, as a diplomatic attaché at the Italian Embassy in Israel, and as manager of the Italian Cultural Institute in Tel Aviv.[6]

Nirenstein co-founded the Global Forum for Combating Antisemitism and is a founding member of the International Friends of Israel Initiative and of the steering committee of the Interparliamentary Coalition on Combating Anti-Semitism.[6][10] She also served on the board of the Talmud Project, an Italian-government-sponsored initiative to translate the Babylonian Talmud into Italian.[16]

In June 2024, Israeli Foreign Minister Yisrael Katz appointed her as the Foreign Ministry's Special Advisor for Combating Antisemitism, a voluntary role.[6] She has also been recognized with the Knesset Israel Prize for her commitment to fighting antisemitism and, in 2011, was named one of the fifty most influential Jews worldwide.[6] In October 2025, she published "Hamas's Dangerous Game" through the Jerusalem Center for Security and Foreign Affairs.[17]

In August 2015, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced Nirenstein's proposed appointment as Israel's ambassador to Italy.[18] The nomination attracted reported concerns from within Italy's Jewish community, including from Rome Chief Rabbi Riccardo Di Segni, who called her "a very good journalist" but worried that a former Italian parliamentarian serving as Israel's representative could expose Italian Jews to accusations of dual loyalty.[18] The Times of Israel also reported objections from Israeli officials concerning the length of time she had lived in Israel.[7] Ynet reported that unease surrounding the nomination also involved her son's employment with Italy's external intelligence service and that Foreign Ministry officials criticized her for holding public events in Italy before the appointment had been approved.[19]

Nirenstein withdrew her candidacy in May 2016, citing personal reasons and denying that the withdrawal was connected to reports about critical comments she had made about Sara Netanyahu in a 1996 article.[7] In February 2016, before her withdrawal, Ynet had reported that the appointment had not been approved by the Civil Service Commission and therefore had not been formally submitted to the government.[19]