Italian lawmaker Fiamma Nirenstein new chair of International Council of Jewish Parliamentarians

29 June 2011

JERUSALEM, 29 JUNE 2011 - At a meeting in Jerusalem today, the International Council of Jewish Parliamentarians (ICJP) unanimously elected Fiamma Nirenstein, the member of the Italian Chamber of Deputies, as its new chairman. Nirenstein, 65, succeeds US Congressman Gary Ackerman. The ICJP is sponsored by the World Jewish Congress (WJC). Its newly elected Steering Committee is made up of Jewish lawmakers from all continents.

The ICJP held a consultation in Jerusalem his week which was attended by 55 parliamentarians from 22 countries as well as by a number of senior Israeli officials. Nirenstein said that as new ICJP chair she would fight attempts to delegitimize Israel.

 Fiamma Nirenstein was born in Florence where she completed her university studies in Modern History. In April 2008, she was elected Member of the Italian Chamber of Deputies for Silvio Berlusconi's center-right coalition, and she serves as vice-president of the Committee on Foreign Affairs of the Chamber of Deputies.

 Until her election to parliament, she was a columnist and Israel correspondent for ‘Il Giornale’, a daily newspaper she still contributes to as analyst, as well as for the weekly ‘Panorama’. From 1991 until December 2006, she worked as correspondent and columnist for ‘La Stampa’ daily. She is an expert of the Middle East conflict, terrorism and anti-Semitism.

 World Jewish Congress Secretary General Dan Diker congratulated Fiamma Nirenstein on her appointment, calling her "a patriot of Italy and a true friend of Israel and the Jewish people."