New Chief Rabbi of Venice

Rabbi Gili Benyamin, who was educated by the Shehebar Sephardic Center, was recently appointed Chief Rabbi of Venice, where he will be the spiritual leader for a community of 500 people.

“My main goal in Venice is to integrate the youth and attract them to attend religious activities. We need to strengthen their Jewish identity and save them from intermarriage,” said Rabbi Benyamin.

“Unfortunately, there are many youth in the community who stop coming to synagogue classes after their bar mitzvah. They have nearly forgotten their Jewish identity. So my greatest challenges is to bring them back to their roots, source and origin, so that they will be proud of their Judaism.”

According to Rabbi Shlomo Kassin, Dean of the Shehebar Sephardic Center, Rabbi Benyamin has the skills and personality to bring the community together and also to establish a good relationship with the existing Chabad.

Venice is an important city and the Venice Ghetto is a well known tourist site. The Rambam’s Mishneh Torah and the Shulchan Aruch were first printed in Venice.

Until the 14th century, Jews were allowed to come to Venice for money-lending activities, because in 1385, the city needed loans from the Jewish money-lenders. In 1516, the Jews were confined to the Ghetto, a space roughly equivalent to 2 ½ city blocks. Levantines and Ashkenazim, Italian and Spanish Jews all lived together in the Ghetto until Napoleon threw open the gates in 1797 and gave equal rights to the Jews of Venice.

Of Yemenite descent, Rabbi Gili Benyamin was born in Israel. He attended yeshivah, combining religious and secular studies, and graduated with a major in economics. After completing three years of military service, he attended Shehebar Sephardic Center’s rabbinical school at Midrash Sephardi, receiving his rabbinical ordination from the Chief rabbinate in 2001.

For the next three years, he continued his studies so he could serve on a Bet Din. He speaks Hebrew, English, Spanish, Italian, and French. From 2004 – 2007, Rabbi Benyamin was assistant to the Chief Rabbi of Milan, Italy.

From there he moved to Madrid, for three years, where he worked  with SSC Rabbi Moshe Bendayan as assistant to the Chief Rabbi in charge of Jewish education. While stationed in Madrid, he was also sent to assist the rabbis for short periods in Miami, New York and Shanghai.

Before Rabbi Benyamin arrived in Venice, there were no daily prayer services. Immediately he set to work, establishing daily prayers three times a day for shakrit, minha and arbit. He hopes to establish a yeshivah and kollel in the near future. In Venice, there are three kosher restaurants and two kosher bakeries.