Ada Sereni (née Ascarelli) (June 20, 1905 – November 24, 1997)[1] was one of the heads of the Mossad LeAliyah Bet in Italy, one of the founders of Givat Brenner, and a recipient of the Israel Prize for special contribution to society and the country.

Her mother survived the Holocaust by escaping the roundup of Italian Jews on October 16, 1943, and hiding in the convent of the nuns of Notre-Dame de Sion.

Her maternal grandfather Ariel, as the Pope's wool supplier, had never had to submit to the restrictions that kept other Roman Jews in the Jewish ghetto.

[5] In June 1928, per Sereni's direction, she and her family joined the group founding Givat Brenner, one of Israel's largest Kibbutzes.

In the 1930s, the family joined Enzo on several missions on behalf of the kibbutz and the Zionist movement to Italy, Germany, and the United States.

At the end of World War II, when Enzo was not among the prisoners who returned, Sereni turned to Shaul Avigur, the head of the Mossad LeAliyah Bet, and with his approval went to Italy to attempt to trace the fate of her husband.

[3] In Italy, Sereni learned through written testimony that Enzo was executed in Dachau concentration camp in November 1944.

[9] From 1945 to 1948, Sereni is credited with organizing between 33 and 38 expeditions, illicitly sending more than 25,000 Jews (some estimates say 28,000) from Italy to Israel on dozens of ships setting out from various locations along the Italian coast.

That same year, Sereni sent a letter to David Ben-Gurion, Israel's Prime Minister, requesting approval for her effort of "Judaizing the goyim."

[5][6] Immediately after the Six-Day War, Sereni was appointed by Israel prime minister Levi Eshkol to, with Shlomo Gazit, be responsible for "concentrating efforts to encourage the residents of the Gaza Strip to leave the country.

[3] In 2007, a film called "Exodus: Ada's Dream" was produced based on Sereni's autobiography, about her actions and efforts to organize the immigration of thousands of displaced Jews in Italy after World War II.