Raffaele Cantoni

The racial laws of 1938 caused a riff between the new leadership of the UCEI (Dante Almansi and Lelio Vittorio Valobra) and the Antifascist Jewish components.

[1] He resumed contact with the headquarters of the Genoese DELASEM and was employed as a courier in Tuscany for the distribution of funds in collaboration with Fathers Leto Casini and Giorgio Nissim.

[1] He escaped to Switzerland and there began to reorganize the life of Italian Jews, establishing Jewish schools and various activities with the Milanese Astorre Mayer.

While organizing Jewish life in Milan, he was also a strong supporter the Aliyah Bet (illegal immigration to Israel), raising substantial funds.

Recognizing the critical need to care for Jewish orphans, liberated from concentration camps, who were then drifting into northern Italy, he was instrumental in transforming a former fascist boarding school at Selvino, in the Italian Alps near Milan, into a home to rehabilitate around 800 of these children and to prepare them for emigration to Palestine.

The Foundation offers annual scholarships to young Jewish immigrants arriving from Italy and who intend to enroll in universities, yeshivot, or other institutes for advanced learning.