The Merkos School was founded in Milan at the end of the 1950s by Merkos l’Inyonei Chinuch, an educational branch of the Chabad Lubavitch Jewish movement (one of the largest Jewish religious movements in existence today, whose headquarters are in Brooklyn), founded in America in 1940 by the Lubavitch Rebbe, Rabbi Yosef Yitzchok Schneerson.
In the difficult climate of post-war Italy, the School represented the point of arrival and meeting for the veterans of the small Jewish communities of northern Italy, now extinct, such as Mantua, Soragna, Casale, Alessandria, and for the survivors of the Shoah and above all for the Jewish refugees fleeing from Arab countries such as Egypt, Lebanon, Iran, Libya and Syria. In 1958, Rav Gershon Mendel Garelik and his wife Bessie, a young couple of newly married Shluchim (envoys), were sent to Milan by the Lubavitcher Rebbe, Menachem Mendel Schneerson. With the help of the Zippel family, who have always supported the activities of the Merkos and other Chabad envoys, the group grew and developed numerous initiatives.
The Merkos in Italy
In 1958, Carlo Zippel, a successful businessman from Milan, contacted the Rebbe Menachem Mendel Schneerson, asking him to send a Rabbi and his wife to work for the Jews of Milan, especially the youth and children.
Thus the first Shluchim (the Rebbe’s envoys) arrived in Italy in December 1958: Rav Gershon Mendel and Bassie Garelik. He was Russian, she was American, they had been married for six months. The young Rav, twenty-six years old, immediately became the spiritual leader of the Ashkenazi community, recently recovered from the horrors of the Shoah. His erudition, sensitivity, empathy and wisdom, despite his young age, meant that, right from the start, he won the respect, love and esteem of the people. During the more than 60 years of priesthood, he became one of the most well-known, honored and most consulted Rabbis in Europe. The Rabbanit, just 20 years old, set to work to open a nursery, first in the living room of her house, then in Via Poerio, the first headquarters of the Merkos School. In a few years, with the help of new Shluchim and local Italian teachers, the school grew and became renowned for the secular and even more Jewish preparation of its students. From the first summer, the young Shluchim opened the Gan Israel Summer Camp, attended every year by Jewish children from all over Italy. They worked hard to publish Jewish literature in Italian for children and with patience and tenacity they managed to bring back the pride of being Jewish in people who thought they had lost it.
In May 1979, the activities of the Chabad Lubavitch movement in Italy were formalized through the establishment of Merkos l’Inyonei Chinuch Italia, whose legal personality was recognized by a decree of the then President of the Republic, Sandro Pertini.
Today, in Italy, there are 23 Shluchim and numerous Centers in Milan, Rome, Florence, Bologna, Trieste and Venice.
In the Judaism of the Lombard capital, Chabad Lubavitch is a strong presence, with its school, several Batei Knesset (synagogues), activities for children and young people.
The underlying philosophy, typical of Chassidism, is essential: the great joy of doing and living Judaism, of which the organization of the public lighting of the Chanukah lights with music and dancing in the squares of many Italian cities, as in the rest of the world, is an emblem.
Over the years, in a constant dialogue with Italian culture, the Merkos School has distinguished itself by having implemented numerous initiatives, including the construction of sports and educational facilities, gyms, sports fields, educational and scientific laboratories, the launch of professional training and language courses, the organization of cultural events such as “Chanukkah in the Square” and the “Festa delle Luci”.
