Simonetta
della Seta
Simonetta Della Seta is Director of the MEIS-National Museum of Italian Judaism and the Shoah. she is also a scholar and a journalist specialized in the History of the Middle East and in the History of the Jewish People.
She graduated in Political Sciences in Rome under the guide of Prof. Renzo De Felice, a worldwide expert on Italian Fascism. She worked with him on several researches on the relationship between Fascism, the Jewish Communities of the Mediterranean countries and the Jewish National Movement. Della Seta speaks Italian, English, Hebrew, French, Spanish and Arabic. She is married with musicologist Massimo Acanfora Torrefranca and is mother of two children, Gad and Hanna.
She worked for years as a correspondent from the Middle East for Il Giornale, Panorama, the Mediaset networks and the Italian-speaking Swiss radio (RSI). Della Seta is the author of dozens of scientific articles published in Italian, English and Hebrew. Among her books: Israelis and Palestinians, the cost of non-peace (Giuntina-Nardini), The Guardian of the Holy Sepulcher (Mondadori); The nature of the Jewish state (Bruno Mondadori).
In 1996 she created Visions, the Visual Archive of the Bible Lands, which she directed until 2000 and for which she directed several documentary films. In 2001 she founded the ApBiscom (later Apcom) news agency with Lucia Annunziata.
In 2004 she was appointed by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Director of renowned Italian Cultural Institute in Israel, where she remained until 2009. From 2009 to 2015 she held the position of Counselor of the Italian Ambassador in Israel. From 2012 to 2014 he directed the Italy-Israel Foundation for Culture and the Arts.
Since 2014 he has been a member of the Italian delegation to the IHRA (International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance) and since 2015 she has been a member of the Coordination Committee for the celebrations in memory of the Shoah at the Prime Minister's Office. Della Seta has taught History of the State of Israel and History of Zionism at the Rabbinical College of Rome and at the Israeli University Interdisciplinary Center in Herzlyiah. In 2007 she was awarded by President Giorgio Napolitano with the honor of Commander of the Order of the Star of Italy.