The mayor of Reggio Emilia, Italy, defended the city’s handling of a controversy where Israeli and American Jewish preschool teachers were asked to condemn Israel’s actions in Gaza before being permitted to join a trip to his town, denying that the pledge was a requirement to attend. 

Marco Massari, speaking to the city council on Monday, said the city’s Charter for Democratic and Participatory Education, a document associated with Reggio Emilia’s early childhood education approach, was intended to be open for discussion, not a requirement that visitors sign on to a particular position. 

Massari’s remarks came after more than 70 educators from Jewish schools canceled a planned visit after being asked to sign a statement declaring, “I distance myself from the occupation of Gaza and the violation of children’s and human beings’ rights in the occupied territories as well as in every places [sic] in the world,” according to a screenshot obtained by Jewish Insider. 

The mayor’s clarification also came following outreach from the State Department, as noted by Ambassador Yehuda Kaploun, the U.S. special envoy to monitor and combat antisemitism, who said on Wednesday that he welcomes “Massari’s reaffirmation that American Jewish educators are welcome in his city, regardless of their identity or beliefs, and his expressed desire to resume the educational exchange.”

“We appreciate the strong cooperation with local law enforcement to help ensure visiting educators can participate safely, free from intimidation or political pressure,” said Kaploun. 

The educators — members of the U.S.-based Paradigm Project — were scheduled to travel to Reggio Emilia, Italy, from Oct. 11–16. Their goal was to study the Reggio Emilia Approach to early childhood education, a method long embraced by Jewish preschools, and bring those insights back to their classrooms.  

Massari said that there may have been a misunderstanding with the teachers of the Jewish schools who chose to postpone the trip, adding that “we will clarify it, but Reggio has not asked and does not ask those who work in schools around the world to undergo political or religious examinations.” 

The document, he added, is “not a closed charter, therefore, not a take-it-or-leave-it approach, but an open document, a starting point that places children’s rights, the true, forgotten protagonists of this story, at its core.” He said the city welcomed a different delegation of Israeli educators this week. 

But Massari also reiterated the city’s longstanding criticism of Israel’s government and called its war in Gaza a genocide. 

“Reggio Emilia has long been critical of the Israeli government’s policies, condemning the ongoing genocide in Palestine,” he said.