Ada Sereni

Sereni in 1962Ada Sereni (née Ascarelli) (June 20, 1905 – November 24, 1997) 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.

Biography

Early years Born as Ada Ascarelli in 1905 in Rome to the Ascarelli family, a wealthy Jewish Sephardic Jewish family who count Devorà Ascarelli as an ancestor. Her parents were Ettore (1847–1919), and Emma Tagliacozzo (1882–1978). Her father died when she enrolled in high school. 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 paternal grandfather was Tranquillo Ascarelli, former president of the Israelite University. 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.

She attended T. Mamiani High School in Rome, where she met Enzo Sereni, who was already active in the Zionist movement. In 1926 they announce to their families they are moving to Israel, doing so in February 1927 with their infant daughter Hannah (b. July 4, 1926), settling in Rehovot. They were among the first Italians to immigrate (make Aliyah) to Israel. 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.

From June 1945 until the Establishment of the State of Israel in 1948, Sereni worked for the group in Italy. From 1945 to 1947 Sereni was Arazi's deputy, taking over as the head from April 1947 – until the establishment of the State of Israel in May 1948.

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. One ship was named the Enzo Sereni which successfully sailed to Haifa with 551 men and 357 women, many of whom were former partisans.

In Sereni's travels across Italy, she was driven by a volunteer, Mordechai Hod, later the commander of the Israeli Air Force.

End of life Sereni helped found the Associazione Italia-Israele.

Sereni died in Jerusalem on November 24, 1998, at the age of 92.