Renzo Ravenna

Renzo Ravenna (Ferrara, August 20, 1893 – Ferrara, October 29, 1961) was an Italian lawyer and politician. He belonged to a prominent Jewish family in Ferrara and was, with Enrico Paolo Salem in Trieste, one of only two Fascist mayors of Jewish origin in Italy before the introduction of the racial laws.

He was an interventionist and volunteer during World War I and a friend of Italo Balbo; this made him first approach and then join the National Fascist Party, until he was appointed podestà. He devoted himself to the administration of the city with particular attention to the economic situation, urban reconstruction and cultural initiatives. After his resignation, due to the institution of the anti-Jewish laws (1938) and with the death of Balbo (1940), he definitively distanced himself from Fascism: the persecution of his family by the regime, his flight to Switzerland and his subsequent return to Ferrara when the war was over definitively ended his political career. His figure as a Jewish personality holding posts linked to Fascism makes him the subject, even today, of investigation by historians and members of the cultural and political world.