ROMANIN JACUR, LEONE

ROMANIN JACUR, LEONE (1867–1928), Italian politician. He was a leading light of Paduan Jewry. Romanin Jacur was senator of the Kingdom of Italy from 1880 to 1913. He became famous for the attention he paid to the issues related to the modernization of the countryside. He opposed Zionism and on the occasion of Theodor Herzl's visit to Italy refused to arrange for him an audience with Pope Pius X, which had been asked for by Felice Ravenna. Romanin Jacur was on good terms of friendship with Pius X dating back to the times when the future pope was a parish priest in the Padua countryside. Romanin Jacur also held the office of minister of public works from 1894 to 1896 and was undersecretary at the Ministry of the Interior in 1899. -BIBLIOGRAPHY: Claudia De Benedetti (ed.), Il Cammino della Speranza: gli Ebrei e Padova, vol. 2 (1998), 97–99. (Massimo Longo Adorno (2nd ed.)