Fiamma Nirenstein

Fiamma Nirenstein was born in 1945 in Florence

Nirenstein was born in Florence on 18 December 1945 and grew up in a Jewish family. Her father, Alberto Nirenstein, came to Italy with the Jewish Brigade. Her mother, journalist Wanda Lattes, fought as a partisan in the resistance.

In 1967 she stayed at Kibbutz Neot Mordechai on the eve of the Six Day War. Back in Italy she earned a degree in modern history at the University of Florence.

She began working as a journalist in 1977 and wrote for Italian papers and magazines such as Panorama, L'Espresso and Epoca. From 1991 to 2006 she reported from Israel for La Stampa and Panorama, and she later wrote a column for Il Giornale. She also wrote for The New York Sun and Commentary, and published books on Israel, antisemitism and terrorism.

In 2008 she was elected to the Italian Parliament for The People of Freedom party. She served as Vice President of the Foreign Affairs Committee until March 2013 and chaired the Committee for the Inquiry into Antisemitism. She was also a substitute member of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe.

On 26 May 2013 she immigrated to Israel, and she lives in Jerusalem. In 2015 Benjamin Netanyahu nominated her as ambassador to Italy, but she withdrew, citing personal reasons. She is a senior fellow at the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs.