“I have worked with Micky for several years. He was a wonderful person with whom I built a special friendship relationship. For my part and for the whole community, I want to express our condolences and affection for the family,’’ said the president of the Jewish community of Milan Milo Hasbani in giving the last farewell to Michele (Micky) Sciama, who died from coronavirus on Monday at the age of 79.
Sciama served as secretary-general of Milan’s Jewish community of Milan from 1993 to 2007. He is survived by his wife, Viviane, and their two daughters, Dalia and Stefania, reported Moked, the magazine of the Union of Jewish communities of Italy.
Born in Cairo in May 1941, Sciama studied engineering in London before working as a business manager in Milan.
The director of the Fondazione Centro Di Documentazione Ebraica Contemporanea (CDEC), Gadi Luzzatto Voghera, remembered Sciama as being driven by “an overwhelming force, a fire that animated him and that forced those around him to share his planning. Micky was one of the main animators of the Edoth (community) project, which is responsible for collecting the testimonies of Jews forced after WWII to abandon the communities of the Mediterranean, from Syria to Lebanon, from Libya to Iran and especially Egypt.”
Italy is the country most hit by the coronavirus in Europe with more than 28,000 reported cases and at least 2,500 deaths.