(JTA) — Giorgio Sinigaglia was a father of four and an engineer who volunteered in the Jewish community of Milan, Italy, where he lived.
The city’s Jewish communal life organization reported that Sinigaglia died of complications of the coronavirus on March 23.
Dozens eulogized the 54-year-old Sinigaglia on the community’s website article about his death following several days of fever and respiratory distress. They described his generosity and his wry sense of humor.
“He played everything down,” wrote Francesco Ceserani, who said he was a longtime friend of Sinigaglia.
Micol Naccache recalled how Sinigaglia invited her and her husband to sit with him during the first Passover seder dinner they attended at the Jewish Cultural Center in Milan after moving to the city in in 2008.
“He saw we were new, that we didn’t know anybody so he immediately signaled to us to join him and his family,” she recalled. “It’s just a little gesture, but he’s the only one who noticed and did something to make us feel at home.”
“Some people think about parties, ideologies, blocs. He cared about people more than any of that, and he looked at people truly: Their needs, their actions,” said Milo Hasbanim, the president of the Milan Jewish Community.
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