Street renaming can be fairly a fairly controversial process, as seen in the Sean Bell Way renaming in 2009. Now, Borough Park residents are beginning to scrutinize the life of Zachary Sansone, a founder of the Congress of Italian American Organizations, who served in Mussolini's army and is close to having his name attached to 59th street between 14th and 15th avenues. Rabbi Chaim Israel told CBS News that the community "doesn't have enough information as to what Mr. Sansone's role was in the fascist Italian army during the second World War."
Assemblyman Dov Hikind, a child of Holocaust survivors, also concurs with Rabbi Israel's disagreement of CB 12's decision to rename the street, but Sansone's wife says that her husband's time in the army was out of his control: "Oh, he was against Mussolini! He had no choice!" Sansone "went to Italy when he was 12 and was drafted into the army," despite being an American citizen. But Rabbi Israel points out that he made first lieutenant, something that Mrs. Sansone attributes to his profession as a lawyer in Italy. "Well he's a very fine human being. He really was," Rabbi Israel says, seeming to backpedal. "The question is do we name an American street for him?" If the Pope can be a former Hitler Youth member, then what's a little street in Brooklyn?
