The following references come from:
Tovia Singer, Let’s Get Biblical: Why Doesn’t Judaism Accept the Christian Messiah? 2 vols. (Forest Hills, N.Y.: Outreach Judaism, 2014)
In response to the question, “Why did the Chief Rabbi [Israel
“Zolli” Zoller] of Rome Convert to Catholicism?” we read:
Although Pope Pius XII—Hitler’s
Pope—took great pride in baptizing the former chief rabbi of Rome, the Vatican
could hardly boast that “Zolli” was a pious convert, an ornament of the Church.
This is because Rabbi Israel Zoller’s conversion to Catholicism had little to
do with spiritual conviction or theological satisfaction he found in the Roman
Church. Rather, it was the result of his ostracism and banishment after the Holocaust
by the survivors of the Italian Jewish community, whom he callously abandoned
during the war when Padre Gosselino Birola hid him away in the Vatican while
fleeing the Nazis.
The following article, which
appears in the Encyclopedia Judaica, discusses the subject of Rabbi Zoller’s
baptism:
Zoller (Zolli), Israel
(1881-1956), rabbi and apostate. Born in Brody, Galicia, Zoller spent a great
part of his life in Italy. He was chief rabbi of Trieste after World War I,
professor of Hebrew at the University of Padua from 1927 to 1938, and from
1939, chief rabbi of Rome. He abandoned the community and took refuge in the
Vatican. At the end of the hostilities he reappeared to assume his position as
rabbi, but was rejected by the community because of his villainous behavior at
the time when his community faced their greatest danger. On February 14, 1945, he
converted to Catholicism, taking the name of Eugenio Maria (in homage of Pope
Pius XII) and returned to the Vatican. In 1949 he was professor of Semitic epigraphy
and Hebrew at the University of Rome. He was the author of a large number of
works, especially of biblical interpretation, Jewish history, liturgy, and Talmudic
literature. Among his works are Israele (“Israel,” 1935), L’ebraismo (“Judaism,”
1953), and autobiographical reflections entitled Before the Dawn (1954).
His translation of the tractate Berakhot was published by a Catholic
publishing house (1968). Bibliography: I.I. Newman, A “Chief Rabbi” of Rome Becomes
a Catholic. Encyclopedia Judaica, Vol. 16, Page 1217.
Christians should not waste their
time searching the annals of history for showpieces for the Church among the
many Jews who abandoned their faith. It will not take very long for them to
find many “Orthodox Jews” who became Moslems and pagans; and it was not
uncommon for these defectors to become leaders in their newfound religions. The
Bible is filled with such nefarious opportunities who abandoned their faith in the
one God of Israel and sold out the Jewish people in the process.
In fact, there was a wicked king
who was raised in an Orthodox home who sat on the throne of David for more than
a half-century who also abandoned his Jewish faith. His name was King Manasseh
the son of King Hezekiah. One could never hope to grow up in a more Orthodox
home than Manasseh, whose father was a devout and righteous man. Yet, in spite
of his Orthodox Jewish upbringing, this young man grew up to become the most
evil king that had ever ruled the Jewish nation.
The Bible testifies that Manasseh
worshiped Baal with great zeal, and encouraged the Jewish people to do
likewise. Moreover, Manasseh was a far more sincere apostate than Israel Zoller.
Manasseh certainly did not worship profane idols in order to escape persecution.
Does this mean that the Jewish people should follow suit? Should the apostasy
of one Jew, no matter how prestigious a position he holds among the nation of
Israel, be a signal to others to turn their backs on their Creator as well?
The question that comes to mind
is this: How can an intelligent, well-informed Jew abandon his faith? Shouldn’t
we anticipate that clever and erudite Jews would consistently make the correct spiritual
choices in life? How is it that we find bright and knowledgeable people making
disastrous decisions that have eternal consequences? The answer is that emotions
have no IQ. The lusts of the heart have no intelligence. The prophet Jeremiah
therefore declared,
“The heart is deceitful above all
things, and desperately wicked; who can know it?”
(Jeremiah
17:9)
In Numbers 15:37-39, the Torah
commands the nation of Israel to wear tzitsis (fringes) on the corners
of our garments so that “you do not follow the lust of your own heart and your
own eyes which lead you astray.” The difference between the intelligent man and
the simpleton is not the correctness of their decisions, but rather the cunning
sinner can more skillfully defend and justify his iniquity. Heaven is not
reserved only for the intellectual.
The heart can only be a wonderful
thing if is bound up with the Creator and His Torah. King David
therefore beseeched God for this in his uplifting prayer in Psalm 119:36, “Turn
my heart to your commandments, and not to selfish gain.” (2:279-82)
