Israel Zolli

Zoller was born in 1881 the city of Brody in then-Austria-Hungary, which from 1918 to 1945 was in eastern Poland,[2] and currently is in western Ukraine.[3] He was the youngest of five children, with three brothers and a sister.[2] Zoller's father was a formerly wealthy factory owner, and his mother came from a family dynasty of rabbis. He earned a doctorate degree in philosophy from the University of Florence in Italy. At the same time, he prepared for the rabbinate at a nearby yeshiva.

In 1917, Zoller's first wife, Adele, died. In 1920, he married his second wife, Eva Majonica. She was born in the town of Gorizia, in northeast Italy.[4]

In 1918, he was appointed rabbi of the Italian city of Trieste, whose territory had just been transferred from Austria-Hungary to Italy. He changed his surname to "Zolli" to make it sound more Italian. Italian fascist leaders began excluding Italian Jews from social welfare programs, including financial support and schooling, throughout the 1930s and denigrated them in the press. A vicious press campaign by the fascists forced out the Chief Rabbi of Rome, Davide Prato. In December 1939, Zolli was named as chief rabbi of Rome with the support of fascist leaders.[5][6]

Zolli had conflict with his congregants in Rome from the start. Zolli's presiding style in delivering the liturgy was more casual than they preferred, and he was more interested in academic inquiry than pastoral work or community leadership. There were disputes over salary and expectations. During this time, Zolli formed a friendship with Jesuit scholar Augustin Bea.[7]

After Zolli moved to Rome in 1940, he attempted to convince Ugo Foa, President of the Jewish Community in Rome, and Dante Almansi, President of the Union of Italian Jewish Communities, that German Nazis were a significant threat to the Roman Jewish community. According to American researcher, Daniel T. Murphy, Zolli "recommended the total suppression of public Jewish functions, the closing of administrative offices, the elimination of donor lists, the dispersion of all members of the Jewish community, the distribution of financial aid, and the reduction of the community treasury."[1] In the next few years, as the Nazis swept over Europe during World War II, all three of Zolli's brothers were killed in The Holocaust.[8]

In 1944, after Zolli emerged from hiding in the house of Amadeo Pierantoni, a Catholic member of Rome's anti-fascist resistance party, Giustizia e Libertà, his position as chief rabbi was restored by Charles Poletti, although the Jewish community rebuffed him, as seen in Rabbi Louis Israel Newman's book, A Chief Rabbi of Rome becomes a Catholic.[9]

Zolli later described his wartime experiences as follows:

It was from my father that I learned the great art of praying with tears. During the Nazi persecution, long years afterward, I lived near the center of Rome in a small room. There, in the dark, in hunger and cold, I would pray weeping: 'O, Thou keeper of Israel, protect the remnants of Israel; do not allow this remnant of Israel to perish!'"[10]

In his autobiography, Before the Dawn: Autobiographical Reflections by Eugenio Zolli, Former Chief Rabbi of Rome, Zolli said that while presiding over the religious service in the synagogue on the holy day of Yom Kippur in 1944, he experienced a vision of Jesus. Within his heart, he says, he found the words "You are here for the last time."[11]

On 13 February 1945, Zolli, his second wife, and daughter converted to Catholicism (his first wife having died years earlier). He was baptized at Gregorian University by Mgr. Luigi Traglia in the presence of Father Paolo Dezza; his godfather was Father Augustin Bea, confessor of Pope Pius XII. Zolli chose to be christened "Eugenio Maria" in homage to Pope Pius XII, who was born Eugenio Maria Giuseppe Giovanni Pacelli.

After his conversion, Zolli was asked in an interview why he had "given up the Synagogue for the Church." Zolli responded saying, "But I have not given it up. Christianity is the completion or crown of the Synagogue. For, the Synagogue was a promise, and Christianity is the fulfillment of that promise. The Synagogue pointed to Christianity: Christianity presupposes the Synagogue. So you see, one cannot exist without the other. What I converted to was the living Christianity."[12]

After Zolli and his wife converted to Catholicism, he was employed at the Sapienza University of Rome and Pontifical Biblical Institute. In 1956, he became seriously ill and entered the hospital, where he reportedly revealed to a nun that he would die on the first Friday of the month at 3:00 in the afternoon.

On 2 March 1956, Zolli received Holy Communion in the morning, eventually drifted into coma, and died, as he predicted, at 3:00 P.M. on the first Friday of the month.[13] He was 74. He is buried at Campo Verano cemetery in Rome, Italy.[13]

After the controversy surrounding his conversion settled, Zolli's life and writings did not achieve widespread attention. His life and work were neglected, except for debate over Pope Pius XII and the Holocaust which arose in the 1960s. He continued to be forgotten until his autobiography was republished in Italian in 2004 and became a bestseller. This spurred a new body of scholarship on his life.[14]

• "Conversion consists in responding to a call from God. A man is not converted at the time he chooses, but at the hour when he receives God's call. When the call is heard, he who receives it has only one thing to do: obey. Paul is 'converted'. Did he abandon the God of Israel? Did he cease to love Israel? It would be absurd to think so. But then? The convert is one who feels impelled by an irresistible force to leave a pre-established order and seek his own proper way. It would be easier to continue along the road he was on."[15]
• "In the Old Testament, Justice is carried out by one man towards another...We do good for good received; we do harm for harm we have suffered at the hands of another. Not to do injury for injury is, in a certain fashion, to fall short of justice. What a contrast with the Gospel: Love your enemies... pray for them, or even Jesus' last words on the cross: 'Father, forgive them, for they know not what they are doing!' All this stupefied me. The New Testament is, in fact, an altogether new Covenant". (Eugenio Zolli)