For Chanukah: Polish Jew who is a Jew and doesn't know it learns she is a Jew

[LiveCatholic]

news.yahoo.com/polish-womans-heroic-journey-self-discovery-050138656.html

A fabulous example of Christian charity, and a good Christmas story for Chanukah.

 

[Peggy_in_Burien]

Thank you for sharing this with us.

 

[Yerusalyim]

So as the lady picked up her Jewish roots did she keep her Christian roots as well?

 

[LiveCatholic]

So as the lady picked up her Jewish roots did she keep her Christian roots as well?

Sadly, no–at least not according to the article–but it is underlined that her heroism and charity was completely Catholic (i.e., she didn’t know about her Jewish identity, grew up with Catholic values, &c.). Even the ‘Righteous Among Gentiles’ award committee ruled that this was an act of Catholic heroism, so there’s something to be said.

A Jewish boy she had rescued was reunited with her in 2007 as a grown man. William Donat petitioned Israel’s Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial to name her a “Righteous Among the Nations” in recognition of her wartime heroism.

But Yad Vashem hesitated on the grounds the award only recognizes non-Jews.

As Yad Vashem wavered, Chief Rabbi Schudrich and her friend Gebert, a prominent member of Warsaw’s Jewish community, made the case that she should be given the award because she had acted during the war with the consciousness of a Catholic, not a Jew.