Wartime pope gains unlikely ally — a rabbi

[Pax_et_Bonum]

Wartime pope gains unlikely ally — a rabbi
BY LISA SCHENCKER
The Salt Lake Tribune

First published May 26 2011 05:02PM
Updated May 27, 2011 08:44PM
Rabbi Eric A. Silver didn’t want anything to do with Pope Pius XII.

At best, the World War II-era pontiff was a silent, uncaring witness to the atrocities of the Holocaust, Silver thought. At worst, he was a Nazi co-conspirator.

So when Silver was asked to be part of a group journeying tothe Vatican tostudy documents for the canonization of Pius, the rabbi balked.

“You’ve got to be crazy,” Silver replied. But ultimately, in the spirit of open-mindedness, he accepted and spent several days searching the Vatican archives.

“My eyes were opened,” he said. “It was an enlightening experience.”

Silver, who served as rabbi at Salt Lake City’s Congregation Kol Ami in the 1980s, has now taken up a seemingly unlikely cause: promoting Pius as a friend to Jews.

He recently traveled from Connecticut, where he lives after retiring from a synagogue there,to lecture on the topic at the IJ & Jeanné Wagner Jewish Community Center near the University of Utah.
sltrib.com/sltrib/lifestyle/51849041-80/pius-silver-jews-pope.html.csp

 

[kimmielittle]

Wartime pope gains unlikely ally — a rabbi
BY LISA SCHENCKER
The Salt Lake Tribune

First published May 26 2011 05:02PM
Updated May 27, 2011 08:44PM
Rabbi Eric A. Silver didn’t want anything to do with Pope Pius XII.

At best, the World War II-era pontiff was a silent, uncaring witness to the atrocities of the Holocaust, Silver thought. At worst, he was a Nazi co-conspirator.

So when Silver was asked to be part of a group journeying tothe Vatican tostudy documents for the canonization of Pius, the rabbi balked.

“You’ve got to be crazy,” Silver replied. But ultimately, in the spirit of open-mindedness, he accepted and spent several days searching the Vatican archives.

“My eyes were opened,” he said. “It was an enlightening experience.”

Silver, who served as rabbi at Salt Lake City’s Congregation Kol Ami in the 1980s, has now taken up a seemingly unlikely cause: promoting Pius as a friend to Jews.

He recently traveled from Connecticut, where he lives after retiring from a synagogue there,to lecture on the topic at the IJ & Jeanné Wagner Jewish Community Center near the University of Utah.
sltrib.com/sltrib/lifestyle/51849041-80/pius-silver-jews-pope.html.csp

:clapping::clapping:

 

[ChristIsTheWay]

I’m not surprised. I think the record, once closely examined, clearly vindicates Pope Pius XII. I also don’t think this is the first rabbi to make these kinds of claims, especially rabbis and Jewish leaders who lived during this terrible period in human history. Also, did not the wartime chief rabbi of Rome later convert to Catholicism, taking Pius XII’s given name as his baptismal name?

 

[Pax_et_Bonum]

I’m not surprised. I think the record, once closely examined, clearly vindicates Pope Pius XII. I also don’t think this is the first rabbi to make these kinds of claims, especially rabbis and Jewish leaders who lived during this terrible period in human history. Also, did not the wartime chief rabbi of Rome later convert to Catholicism, taking Pius XII’s given name as his baptismal name?

Please read Rabbi Dalin’s book The Myth of Hitler’s Pope.