by Rabbi Arnold Saltzman
Rabbi Elio Toaff, Rabbi of Rome and spiritual leader of the Jews of Italy, died recently a few days short of his 100th birthday (April 30, 1915- April 19, 2015). His death was announced by Prime Minister Matteo Renzi, who called him “a great Italian and a symbol of the Jewish community.” We should consider what he accomplished and who he was as rabbi and leader.
Rabbi Toaffʼs father, a rabbi himself, discouraged his son from becoming a rabbi. Elio studied law and theology and became a scholar. In Ancona, he was part of the Resistance during the Second World War, helping to hide Jews once the Germans began deportations. In a story similar to others I have heard, he was forced to dig his own grave before a firing squad, yet he managed to escape. How this was accomplished I do not know, yet we are all the better for it.
The Jews of Italy date back to the Roman Empire even before the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 CE.
The Arch of Titus is both a stark reminder and an ironic relic of the capture and enslavement of the people of Israel and Judea, brought as slaves to Rome, eventually populating the European continent with millions of descendants, and returning to Israel in modern times reborn, while Rome is an empire only in history.
Rabbi Toaff not only was a legend of the Italian Resistance and rebuilding, he also became Rabbi of Rome in 1951, working on Jewish education. What was so important about this rabbi?
We have to take a step back and mention that following the Holocaust, the Second Vatican Council under Pope John XXIII opened in 1962 and closed under Pope Paul VI in 1965. Part 4 of Nostre Aetate (“In Our Time”) issued by the Second Vatican Council speaks of the bond that ties the people of the “New Covenant” (Christians) have to Abraham’s stock (Jews). It states that the blame for Jesus’ death cannot be laid at the door of the Jews, nor can the Jews in our time be held as guilty, thus repudiating the charge of Deicide; “the Jews should not be presented as rejected or accursed by God.”
The Declaration also decries all displays of anti-Semitism. “Furthermore, the Church, mindful of the patrimony she shares with the Jews and moved not by political reasons but by the Gospel’s spiritual love, decries hatred, persecutions, displays of anti-Semitism, directed against Jews at any time and by anyone.”
Part 5 states that all men are created in God’s image, and that it is contrary to the teaching of the Church to discriminate against, show hatred toward or harass any person or people on the basis of color, race, religion, condition of life and so on.
Twenty years later, Rabbi Toaff did something amazing. In essence he was testing the resolve and words of Nostre Aetate and Pope John Paul II to accept an invitation to speak, a first for a Pope, in a synagogue. Can you imagine the Board of Directors of an Orthodox congregation sitting to discuss the rabbiʼs proposal? He had to share it in advance. One can imagine that at least some members of that synagogue committee were not supportive and wondered if the rabbi had lost his mind.
Had we not endured almost two millennia of persecution, inquisitions, auto de fe, ghetto, and the Holocaust? Had the Church really spoken up for us, would we have suffered as much under the Nazis, especially in Poland a Catholic country where 3,000,000 Polish Jews lost their lives?
The Rabbi was looking for a gesture of change and healing, and in a brilliant decision he invited the Pope, who accepted the invitation to speak at the synagogue in the former ghetto area near the Vatican. A thousand people came to hear the Pope and to see Rabbi Toaff and Pope John Paul II embrace on the synagogue steps.
This was a fulfillment of the words of Nostre Aetate and an important change and recognition by Rabbi Toaff as well. All too often out of fear and history, suspicion arises preventing us embracing our brothers and sisters, our fellow human beings, and these moments are our guide which we must follow.
Jews were referred to as “our dearly beloved brothers.” Rabbi Toaff said, “I see the visit of the Pope as the crowning achievement of the church’s policy over the last 20 years.” The rabbi remembered: “We climbed on Tevà (bima) and we turned toward the audience. And then the applause broke out. A long applause and liberating, not only for me but for the entire audience, who finally understood … the importance of that moment … The applause broke out uncontrollably when [the Pope] said, “You are our beloved brothers and, in a certain way, you might say, our elder brothers.”
In 1992 Rabbi Toaff welcomed the King and Queen of Spain, when they formally declared an end to the 500- year-old “Edict of Expulsion from Spain” issued by King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella. The King and Queen read their own edict in the synagogue welcoming back the Jews to Spain and admitting the wrong done to the Jews. They also hosted the Madrid Peace Conference.
In a concert, proposed and performed by Sir Gilbert Levine, the Pope’s conductor, in 1994, Rabbi Toaff co-officiated at the Vatican for a Holocaust Remembrance Concert before many hundreds of survivors and the President of Italy. I would have liked to have been at the board meeting when they decided that one: “Can a rabbi speak at the Vatican?” In his will in 2005, Pope John Paul wrote, “How can I fail to remember the Rabbi of Rome?”
All of this makes Rabbi Elio Toaff a rabbi for the ages. Hazak, Hazak, Vnithazek. Like the end of a book of Torah we say, “Be strong, be strong, and together we will strengthen one another.” Pope Francis sent a telegram to Dr. Riccardo di Segni, the incumbent Chief Rabbi of Rome, upon learning of Toaff’s death: “To Dr. Riccardo Di Segni, Chief Rabbi of the Jewish Community of Rome: I would like to express my heartfelt participation in mourning, together with his family, and the entire Jewish community here in the capital of Rome, for the demise of the former longtime Chief Rabbi of Rome, Professor Dr. Elio Toaff, long the distinguished spiritual leader of the Jews of Rome.
“The protagonist of Italian civil and Jewish history in recent decades, he knew how to overcome divisions, and both of our communities had a common esteem and appreciation for his moral authority, together with a deep humanity. I remember with gratitude his generous commitment and sincere willingness to promote dialogue and fraternal relations between Jews and Catholics; during his tenure our communities saw a significant moment in this regard, in his memorable encounter with my esteemed predecessor St. Pope John Paul II, at the Chief Synagogue of Rome. I raise prayers to the most high God the Father, full of love and fidelity, to welcome him into his Kingdom of peace.” From the Vatican, April 20, 2015.
Open the Gates of Righteousness and I will enter (Psalm 118:19). May Rabbi Elio Toaff’s name be a blessing.
Shabbat Shalom