Israel Zolli (September 27, 1881, Brody, Galicia – March 2, 1956, Rome, Italy) was from 1939 to 1945 Chief Rabbi of Rome. After the war, he converted to Roman Catholicism, taking the name Eugenio in honor of Pope Pius XII.
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Israel Anton Zoller was born in Brody, in the Austro-Hungarian province of Galicia. His father was a formerly wealthy factory owner. His mother came from a family dynasty of rabbis. He earned a Ph.D in Philosophy from the University of Florence. At the same time, he prepared for the rabbinate at a nearby yeshiva. In 1918 he was appointed rabbi of the 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. In 1939, after the "Italians of the Jewish Religion" had succeeded in deposing Zolli's predecessor, Zolli was named as Chief Rabbi of Rome.
Prior to the First World War, when the majority of Trieste's Jewish community was decidedly anti-Zionist Zolli supported the trend. Later, however, when Trieste became a center of embarkation for Palestine and thus consequently became more Zionistic, so did Zolli. When the Italians of the Jewish Religion supported his candidacy for the position of Chief Rabbi in Rome, he assured them and Silvio Ottolenghi, one of the anti-Zionist leaders, that he would give them no trouble on the issue of Palestine. After he emerged from concealment in 1944, he again publicly embraced Zionism.
"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!'"
After Zolli emerged from his hiding-place in the house of a member of Rome's Resistance party, Giustizia e Libertà, his position as Chief Rabbi was restored by Charles Poletti, although the Jewish community rebuffed him. On 9 July 1944, Zolli, while still attempting to retain the title of "Chief Rabbi", gave an interview to a reporter. He described how two Italian families had hidden him, but he made no mention of the fact that during the greater part of the time he had hidden in the Vatican. After the war a great debate arose between the president of the Jewish community in Rome (Signor Foa) and Zolli, as to who was at fault for allowing the Nazis to obtain the list of Roman Jews. This list was used when they were gathered, deported, and murdered. Foa blamed Zolli; Zolli blamed Foa. In her book, Inside Rome with the Germans (1945, pg. 38), Jane Scrivener wrote: "The Rabbi did not destroy his registers and they know where every Jews lives." A Chief Rabbi of Rome Becomes a Catholic (pg. 135), suggesting Zolli's culpability in not destroying the register indicated to him that "his future must lie elsewhere than in the Jewish community".
According to biographer Judith Cabaud, in 1944, while conducting a Yom Kippur service, Zolli allegedly experienced a mystical vision about Jesus. Shortly after the end of World War II, he and his second wife (his first wife had died years before) converted to Roman Catholicism. He went to the Gregorian University, where he was baptized by Mgr. Luigi Traglia in the presence of Father Paolo Dezza; his godfather was Augustin Bea. Zolli was christened Eugenio Maria Zolli in honor of Pope Pius XII, who was born Eugenio Pacelli. The ceremony was done with much publicity.
Zolli was employed at the State University in Rome and at the Pontifical Biblical Institute. He died in Rome, aged 74, in 1956.
While Christians often mention Zolli as an example of an observant Jew who found Christ, some Jewish scholars contend that Zolli's conversion was a result of having been ostracized by the Jewish community following the Holocaust, rather than a spiritual awakening.
Zolli's 1954 memoir, Before the Dawn, describes the details of his conversion and his deep admiration for Pope Pius XII. It was re-issued by Ignatius Press in 2008. He wrote several other books of Christian devotion and theology which included autobiographical elements.
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