Elio Toaff

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Elio Toaff (born 30 April 1915 in Livorno) is the former Chief Rabbi of Rome, serving from 1951 to 2002.

In 1947 Toaff served as a rabbi in Venice and in 1951 he became the Chief Rabbi of Rome.

One of his children is Israeli-Italian professor Ariel Toaff.

On May 17th 2012 he has been awarded the Prize Culturae within the Italian National Festival of Cultures in Pisa

Jewish-Catholic relations

Upon the 1958 death of the war time Pope Pius XII, Toaff, as Chief Rabbi of Rome, paid tribute to the late Pontiff, saying: "Jews will always remember what the Catholic Church did for them by order of the Pope during the Second World War. When the war was raging, Pius spoke out very often to condemn the false race theory."^[1]

On 13 April 1986, Toaff was greeted by, and prayed with, Pope John Paul II during an unannounced visit to the Synagogue of Rome. On April 7, 1994, Toaff co-officiated at the Papal Concert to Commemorate the Shoah at the Sala Nervi in Vatican City, along with Pope John Paul II, and the President of Italy Oscar Luigi Scalfaro.

Bibliography

Perfidi giudei, fratelli maggiori, 1987

Essere ebreo with Alain Elkann, 1994

References

↑ Paul O'Shea; A Cross Too Heavy; Rosenberg Publishing; 2008; p. 36

Authority control	WorldCat VIAF: 268667054 LCCN: n88056222 ISNI: 0000 0000 7830 2333 GND: 11947395X BNF: cb12057362j

Persondata
Name	Toaff, Elio
Alternative names
Short description	Italian rabbi
Date of birth	30 April 1915
Place of birth
Date of death
Place of death

This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike; additional terms may apply for the media files.