Legacy Matters

Was the Pope Jewish

Could Pope John Paul II have been Jewish? One Jewish historian is making that claim.

Mr Wise, a researcher in orthodox Jewish history and philosophy, said the late Pope's mother, grandmother and great-grandmother were all probably Jewish and came from a small town not far from Krakow.
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Mr Wise said: "According to orthodox Judaism, a person's Jewish identity is passed down through the maternal line. I saw a photograph of the Pope's mother and I showed it to people who didn't know who she was.

"They all said she looked Jewish. So I started doing more investigations about her background."
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The Pope's mother married out of the Jewish community to wed a Catholic. Her children were born and raised as Catholics and the Pope was baptised. It would shed light on why the Pope had to go into hiding from the Nazis in November 1940.

"If he had been a pure ethnic Pole this would not have been necessary.

"It would also explain why this Pope in particular felt a strong desire to improve relations between the Church of Rome and the Jewish people."