Posted on 11/08/2005 5:40:59 AM PST by NYer
A MANCHESTER historian has claimed that Pope John Paul II was Jewish.
Yaakov Wise says his study into the the maternal ancestry of Karol Josez Wojtyla (John Paul II's real name) has revealed startling conclusions.
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.
The Pope was a priest and cardinal archbishop in the Polish city before his election to the papacy.
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."
Although he believes the Pope's father was an ethnic Pole, he thinks that John Paul's mother Emilia Kaczorowski - Emily Katz in English - was Jewish and that she was the daughter of Feliks Kaczowski, a businessman from Biala-Bielsko in Poland. Katz is a common surname amongst East European Jewish families.
Emilia's mother, the Pope's grandmother, was Maria Anna Scholz. Scholz, or Schulze, is also a common surname among Jews, as is Rybicka, or Ryback, which is the surname of the Pope's great-grandmother Zuzanna.
All the names or their variations appear on gravestones in the old Biala Jewish cemetery, as does the surname of Felik's mother Urszula Maklinowska. Mr Wise said: "The Pope's ancestry has been researched by an American historian.
"But nobody has traced the family name through the Jewish community and, as Jewish historian, I have access to information that a non-Jewish historian wouldn't know about.
"I'm not making any firm conclusions, but what I'm saying is that there is a lot of circumstantial evidence to say that he was Jewish.
"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."
I was going to write the same thing.
That's right, only Jews were killed in concentration camps in WWII.
/sarcasm
My family has a Jewish sounding name but we are Catholics. Have a friend who is Jewish but one would think Irish/German by the name.
Whatever his background, Pope John Paul II was well-loved by people of differing relgions and backgrounds. All humanity was blessed by having him in our lifetime.
-Theo
W, ping.
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If my papa Jan Pawell II is Jewish eto fore we are blue people fore we live in Atlantis island of Plato. This writer has misplaced few historical facts. Below is information you may find useful
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http://europeanhistory.about.com/library/readyref/blpersonpopejohnpaulii.htm
http://www.catholic-forum.com/saints/pope0264.htm
http://www.vatican.va/news_services/press/documentazione/documents/santopadre_biografie/giovanni_paolo_ii_biografia_breve_en.html
thank you all
LOL This is that simple! I'm curious how is my surname in English :)
Beside some Ukrainians claims that his mother was Ukrainian...
"Names don't tell you much,.... You don't do genealogy based solely on names and circumstantial evidence."
That is so true. My grandmother was Jewish and her surname was Goy!!! Work that one out if you can!
I have read that his mother was a Lithuanian. (not from near Krakow!)
I agree with you. It doesn't matter a whit to me what John Paul's ancestry was. If he *were* part Jewish, it would only make him a closer imitation of him whom he succeeded: St. Peter himself.
Having said that, I think there is another tell-tale sign that the theory is flawed, at least from his grandmother and nearer. His grandmother is Maria Anna Scholz. "Maria Anna"? Well, how many Jews would name their daughter after the mother AND grandmother of Jesus Himself? I imagine very few indeed.
Nothing here would necessarily indicate that Maria Anna's mother could have been Jewish and converted, but it does seem to indicate that the pope's grandmother was *raised* Catholic, and presumably her daughter, the pope's mother, was raised Catholic as well. In any case, the surnames, while often Jewish, are common enough across the board that it probably doesn't mean very much. Besides, in the pope's relationship with Jews during his pontificate, wouldn't it seem likely and opportune for him to mention this aspect of his ancestry if it were true?
So was Jesus. So what?
For anyone, who has any idea about Polish last names this article is a joke at best.
Interesting. The only other person I ever heard make this claim was confirmed anti-semite and former Bircher Revilo Oliver.
See my post above. The anti-semitic conspiracy theorist Revilo Oliver made this claim about 20 years ago, claiming the Vatican was part of the "Zionist Conspiracy" as a result.
Thank you for the obvious. (Although Meyer is an exceedingly Jewish name.)
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