Elio Toaff

Elio Toaff ( born April 30, 1915 in Livorno, Italy) is a retired Chief Rabbi of Rome and one of the most important Jewish personalities postwar Italy.

Life

Toaff's birthplace is Livorno, where his father was a rabbi and teacher of ancient languages ​​. In 1941 he was rabbi in Ancona and joined the partisans in 1943 in Tuscany on. After the war he became rabbi in Venice and was from 1951 to 2002 Chief Rabbi of Rome.

Elio Toaff promoted the Christian-Jewish dialogue. On April 13, 1986, he received in the Synagogue of Rome, Pope John Paul II This was the first time in the history of the Catholic Church that a Pope entered a Jewish house of worship. On April 4, 2005 Toaff proved the deceased and bier of Pope last respects.

One of his sons is the Israeli historian Ariel Toaff.