Vatican – In a letter sent by Yad Leachim’s director Rav Shalom Dov Lipschitz to the Vatican, he requested that Pope Benedict XVI reveal the names of Jewish orphans who were given over to convents and monasteries during WWII, but were never returned to the Jewish people. Yad Leachim possesses the names of 2,000 such Jewish orphans born between 1920 and 1938 from Belgium, Holland and France, whose whereabouts are still unknown today.
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Father David Neuhaus, a meshumad who is today the patriarchal vicar for the Hebrew Speaking Catholics in Israel, responded that it was impossible for the Catholic Church to adopt an overall principle for dealing with Jews who had been raised as Catholics.
“Tremendous complexities arise, and each case must be treated individually,” said Neuhaus. “Human lives are involved in these tremendously complex, emotionally charged cases,” he explained. “Besides the theological issues of what faith these people belong to, there are also very human issues of relationships. Catholic families who raise a Jewish orphan feel that he or she is their very own. To whom should this orphan be returned? To a distant relative that the survivor does not even know? To the Jewish people?”
He added that “even after these Jews are told of their origins, they react in many different ways. A simple declaration on the part of the pope is not going to solve these problems.”
Rabbi David Rosen, director of the American Jewish Committee’s Department for Interreligious Affairs, who is helping to coordinate the pope’s visit to Israel, said that Holocaust survivors with Jewish roots had the right to know about it, but doubted that the pope was the right person to petition.
“It is more appropriate to meet with the local archdioceses and attempt to track [them] down on a local level,” said Rosen. “It is a bit sensationalist to turn to the pope.”
It should be noted that all over America, people who have discovered they are descendants of Jewish conversos or adoptees who discover they have Jewish ancestry, are eagerly seeking their roots.
Yad Leachim’s chairman Rav Lipschitz replied sharply to Neuhaus, “The vicar is feigning innocence. The real question is why did the church hide this simple, elementary and humane information from the children themselves? Why are people not told the truth? Why was the fact that they are children born to Jews hidden from them?!”
Rav Lipschitz’s also had a sharp reply for Rosen. “How can the bishops help if they were forbidden to do so by the previous pope, Pius XII? Whoever sincerely wants the bishops to reveal the truth, must first ensure that the pope’s atrocious prohibition to do so be rescinded.”
That priest Neuhaus seems to be the most inappropriate person to be contacting in this whole matter if he himself is a meshumad………
I saw an ad that Yad L’achim is having a daughter of a sheik coming to America, as a women I’m excited to hear her.I believe its the week of may 17 th
go lipschutz bless u and may we hear besuros tovos noone ive heard is pursuing this and its a blessing
We should therefore not give the Catholic Church all the names of those Catholic children who were brought up as Jews. If they can’t give, they can’t get, and we must all stay quiet about it.
hey mr. meshimud, well so nice from you to abedan what you flash and blood killed them selfs for , have you no dignity in you? how dare you ask such stupidity just look at theses kids they were stolen from their mothers.laps by your dear christion polles n russion n german buddys…….HOW their you ask to they should be retund it is obviusly non of your cocern cus you have ebanded us. second how ugly and venom dscutid of you to ask mabey the jews !!!!!!!!!!!well who els to ? their were nebch stolen from ..if you wana argue that the church took them in well who orfend them by kiling their parents in world war two and before was it the JEWS or your christian brothers ? well you know the answer so RATZACHTA VEGAM YARASHTA? NOT ENUOGH YOU STOLE THEIR PARENTS YOU WANT TO STEAL THEM TO???????
I am puzzled by the question in the article: “To whom should this orphan be returned? To a distant relative that the survivor does not even know? To the Jewish people?” According to the article, these are people who were adopted between 1920 and 1938. They are not children anymore. They are not going to be “returned” anywhere. These are adults; actually many of those still alive will be at least 70 years old. The real question is would it upset someone in their 70’s, 80’s or 90’s to suddenly learn they were adopted decades ago and were born to Jewish parents, or do they have a right to know? Sometimes dredging up ancient history and turning someone’s life inside out might be painful or harmful. Nowadays, most adopted children are told they are adopted, but back then it was not very common. Would it hurt someone in their senior years to learn that the parents and family who raised them and that they loved hid the truth?
Sixty years after the end of the Shoah we find this out? Where have the organizations been all these years? And the Popus is welcomed in Eretz Yisrael for a visit with no conditions? Tell him no entre vous until he coughs up the info and avadai revokes the anti-semetic hateful rulings of the previous Pope. Oh I forgot. This Popus was a Hitler Youth Nazi. Scratch that suggestion. He’s a Nazi.
The reasoning behind this meshumud’s answer was to justify his own situation and spread it out to all the jewish souls that are lost to us and to themselves. There is story that involved the previous pope, it goes as follows: a polish women came the previous when he was a priest in Poland. The women’s question was whether she should return the child she is raising to the jewish mother who left her in her keeping. The priest (who eventually became the pope) asked the polish women if the mother wants her back and the answer was in the affirmative. The priest told her under no circumstances is she allowed to keep the child. She must return her to her rightful mother. This meshumad would never agree to this.
Several years ago Rabbi Lau, then Chief Rabbi of Israel, told the following story to a NYT reporter, where it was published.
During WW11, Rabbi Isaac Herzon attempted numerous times to meet with the Pope in order to request that he announce to all priests to assist Jews in the occupied countries. He was turned down. After the war, he persisted in his attempts and was finally granted a meeting. At that meeting he had one request for the pope; announce that all Catholics who saved Jewish children during the war should return these children to the Jewish people. The pope refused. Rabbi Lau says that when Rabbi Herzog came out of the Vatican he asked that someone lead him to a Mikvah immediately.
Draw your own conclusions.
This is a very sireous matter.
This should be revealed. I personaly think the pontife will respond with favour. But in such matter one needs to pull the right strings!
So who needs to tell whom that he or she is jewish? I can’t possibly understand the entire mshigaas, those who survived as kids WWII by Christians are well into their 70’s the only ones to know their origin would’ve been their guardians who are long dead or well in the 100+ years. So what’s the whole thing here?
i have such tremendus respect for yad leachim for they r doing such holy work , it is my humble opinion that yad leachim and hatsolah r 2 of the most important and holy organsations, while the former is rescueing d neshomah, d latter rescue:s d guf
Ok, let’s see where do we loose more observant Jews, it is from the Catholics or from the secular education system in Israel?
I plea with the government of Israel, please give us back the children which don’t know Shema! The children from Kazakhstan, Buchara, Yemen, Morocco, Sudan, Carpathia. All Jewish kids, not only Catholics.
“It should be noted that all over America, people who have discovered they are descendants of Jewish conversos or adoptees who discover they have Jewish ancestry, are eagerly seeking their roots.”
I find this very hard to believe. I’m sure they’re coming by the thousnads! You make it sound very sensational but it’s really very unlikely just the the baal tshuva movement there are no tens of thousands becoming religious every year it doesn’t exist and this certainly doesn’t exist.
The Church by definition wants the world to become christian so telling a practicing catholic or even a non-practicing catholic that he’s really Jewish would be counter productive towards their ultimate goal. Therefore even telling a 70+ year old that he was born to Jewish parents would be a risk to them and they will certainly not comply. Aside from the fact that the church is very happy with these people not being Jewish and them being Catholic, they will certainly reason it will be too traumatic for these people whether it be to discover they were adopted or that they were born to Jews and therefore should not be revealed to them at any point.
Clearly, by writing letters to the Pope regarding Jewish children who were given to non Jews for safe-keeping during WWII and stayed after the war and raised as non Jews is grandstanding. It is not going to solve thye problem Only at the local archdiocese level can these people be told that their parents were Jewish and are certainly entitled to know this information.These is no excuse for denying these people these facts. Grandstanding is not needed just because some people have old hatred from what happened centuries old leading to the Holocaust.
Don’t these Jewish children (now adults) have rights too? Their parents were probably murdered by Hitler and the pope has the “right” to keep them? NO!! They have rights too! We owe it to their them and to their parents z”l,
I say to tell them asap. Even if they are old, and will do nothing about this revelation, it is important for their own children and grandchildren to know the truth. We all know that when their parents left them with the non jews, it was on condition that after the hideous war, they would be returned to their families. If not their immediate families, then , for sure to their People, the Jewish People.. I believe that they should be told and let them decide what to do
Definitely tell them. It’s up to each individual to decide what to do with this info. Actually, many of these people have a “feeling” that they are Jewish, but never did anything about it. It’s urgent to tell them for the sake of their children and grandchildren to know the Emes… before they pass away. It’s a terrible avleh that they perpetuate this horrible lie!