The Good Pope - The International Raoul Wallenberg Foundation

Rabbi Arthur Herzberg
Visiting Professor of Humanities at New York University in charge of the Bronfman Chair.
Author of nine books, among them "the Zionist Idea" and with Aron Hirt-Manheimer, "Jews:
the essence and character of a people". He recalls a touching comment heard from the Great
Rabbi of Palestine during the British Mandate, Isaac Herzog, about the humanitarian
disposition of Monsignor Angelo Roncalli.
"In the fall of 1941, the then chief rabbi of the Holy Land, Isaac Herzog, traveled from
country to country on a mission to enlist the support of world leaders in stopping the slaughter
of Jews in Europe. When the chief rabbi reached New York, his friend and my teacher,
Professor Saul Lieberman, asked me to assist him. Late one night, after everybody had gone,
Rabbi Herzog, who was a truly holy man, was sitting in a chair by the window reciting psalms.
When he finished, he sighed and said,
"Hertzberg, I want to tell you a story. Before arriving in America, I traveled throughout the
Mediterranean on neutral ships, stopping in Malta, Cairo, Istanbul, and other cities to enlist
help in saving our people. Wherever I went, I met with the papal legate and always I was told,
'What can I do? My hands are tied.' Everywhere, I met with indifference or helplessness. The
one exception was Istanbul, where I went to see the Vatican's ambassador to Turkey,
Archbishop Angelo Giuseppe Roncalli. As I told him of the mass murders, he started to cry,
rose from his chair, put his arms around me, and said, 'Rabbi, what can I do to help?'"
Mordechai Arbell
Historian and researcher. Author of several publications, former consul of the State of Israel in
Istanbul and international director of Sephardic institutions.
"My great grandfather Samuel Nissimoff was a wealthy man. He donated one of his mansions
to the Bulgarian Jewish community. The residence is still today the headquarter of the
communitarian centre. A second mansion was rented to the apostolic delegate Roncalli. He
was a neighbour of the Nissimoff´s and became close friend of Samuel's children, Nissim and
Albert. When Roncalli knew that they were having trouble with their Latin he helped them
study and thanks to this action the boys passed their exams.
By the time Roncalli left Bulgaria he had become a close friends of the family. Both Nissimoff
brothers emigrated to Israel and they were deeply surprised when Nissim Nissimoff received
an official invitation to the investiture of Roncalli as Pope. Apart from the Nissimoff family,
Roncalli´s friends in Bulgaria were largely Jewish. Queen Joanna of Bulgaria, wife of King
Boris II, was Italian, daughter of King Victor Manuel. She became great friend with Monsignor
Roncalli, to the point that the relationship remained fluent even when he established in
Istanbul. The story goes that Roncalli informed the Queen that he had information about the
imminent deportation of Bulgarian Jews to the extermination camps in Poland. I understand
this was registered in the book of the then Protocol Chief of Bulgaria, Gruev, and in a
biography about the Queen Joanna".