Full Court Jew
Radbam March 8th, 2010
Figure 2: Pacelli (center) at the ignominious signing ceremony of the Reichskonkordat {Wikipedia: German National Archives}
In my usual, quick quotidian scan of the Times, the articles on Judaism, Israel and the Grateful Dead usually stand out for deeper reading. Most of us need these filters, for how much mental energy can we really devote to the Nigerian coup-of-the-moment or the latest Avatar-inspired fodder for Fashion Week. And so this morning’s bizarre piece about a self-described “shlmiel” retiree who moonlights as a papal knight and apologist for the allegedly MIA Pius XII during WWII drew considerable interest.
I’m not sure what it takes to become a source of Swiss Guard sycophancy these days, but I bet the bar is pretty high for a Krupp from Queens, and garnering pet scan machines for an Italian hospital just doesn’t quite seem to cut it. Far more compelling for a Vicar of Rome increasingly set on a regressive agenda inclusive of this controversial canonization would be to elevate an ordinary-schmo-of-a-Jewish-spokesman with claims of scholarly support.
In an era of increasing concern about the breakdown of Catholic/Jewish relations and the repudiation of the progress since Vatican II, the lauding and exploitation of this well-meaning but clearly over-his-head refugee from a Deli breakfast klatch is, as Krupp might characterize it, a shanda.
There is a longstanding figure in Jewish history, our version of an Uncle Tom or the “House Negro,” called the Court Jew. He supported the agenda and standing of the gentile monarch, represented his patron to the Jewish community, often against its best interests, and profited handsomely in coin and station. Even those who sought nobler purpose could too easily buy into their own hype. And while I’m sure Gary Krupp believes he is doing his part for peace and reconciliation between historic antagonists, the seductions of this last bastion of awe-inspiring, divinely-sanctioned royalty could cloud the discernment of even the most modest of souls.
If the current resident of St. Peter’s truly aspires to promote Pius while resolving troubling concerns about his actions (or lack thereof) during the Holocaust, immediate access to all pertinent Vatican records would serve this cause far more thoroughly and honestly than trotting out suburban semites. Suspicions borne of silence cannot be quelled by even the most unassuming of the sons of Abraham.
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