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Italian Chief Rabbi Broadcasts Greetings to Pope on 8oth Birthday

March 5, 1956
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The best wishes of Italian Jewry to Pope Pius XII on the occasion of is 80th birthday were voiced here this weekend by Chief Rabbi Elio Toaff, in a specially arranged nationwide broadcast.

Eugene Zolli, former Chief Rabbi of Rome, who converted to Catholicism in 1945, died here Friday. He was 75 years old. Born Israel Zolli, in Poland, he changed his first name to Eugene, in honor of Pope Pius XII, at the time of his conversion. Zolli, who was first a rabbi in Trieste, was named chief rabbi here in 1940 and taught Hebrew at the University of Rome at that time.

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