Israel Zolli, chief rabbi of Rome, had always been fascinated by the crucifix: Who was the man on the cross? Did he deserve to die? Then, according to a fascinating piece in Ignatius Insight, at the age of sixty-five, he met the man on the cross:
"[T]he very day he was asked to resume leadership of the Jewish Council, he confided to his Jesuit priest friend Father Dezza that he had other plans. 'How can I continue living in this way when I think very often of Christ and how I love Him?' Zolli was then sixty-five years old, weary and wanting to retire.
"Four months later, while in the synagogue for the feast of Yom Kippur, Zolli received a vision in which Christ spoke to him saying, 'You are here for the last time: from now on you will follow Me.' For Israel Zolli there would be no going back. Relaxing at home that evening he was at first reluctant to mention what had happened but when he did his wife admitted that she to had seen the same vision of Christ standing next to him."
On becoming a Christian, Zolli took a new first name--Eugenio, a tribute to Pope Pius XII, whom Zolli knew from firsthand experience to have been instrumental in rescuing Jews from Nazis.
A reportedly well-researched biography of Zolli by Judith Cabaud is, alas, only available in French. Madame Cabaud, by the way, also born Jewish, herself became a Christian. She compared this to "wanting to see the second act of a play of which we have attended only the first act."
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