Steven Spielberg’s next film focuses on a little-known tragedy that ripped apart a Jewish family in Italy.
Based on The Kidnapping of Edgardo Mortara, a 1997 book by David Kertzer, it is the shocking story of a Jewish boy taken from his family in pre-unification Italy, with the blessing of Pope Pius IX.
Even though it seems like something from Medieval times, this happened in modern times; Edgardo lived until 1940.
In the 1850s, Bologna was the second city of the Papal States, an area of central Italy ruled by the Pope. Although many Italians were pressing for change, the city remained under sway of Church leaders. Bologna’s small Jewish community of 200 faced intense anti-Semitism and kept a low profile. In order not to draw attention to themselves, they had neither a community rabbi nor a synagogue.
Momolo and Marianna Mortara lived in the center of the city and employed a series of local teenagers to help look after apartment and children. In 1853, the Mortaras’ housekeeper was 14 year old Anna Morisi. She’d moved into their home a few months after their son Edgardo was born. Morisi took a liking to the little Jewish baby: when Edgardo became ill at the age of one, the teenager told the local grocer that he was a handsome baby and she’d be sad to see him die. The grocer suggested that she baptize the child – maybe that would help cure him.
“Your son Edgardo has been baptized,” the chief Papal policeman declared, “and I have been ordered to take him with me.”
The young babysitter didn’t know how to baptize anyone, but she improvised, throwing a glass of water on him and saying some words that she soon forgot. “I figured that it wasn’t of any importance since I had done it without really knowing what I was doing,” she later recalled.
But years later, the babysitter casually mentioned to a friend what she’d done to a Jewish boy she’d once looked after. Word soon travelled to Church authorities, and the girl found herself summoned to the official Inquisitor and interrogated.
Edgardo Mortara (right) with his mother and brother, c. 1880
The reaction of the Church was swift. The night of Wednesday, June 23, 1858, Papal Police descended on the Mortaras’ apartment and demanded to see all their children. Terrified, the Mortaras woke up their sleeping kids. Soon, seven exhausted children were assembled before the police: twin 11-year-old girls Ernesta and Erminia, 10-year-old August, nine-year-old Arnoldo, six-year-old Edgardo, four-year-old Ercole, and baby Imelda.
“Your son Edgardo has been baptized,” the chief Papal policeman declared, “and I have been ordered to take him with me.”
Weeping, both of Edgardo’s parents fell to their knees before the officer, begging for his mercy. A Jewish neighbor rushed to see what the commotion was about. “I saw a distraught mother, bathed in tears, and a father who was tearing out his hair, while the children were down on their knees begging the policemen for mercy. It was a scene so moving I can’t begin to describe it.”
As the family’s screams echoed through the neighborhood, local Jewish residents and some members of the Papal guard went to the local Inquisitor to see if he would change his mind. After 24 grueling hours, the answer came: having been baptized, Edgardo Mortara was now a Christian, and as such could not possibly be left to be raised by Jews. The next day, June 24, 1858, the little boy was torn from his mother’s arms forever.
Edgardo was brought to Rome. His kidnapping was attracting much attention. Eager to deflect criticism, Church officials put out an official version of Edgardo’s journey: immediately after being removed from his parents, they declared, Edgardo became a devout Catholic, asking to stop in towns along the way so he could see their churches. In reality, Edgardo later recalled sobbing for his parents. (He was falsely told they’d be waiting for him in Rome.) When he asked for the mezuzah he normally wore on a chain around his neck, he was given a crucifix to wear instead.
Despite mounting international pressure against the kidnapping, the Pope regarded himself as Edgardo’s “new” father and refused to return the child.
In Rome, Edgardo was raised in the House of Catechumens, a home for new converts to Catholicism, including some Jews brought there against their will. In the mid-1800s, it was illegal for Jews to approach the building or communicate with those inside. One Jew was arrested for merely looking through a window. Edgardo’s parents journeyed to Rome and after many months of pleading they were able to see their son briefly. Edgardo told his mother that he continued to say the Shema prayer every night.
Pope Pius IX himself took a personal interest in Edgardo Mortara. Despite mounting international pressure against the kidnapping, the Pope regarded himself as Edgardo’s “new” father and refused to return the child, nor even have any contact again with his parents. By the time he was 13, after seven years of intense Catholic education, Edgardo took an additional name Pio, in honor of the Pope. When he came of age, turning 21 in 1873, Edgardo was ordained a Catholic priest.
Moritz Daniel Oppenheim’s ‘The Kidnapping of Edgardo Mortara,’ 1862
In 1878, Edgardo’s mother Marianna visited him, reestablishing contact after years of being forbidden to see her son. Marianna found Edgardo changed. He now ardently wished to convert Jews, especially his family, to Catholicism. When Marianna died in 1890, Italian newspapers ran sensational accounts of her supposed conversion to Catholicism at the insistence of her illustrious priest son. Rather than bask in these reports, Edgardo took pains to let the world know the truth: “I have always ardently desired that my mother embrace the Catholic faith, and I tried many times to get her to do so. However, that never happened, and although I stood beside her during her last illness, along with my brothers and sisters, she never showed any sign of converting.”
The family stayed in touch. Edgardo’s great nephew Gustavo Latis told The Times of Israel in 2014 that for over a century, a picture of Edgardo stood in his family home with the dedication under it: “My blessed, beloved mother! May God keep you happy to the affection of your beloved son Pio-Edgardo, who loves you very much. Venice 15/XI/81”.
Gustavo Latis holds a framed portrait of Edgardo (Rossella Tercatin/The Times of Israel)
Latis recalls Edgardo visiting his home, hanging his big black priest’s hat in their hall. His grandmother Imelda, Edgardo’s youngest sister, was “very attached to Judaism,” he recalls. “She always made sure that we would fast on Yom Kippur and celebrate Pesach, and she loved cooking Jewish dishes….” Despite her strong commitment to her Jewish faith, Imelda continued to stay in touch with her brother. But she was careful around her brother. Her grandson recalls, “Although the fraternal affection between them never ceased, my grandmother was very cautious around him. She feared his preaching, especially for us children.”
Many of Edgardo’s Jewish relatives died in the Holocaust. Living in Belgium during World War II, Edgardo himself would have found his conversion to Catholicism insufficient to save him and might have been deported, had he not died in 1940, months before Germany’s invasion of Belgium, at the age of 88.
Steven Spielberg is currently casting the movie around the world and thousands of parents are excited about the prospect of having their child selected. Learning about this horrific story can help us appreciate that this was a real person and perhaps reminds us not to take our children’s Jewish upbringing for granted.
(14) RUTH KRIEGER, February 19, 2017 8:46 PM
A SILVER LINING
Having been educated in Catholicism, I'm very familiar with the Church forms of baptism. Baptism by Desire could not be a 6-year-old's decision. Hashem took Edgardo's Jewish soul before the Nazis. Perhaps he died with the Shema on his lips.His soul would have said them.
(13) anastasia, February 17, 2017 1:21 AM
I am upset to hear of this practice .The truth,however terrible it may be,needs to be aired in public.My heart aches for this family,for any family that is harmed by people in authority,who play GOD.
(12) Rachel, February 14, 2017 6:52 AM
Adoption, hidden children, and Pope Benedict
While agreeing that the Catholic Church and other Christian denominations have a terrible history reJews, I'd like to add the following:
1. The Church also forcibly placed the children of single mothers for adoption by married couples anywhere they had control.
2. My father-in-law and his brother were saved from the Nazis in occupied France by nuns who kept them in an orphanage under false names. They were returned to their mother after the Nazi retreat in 1945.
3. Pope Benedict was not in the Hitler youth by choice. It was mandatory for all Christian German children living in Nazi Germany. Drafted into the German army in the waning year of the war at the age of 15, he deserted as soon as he was able. Like his recent predecessors, he has worked to repair relations with the Jewish people.
(11) Anonymous, February 14, 2017 1:13 AM
3 Words
"With Papal Consent. " Stops there, that says it all. .
(10) jim, February 13, 2017 7:39 PM
study religions
never take face value regarding a religion! go deep before you go!
(9) Anonymous, February 13, 2017 6:02 PM
this was a play
I saw this story in play form at the Guthrie Theater. It was very riveting and well done. My own cousin was injured in an accident during the war and separated from his mother.when he was a small child. He was taken to a hospital for treatment. He was then hidden from his family and raised as a Catholic priest in Poland. His family was kept from contacting him all his adult life. He rejected them.
(8) Anonymous, February 13, 2017 1:48 AM
I will never see this movie if it is made.
Jewish history is perhaps the saddest, most depressing story in the universe. I prefer to focus on the positive: the work of Aish and Chabad and other outreach organizations such as Shavei Israel who work tirelessly to improve the quality of Jewish identify and bring people of Jewish ancestory back to Judaism. I love to see all the babies being born to the congregation of my synagogue. Each new baby gives the finger to Hitler and I get intense pleasure from that. When I go to the movies I prefer to be entertained, not educated, specifically in the gory details of what I already know.
jim, February 13, 2017 7:47 PM
my sentiments nearly exactly..
too much reality, should be in the daily newspapers for all to take seriously, not made into happy-ending entertainment for people to slough off as trivial. i don't do movies these days, little to enjoy.
Dvirah, February 15, 2017 8:47 PM
Where Are You Looking?
That would be fine if the newspapers were accurate in what they printed. In reality, there is more fiction in today's newspapers than in most movies!
(7) F dp Guzzo, February 13, 2017 12:12 AM
such is the laws and beliefs of people
As a Catholic it is sad to read this,
I look at the world of today and and past years, Most people of the world believe in God The Father and worship HIM, Humans in their pride do things trying to justify there actions in so called right rule over other humans..
all nations are guilty of this..
Power and control in The Name of God is saddening..
(6) Wendy Balaban, February 12, 2017 11:21 PM
Last sentence does not square with story of forced conversion
This is an informative story which deals with forced conversion of an innocent child and its mournful effects on his family. It would not have mattered how much or how little emphasis was placed on the child's Jewish upbringing. This family had no control over this situation which is the injustice and the tragedy of the entire situation.
Anonymous, February 15, 2017 8:50 PM
Point of View
If you mean the statement that "Edgardo himself would have found his conversion to Catholicism insufficient to save him and might have been deported", this would be due to the Nazi's insistence on genetic heritage rather than professed religion. The Nazis regularly counted as Jews people with only one Jewish parent and even those who had one Jewish grandparent.
(5) stan kessel, February 12, 2017 9:06 PM
FOR ANYONE TO ADEQUATELY UNDERSTAND THIS STORY REQUIRES A HISTORY OF CATHOLIC ANTISEMITISM. SO PERVASIVE IT WASN'T TILL 1965 POPE JOHN XXXIII FINALLY FORGAVE THE JEWS FOR THE CRUCIFIXION.
(4) Jeff G, February 12, 2017 8:09 PM
Lost Jewish Souls
People forget - or choose not to remember - that the Church was still stealing Jewish children as recently as 150 years ago; truly a medieval crime carried into modern times. How brutally ironic that our communities had to face generations of "blood libels", the false accusations that Jews were kidnapping and killing Christian babies. This period was quickly followed by the loss of Jewish souls during the Holocaust, not just through the mass murders, but also through the conversion of children - and even adults - hiding with Christian families and orphanages (unquestionably a great kindness at the time, these Righteous Gentiles risking their own lives to save their Jewish neighbours; but still a sad loss when these remnants of European Jewry weren't returned to the fold, at the war's end). I'm glad Spielberg will be bringing Edgardo Mortara's sad story to public attention. We can all share in and cry for the Mortara Family's tragedy. But we should also keep it in perspective: more Jews are probably being lost to Christianity and other world religions today than in all previous centuries combined -- not through coercion, but by missionaries and the even more insidious (because they're less dramatic) effects of assimilation and intermarriage.
(3) Charles E Reisen MD, February 12, 2017 3:30 PM
heard of another case
I have heard of another case involving a family named Leiwant. Any info appreciated.
This is why Jewish families in Italy would never let their children be cared for by gentiles, lest they be "baptised" and abducted.
(2) Anonymous, February 12, 2017 3:16 PM
spotlight
could there be any other reason other then religion why priests would want to take young boys?
shimon, February 12, 2017 5:29 PM
not only boys
it is an achievement for the church to convert jews to Christianity,
so boys as well as girls were targeted. if you read the book the Golem from Pragu you will see the hatred and animosity of the priests and church against the jews.
(1) Dvora, February 12, 2017 3:04 PM
Edgardo
I heard his story when I was quite young. Being orphaned at 3 1/2, ripped from my Jewish Home, forced to learn English instead of my native tongue, Yiddish, all had devastating affect on me. Why Edgardo caved into Papal demands, I am not quite sure. Torture is not out of the question. Food, sleep deprivation also can have a devastating affect on one's psyche. For me, it made me more devoted to Torah/Talmud. Actually, I was ALWAYS devoted to it and nothing will ever change that. Very tragic story.