Perhaps it’s not so odd that a conservative, passionately Jewish American woman would always be mesmerized with the conclave and the consequential selection of a new pope.  After all, her late Orthodox Jewish maternal grandfather, who walked to temple twice a day, electrified half of the state of New York, and was a co- founder of two synagogues, was best friends with a Catholic Italian merchant in his small town of Troy, N.Y

One of my earliest formative memories was of Poppy Frank, glued to the TV, as a new pope was elected and introduced.  I asked him why, as a religious Jewish man, the Catholic investiture was so important.  He answered that the customs were very similar to those of Judaism and that respect of religious differences is an obligation.

I have been blessed with his love of America (coming to the U.S. from Germany as a teen) and his modern acceptance of religious differences.

Being from Philadelphia and a graduate of Villanova Law School, it was impossible not to feel the excitement of reflected glory, because Pope Leo was an undergraduate student at the university.  He majored in mathematics.  Surely, celebrations will follow.

This conclave turned out to be remarkably short.  And the result surprising: the first American pope since America was founded!  Of course, there is pride, and we marvel at the decision.  The new pope, Leo XIV, spent his career in Peru and speaks multiple languages.  President Trump was quick to congratulate him.  It is an honor for our country.

Of interest to the Jewish community will be Pope Leo’s opinions on the horrific, barbaric Hamas attack on Israel on October 7, 2023.  The war rages on 17 months later, with 21–24 hostages in captivity in Gaza, under inhuman conditions.

The question will be, will Pope Leo empathize with the fact that 1,200 Israeli citizens were brutally murdered and tens of others kidnapped without provocation, or will he follow Pope Francis’s more surprising stance — that Israel had overreacted to the Hamas gang rapes, burned babies, bodily mutilations, and barbaric murders?

One hopes...

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