Pope Gregory VII is not a figure most people outside of historians of medieval Europe as he was the first Pope to de-throne a king in the form of Henry IV of the Holy Roman Empire (1) and also conceived the idea and concept of the First Crusade. (2)
However, jews have claimed that he was in fact jewish.
For example, Max Isaac Dimont claimed in 1984 that:
‘It was a well-kept Vatican secret that Pope Gregory VII was descended from an Italian Jew named Baruch, founder of the banking house of Pierlone in Rome, who in 1030 C.E. converted to Christianity.’ (3)
This is complete nonsense since as the ‘Catholic Encyclopaedia’ observes:
‘One of the greatest of the Roman pontiffs and one of the most remarkable men of all times; born between the years 1020 and 1025, at Soana, or Ravacum, in Tuscany; died 25 May, 1085, at Salerno.
The early years of his life are involved in considerable obscurity. His name, Hildebrand (Hellebrand)--signifying to those of his contemporaries that loved him "a bright flame", to those that hated him "a brand of hell"--would indicate some Lombard connection of his family, though at a later time, it probably also suggested the fabled descent from the noble family of the Aldobrandini. That he was of humble origin--vir de plebe, as he is styled in the letter of a contemporary abbot--can scarcely be doubted. His father Bonizo is said by some chroniclers to have been a carpenter, by others a peasant, the evidence in either case being very slender; the name of his mother is unrecorded.’ (4)
Gregory VII’s academic biographer Herbert Cowdrey agrees pointing out that Gregory VII was not a member of the Pierleoni (aka Pirelone) family who were descendants of Benedictus Christianus (aka Leo de Benedicto Christiano) who he avers were were ‘probably jewish’ (5) but were actually just Gregory VII’s political allies – much as they were Pope Nicholas II - within the city of Rome and the Papal States as well as providing him with banking services. (6)
Indeed, it simply makes no sense because Benedictus was baptised by Pope Leo IX which puts that event sometime between 1049 and 1054 (not in 1030 as Dimont claims) and at best the future Gregory VII was 13-14 years old at the time and it would be unreasonable to suppose that we would not have known if he was one of those converted when in fact as far as the chroniclers are aware he was born in Tuscany to humble and/or peasant parents.
Thus we can see that Pope Gregory VII was not jewish.
References
(1) See Ephraim Emerton, 1990, [1932], ‘The Correspondence of Pope Gregory VII: Selected Letters from the Registrum’, 1st Edition, Columbia University Press: New York, pp. 149-154
(2) Peter Frankopan, 2012, ‘The First Crusade: The Call from the East’, 1st Edition, Vintage: London, pp. 14-16
(3) Max Isaac Dimont, 1984, ‘The Amazing Adventures of the Jewish People’, 1st Edition, Behrman House: New York, p. 105
(4) https://www.newadvent.org/cathen/06791c.htm
(5) Herbert Cowdrey, 1998, ‘Pope Gregory VII, 1073-1085’, 1st Edition, Clarendon Press: Oxford, p. 7
(6) Ibid., pp. 7; 27