SO TO SPEAK

Jesus gets his closeup: Mel Gibson must be careful with his 'Passion' film. It has the capacity to resurrect old anti-Semitic views. (Rabbi A. James Rudin, July 3, 2003, Jewsweek.com)

Like many similar stage productions and movies of the past, The Passion focuses on the death of Jesus. Historically, passion plays have been a fetid source of anti-Jewish images.

An ad hoc group of seven prominent New Testament scholars -- four Catholics and three Jews -- recently reviewed an early version of the screenplay along with representatives of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops and the Anti-Defamation League. In the spirit of full disclosure, all nine panel members are my colleagues in interreligious relations. However, I have not read the screenplay or the group's 18-page report.

The scholars were unanimous that The Passion script contained enormous problems because of its toxic negative portrayal of Jews and Judaism and because it runs counter to authoritative "magisterial" Catholic teachings about the proper presentation of the death of Jesus. [...]

The Passion is an important matter because movies transmit potent images throughout the world. The Crucifixion story is radioactive
material.

"fetid" "toxic" "radioactive"? It's strange that the Rabbi even borrows one of the themes of anti-Semitism, which often associated Jews with dirt and disease, for his essay. (Rembember the uproar--entirely justified--when Louis Farrakhan called Judaism a "gutter" religion?) If you're going to complain about the potentially inflammatory nature of someone else's words, don't you need to watch your own? Posted by Orrin Judd at July 3, 2003 12:09 PM