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"As we have said many times, our disagreement is not with Christian churches, nor with the Gospels. Our disagreement is with Mel Gibson whose own personal embellishments of the Gospels stereotype and denigrate the masses of Jews who were not followers of Jesus, while at the same time whitewash Pontius Pilate, who crucified a quarter of a million Jews and who was recalled to Rome by Caesar five years later for his brutality."
- Rabbi Marvin Hier, Wiesenthal Center Dean and Founder
"We will...continue on the path of friendship and closeness. We will continue our strong support for the State of Israel. We will not let our Jewish friends down in their time of need. We condemn unequivocally the cancer of anti-Semitism. We reject as unchristian with all the power we can muster any assertion that Jews collectively bare exclusive responsibility for the death of Christ...We will speak out against hatred of Jews...and we will declare loud and clear that we will not allow bigotry to drive a wedge between us."
- Pastor Ted Haggard, President of the National Association of Evangelical Christians
As Mel Gibson's controversial film, The Passion of the Christ opens in movie theaters this week in the United States, and then shortly thereafter in Canada, Europe, and the rest of the world, the Simon Wiesenthal Center has been one of the leading vocal critics of the film because of its stereotypical negative portrayal of Jews and sympathetic portrayal of Roman authorities that could, in turn, fuel antisemitism around the world.
In last June's Los Angeles Times editorial piece, Mel's Passion, Rabbi Marvin Hier wrote, "Gibson should consider the political context before bringing out his film. Globally, antisemitism is at its highest peak since the end of World War II. Synagogues and Jewish schools have been firebombed and Jews beaten on the streets of France and Belgium. According to some recent polls, 17% of Americans (up from 12% five years ago) hold to political and economic stereotypes about Jews; 37% hold Jews responsible for the death of Jesus. On the Internet as well as in print media around the world, the new demonization of Israelis as Nazi-like oppressors is fusing with the old libel of the Jews as "Christ killers." A cartoon in the Italian newspaper La Stampa (see above left) depicted an Israeli tank rolling up to a manger with little baby Jesus staring up in horror and crying out, 'Do you want to kill me once more?'"
Since last year when senior Wiesenthal Center officials began publicly expressing their concerns and endorsed changes to the film proposed by Christian and Jewish scholars, the Wiesenthal Center received an unprecedented wave of hate mail and calls. One letter stated, "...What this tells me is that you do not want the real truth to be shown on a public setting that will remind millions of Americans that the jews [sic] were in fact totally responsible for the death of Jesus Christ ...some of these enlightened folks will go for the throat of you jews [sic] and some of your offices of hate such as the ADL main office in New York, or maybe even the Simon Wiesenthal Center. Every time I hear of a suicide bomber killing jews [sic] in Israel I think to myself YES!"
Earlier this month, in an attempt to reach out to Mr. Gibson, Rabbi Hier (pictured left), who has seen the film twice, expressed his concerns directly to Mr. Gibson in a letter stating, "I have spent my adult life building an institution that promotes tolerance and commemorates the Holocaust. I have been a critic of your film, "The Passion of the Christ" which I sincerely believe portrays the Jews in a very negative manner and can once again stereotype them as being collectively responsible for the death of Jesus." Rabbi Hier proposed, "We can either go our separate ways or find a path to seek a middle ground..."(to read entire letter click here). To date, Rabbi Hier's letter has gone unanswered.
The controversy surrounding the film has escalated and given rise to misconceptions and distortions that threaten the status of Jewish-Christian relations and also takes away from the achievements of Vatican II's landmark 1965 document, Nostra Aetate, declaring "the Jews should not be presented as rejected or accursed by God, as if that followed from Holy Scriptures."
To combat this, the Center has written and distributed An Appeal to People of Faith, a document addressing the spate of misinformation regarding Jewish sentiment to the film and to reiterate the Jewish community's gratitude for decades of work on the part of the Christian community to distance itself from the religious roots of antisemitism. It also encourages the Christian community to proclaim that the Crucifixion's message is not one of violence or blame and that there is no room in Christian teaching to support the notion that today's Jews should be seen as the killers of God. An Appeal to People of Faith has already been sent to select leadership of all branches of the Christian faith. As Rabbi Hier noted, "Though we may differ over the film, our long term objectives to fighting bigotry and speaking out against antisemitism are too important to ignore." (click here for An Appeal to People of Faith and for longer in depth background document Background To A Dilemma).
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In Los Angeles, the day before The Passion of the Christ opened on Ash Wednesday, senior Wiesenthal Center officials met with Jewish and Christian leaders at the Center's Museum of Tolerance to address Jewish concerns and fears of antisemitic fallout over the film. Pastor Ted Haggard (pictured at podium), President of the National Association of Evangelical Christians, leader to 47 million, and a supporter of Gibson's film, stated, "We have come here to stand together to demonstrate the strength of the historical ties that bind Christians and Jews together...the relationship between us is too important and too strong to be compromised by our differences regarding this film. We will...continue on the path of friendship and closeness. We will continue our strong support for the State of Israel. We will not let our Jewish friends down in their time of need. We condemn unequivocally the cancer of anti-Semitism. We reject as unchristian with all the power we can muster any assertion that Jews collectively bare exclusive responsibility for the death of Christ...We will speak out against hatred of Jews...and we will declare loud and clear that we will not allow bigotry to drive a wedge between us."
In response, Rabbi Hier added, "... As we have said many times, our disagreement is not with Christian churches, nor with the Gospels. Our disagreement is with Mel Gibson whose own personal embellishments of the Gospels stereotype and denigrate the masses of Jews who were not followers of Jesus, while at the same time whitewash Pontius Pilate, who crucified a quarter of a million Jews and who was recalled to Rome by Caesar five years later for his brutality. This and a number of other of Gibson's dramatic improvisations could potentially imperil Jewish lives. This film will also shape the way millions of Christians and other movie-goers will look upon Jews for much time to come, and therefore threaten an important and beautiful Christian-Jewish alliance that has developed over the last half-century.
We are painfully aware that the power of vivid imagery has a history of inspiring in some people violence and hatred against the Jewish people. It is these concerns, against the backdrop of resurgent antisemitism in Europe and the Middle East that forces us to raise our voices (to read full text of Rabbi Hier's remarks, click here).
Click here to read:
Rabbi Hier's Editorial, Mel's Passion
Rabbi Hier's letter to Mel Gibson
An Appeal to People of Faith
Background to A Dilemma
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