Many in the Jewish community respond with surprise (and sometimes contempt) to anyone Jewish who views Mel Gibson’s movie “The Passion of the Christ.”
Questioning one’s interest in seeing the latest cinematic representation of the suffering, death and resurrection of Jesus is understandable given the history associated with passion plays. Nonetheless, the events in passion plays are fundamental to the Christian faith and of deep meaning to many.
Given world events, we must ask ourselves: Is it really worth confronting American Christians over this film?
I saw the film at an invitation of a close friend who is a devout Catholic. It gave me the opportunity to try to understand the issues surrounding the film and discuss them with him.
Television news shows and talk radio are replete with those who appear to speak for the Jewish community. The debate over whether the film is “anti-Semitic” makes for dramatic lead-ins and sound bites. After all, passion plays have a centuries-old tradition of inciting anti-Jewish sentiment and violence.
The impression is that Gibson’s film has become the most daunting challenge facing the Jewish community, galvanizing our attention to the exclusion of all else. Whether this version of the Passion is “anti-Semitic” and Gibson’s true intentions in making it will never be resolved to the satisfaction of all sides.
Unfortunately, the debate — perhaps more than the movie itself — risks creating hostility among those Americans who have demonstrated the most steadfast support for Israel — religious Christians.
This demographic group provides the largest support for Israel of any in the United States. Already, prominent members of the news media and lay and clergy Christian representatives — typically ardent supporters of Israel — find themselves in an acrimonious and bitter debate with opponents of the film, who are nearly always Jewish.
The Jewish community is nowhere to be found when similar issues of importance to Christians arise. The Brooklyn Museum of Art’s “Sensation” exhibit in 1999 is a case in point. Viewed by many Christians as deeply offensive, it ignited a firestorm.
The Jewish community’s response was unsympathetic, cloaked in First Amendment arguments. Nor was there much Jewish sympathy with Christians over the controversies surrounding the 1988 film “The Last Temptation of Christ.”
Certainly, we must not be discouraged from openly discussing strong concerns about “The Passion.” The recent Jewish-Catholic Conference program at Congregation Shalom (reported in the March 26 Chronicle) was a great example.
More than 300 people (mostly Christian, by my informal count) came together for three hours. The Jewish-Christian dialogue was respectful, sensitive and constructive.
The Milwaukee Jewish Council for Community Relations should be saluted for co-sponsoring this program, from which I learned far more than all the news shows on the topic combined.
The event also gave me an appreciation of the controversies Christians have with the film unrelated to the Jewish issues. It also conveyed to Christians that Jews are interested in a dialogue about issues that divide our communities.
Soon, I hope, Gibson’s “The Passion” will find its way to relative oblivion as a DVD in a video rental franchise.
The Jewish community will then have to refocus on the truly enduring issues of the day: assimilation, genocidal anti-Semitism from radical Islam, anti-Zionism from the secular left, the anti-Israel environment on university campuses and the existential threat to Israel posed by A. Q. Khan and the Pakistani nuclear weapons bazaar.
There are certainly those who think it is naive to underestimate the impact of the movie in terms of the potential for anti-Semitic incidents. So far, at least, none has been reported. In the meantime, anti-Jewish threats continue to relentlessly flow from Europe and the Middle East, unrelated to the movie.
Let us not be engulfed in a major conflict with American Christians over Gibson’s movie. “The Passion” needs to be candidly discussed and differences defined. But let’s keep our sights on the real issues confronting the safety and future of our community. The movie is not one of them.
Ralph M. Schapira is a Milwaukee resident and professor of medicine at the Medical College of Wisconsin.
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