The Jewish Attitude to the Passion

I could have been famous this month. It's been a long time since journalists from three media outlets called me within the space of twenty four hours asking me for interviews. Channel 7, Associated Press, SBS.

I didn't return the calls.

It was obvious what they wanted to discuss - and I was not prepared to give it any more airing in the secular media than it already had.

You see what matters is not what is true, but what is perceived to be true.

Hannan Ashrawi is an anti-Semite. No question about it. But she is perceived as a Peace Maker. And any attack upon her was construed as an attack on Peace. There was simply no way that we could have won that media war, something that the powers that be should have realized from the onset.

I learned this the hard way. I strongly opposed the Oslo Process in 1993 and made no secret about it. I was not opposed to Peace. I was opposed to what to me and many others was obviously a phony peace - a peace that would lead to more deaths. But we were in the minority and that is not how it was perceived. Anyone opposing Oslo didn't have a chance to even state their case. People's eyes and ears were shut. Anti-Oslo, according to popular sentiment, equaled anti-Peace. No discussion, no debate. Even today, after all the horror and the bloodshed, the architects of Oslo are still judged as the major architects of Peace. Popular wisdom, even when false, dies a slow death.

The Passion is a remake of the worst form of anti-Semitic incitement. It is a monstrously scaled up version of the medieval passion plays which incited believing Christians to murder Jews. Every year, before Easter, Jews feared for their lives. And for good reason. It was not unusual for Christians, following a particularly poignant passion play depiction of Jesus' death, to invade the Jewish Ghetto and murder Jews.

It was the belief that Jews killed Jesus that incited the First Crusade destruction of Rhineland Jewry. One crusader's account recalls, "Behold we journey a long way to seek the idolatrous shrine and to take vengeance upon the Muslims. But here are the Jews dwelling among us, whose ancestors killed him and crucified him groundlessly. Let us take vengeance first upon them. Let us wipe them out as a nation."

And lest anyone think that was only a medieval phenomenon: in 1942, the Slovakian papal nuncio, when asked by the famous Rabbi Weismandel to intervene on behalf of Jewish children slated by the Nazis to be deported to concentration camps, refused. "There is no innocent blood of Jewish children in the world. All Jewish blood is guilty. You have to die. This is the punishment that has been awaiting you because of that sin [of deicide]," he replied.

We Jews should know this. And we should not support a film based on a belief that has brought untold tragedy to our people.

Dennis Prager argues that modern Christians see the movie in terms of Jesus' suffering for all mankind rather than in terms of Jewish culpability for his death. This may be true in some cases. But there are Christians in countries other than the US and Australia who may not make such a subtle distinction. And I am not at all that sure that he is right even in our "enlightened" countries. It was only last year that I was accosted by a Macquarie Street solicitor at gym who told me, "Well you Jews are responsible for the world's problems. After all, you murdered our lord".

But should we come out publicly against it? I don't think so. The Passion is based on the New Testament - hardly a pro-Jewish document in its depiction of Jewish culpability in the death of Jesus. But it is the gospel of millions of people. Does anyone in their right mind believe that Jews seen "attacking" the New Testament will come out on top? On the contrary, it would only attract more free publicity, create more frenzy, and make more money for Mel Gibson.

I hope that it is not futile to expect some decent Christians to speak up against the true and on-going Deicide - the murder of G-d's Chosen People for no other reason than that they are G-d's Chosen People - and the incitement that leads to it.

As for us, I think that this is an occasion where we would be wise to follow the words of our Prophet Isaiah: Come, my people, ... hide yourself for a little while, until the wrath has passed.