Not-so-strange bedfellows in media

ANALYSIS/OPINION:

The Lone Ranger would have been proud. Appearing out of nowhere but just in the nick of time 12 years ago, a modern-day crusader helped others breathe a sigh of relief. His assistance has since morphed into an important friendship, and a working relationship between conservative Christians and Orthodox Jews.

The crisis was the impending 2004 release of Mel Gibson’s “The Passion of the Christ,” which alarmed some Jewish organizations — including the Simon Wiesenthal Center, which I serve as the director of interfaith affairs. Many centuries of tragic history ingrained in Jews a deserved fear of depictions of the crucifixion of Jesus. Under Hitler, for instance, the Oberammergau, Germany, passion plays riled the masses into a violent frenzy against Jews who were depicted as the scheming “Christ-killer” figures.

Jews were in a quandary about what to do about the Gibson film. It would be shown worldwide, including many countries where a primitive, religion-based antipathy to Jews was alive and well, and its unusually vivid depiction of the passion could easily fire up people. Jewish leaders knew, however, that their arguing against a creative retelling of a New Testament story would be viewed by Christians as the height of arrogance or chutzpah.

My organization faced a particularly difficult predicament. A concerned citizen who had seen a pre-release version of the film said Mr. Gibson’s “artistic” choices included ones that consistently portrayed Jews negatively, despite Mr. Gibson’s assurances to the contrary.

Jews needed some credible non-Jewish voices to come to the rescue, to cry foul.

Article source: https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2017/dec/13/not-so-strange-bedfellows-in-media/