The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation has been urged to name a representative of Canadian Jewry to its Religious Advisory Council and to review pre-Easter performances of the Passion and crucifixion story presented by the network.
The proposals were made to J. Alphonse Ouimet, president of the CBC, by the Canadian Jewish Congress. The requests included the contention that, since there was no official relationship in Canada between the state and any particular church, “it would be fairest to include as wide a representation as possible of different faiths.”
Asserting that such action “would in no way be a disparagement of the many smaller Christian denominations” in Canada, the Congress said that in a national group which should include many differing religious viewpoints, “surely a group with as pronounced a viewpoint as ours and with as long an historical background in this country, should not be in the position of having its point of view represented by persons who, however sympathetic and well disposed, are not followers of that religion.”
The memorandum emphasized that “in matters of conscience numbers cannot be the decisive factor,” and added that the “criterion of admission” to the religious advisory group “would seem to be that of numbers.” Even on that basis, the memorandum asserted, consideration should be given to naming a representative of the Jewish religion to the council “to make it a body which truly reflects its name and intention.”
DISSATISFIED WITH PERFORMANCES OF PASSION AND CRUCIFIXION
In discussing performances of the Passion and Crucifixion stories, the Jewish memorandum noted that the performances have frequently evoked “dissatisfaction or resentment among elements within the Jewish community” who were provoked “either by the technique of presentation or the line taken by the plot, the emphasis frequently following the tradition of seeing ‘the Jews’ as perpetrators of decide.”
The memorandum said there was no issue of revision of theology involved and cited the “adequate number of scholars and Christian theologians who agree” that “the linking of decide with an ethnic or religious group is not part of the Christian tradition and should be rejected as counter to its tenets.”
The national Joint public relations committee of the Canadian Jewish Congress and B’nai B’rith said that, along with the memorandum, a number of exhibits were sent to the CBC president.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
