Dr. Joachim Prinz, chairman of the commission on international affairs of the American Jewish Congress, said today that the Congress was awaiting official confirmation of statements that the Oberammergau Passion Play was being revised to rid it of the “bigotry and virulence that have so long contaminated the Oberammergau festival.”
Commenting on the reports from Munich, Rabbi Prinz noted that “the American Jewish Congress called for changes in the Oberammergau Passion Play because an examination of the text showed it to be deliberately designed to incite hatred against the Jewish people. Indeed, Adolf Hitler himself found the play to his liking because of its vicious anti-Semitic tone and content.” Dr. Prinz said he was “encouraged” by the report that script changes were being made “in accordance with the new ecumenical spirit of the Catholic Church.”
JTA dispatches from Munich Sunday quoted Deputy Mayor Artur Haser as saying that the text was being studied by a priest to determine whether there was anything anti-Semitic in it. An aide to Julius Cardinal Doepfner, Archbishop of Munich, said that the text had been “brought into accord” with the Vatican Council schema on the Jews. The American Jewish Congress had called for a boycott of the Oberammergau festival to be held in 1970.
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.
