(JTA) — A Jews for Jesus video showing Jesus in the selection line at a Nazi concentration camp has spurred criticism “as a cynical abuse of the Holocaust.”
The video, titled “That Jew Died For You,” was posted earlier this month on YouTube by the messianic organization and has garnered more than 1.1 million hits.
In the three-minute video, Jesus is shown carrying a cross as a Nazi officer standing at the gates of Auschwitz sends him to the gas chambers.
“Just another Jew,” the officer says.
“The Jews for Jesus video is a cynical abuse of the Holocaust for purposes of proselytizing,” said Abraham Foxman, ADL’s national director and a Holocaust survivor in a statement issued Wednesday. “It is deeply offensive not only to Jews who lost family members in the Holocaust, but also to Christians who would not want to see images of Jesus used for propaganda or shock value.”
Foxman called it an “outrageous cheapening” of the tragedy of the Holocaust.
Several media outlets also have slammed the video, which has gained added prominence in recent days in the run-up to Holocaust Remembrance Day, or Yom Hashoah, which begins on Sunday night.
“With recent anti-Semitic events in Kansas City and Ukraine, our YouTube video ‘That Jew Died For You’ is needed more than ever because it offers a message of hope in times of despair,” Christian Today cited Jews for Jesus Executive Director David Brickner as saying, according to Haaretz.
JTA has documented Jewish history in real-time for over a century. Keep our journalism strong by joining us in supporting independent, award-winning reporting.
