Two major American Jewish organization expressed gratification at the decision to shift the focus in the Oberammergau Passion Play from the Jews’ role in the death of Jesus to that of Lucifer, However, one major Jewish organization expressed reservations.
Rabbi Marc H. Tanenbaum, the American Jewish Committee’s national director of interreligious affairs, whose departmental staff conducted and publicized two line-by-line analysis of the Passion Play text in the past ten years, termed the change in focus a “significant breakthrough in the decades-long struggle to uproot prejudice and anti-Jewish hatred.”
He declared that the decision to eliminate anti-Semitic references in the play was of particular significance because it took place on the eve of the tenth anniversary of the declaration by Vatican Council II which officially removed the charge of decide from the Jewish people. Rabbi Tanenbaum expressed special appreciation to “Catholic officials in Vatican City, West Germany and the United States, as well as to the German government authorities and the mass media,” all of whom, he said, played decisive roles in bringing about the textual changes.
The American Jewish Congress stated. “It is welcome news that the people of Oberammergau have finally come to appreciate the importance of presenting the crucifixion play with fidelity to the Biblical text and with regard to the sensibilities, rights and dignity of other religious faiths.”
The AJ Congress, which launched an international campaign nearly nine years ago to eliminate all anti-Semitism in the Passion Play, said “It has never been a question of seeking to suppress a celebration of the Passion of Christ. The choice is not between the genuine and synthetic but between two texts of equal standing one of which avoids a deplorable attainder of the Jewish community for the death of Christ.” They continued. “We oppose that kind of religious or artistic commitment which can find satisfactory release only in discredited libel against the Jewish people.”
DEVIL CHARGE IS ANCIENT
However, Rabbi Leon Klinicki, director of the Anti-Defamation League of B’nai B’rith’s department of Jewish-Catholic relations said, “The announced changes if they are real changes, are welcome and will help the cause of Christian-Jewish understanding. However, it is important to point out that in medieval times, Jews were charged with being ‘agents of the devil’ and some
The current Passion Play text, last performed in 1970, was written almost 100 years ago, and contained numerous references to Jews as having been responsible for the crucifixion of Jesus. The decision to revise the text was made on July 30 at a meeting of the Town Council of Oberammergau, which agreed to return to another version of the play, written in 1750.
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