It appeared unlikely today that the New York City Department of Consumer Affairs will take any action on a request by an Orthodox Jewish organization that the film, “No Hiding Place,” be labelled as a missionary movie.
A spokesman for Consumer Affairs Commissioner Elinor Guggenheimer told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency today that the department is investigating the complaint made by Agudath Israel of America that “newspaper advertisements misrepresent the film as being commercial entertainment on a Holocaust theme, when actually it is an out-and-out missionary tract with a hard-sell evangelical pitch.” The spokesman said, however, there is no law which requires the producer’s name to be on advertisement for the film.
“No Hiding Place,” which is based on a book written by Corrie ten Boom, a Dutch-Christian woman, who helped save some Jews during the Nazi occupation and was herself arrested and tortured by the Nazis, is produced by World Wide Pictures, a subsidiary of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association.
In its complaint to the Consumer Affairs Department, Agudath Israel demanded that newspaper advertisements say the film is a “Billy Graham evangelist production” and that the theaters where it is shown are leased by the Graham organization. In addition, Agudath Israel and several other Jewish organizations have complained that missionary literature is being distributed in the theater lobbies to unsuspecting film goers.
INTENT IS NOT CONVERSION
However, Rabbi Mare II, Tanenbaum, national director of the American Jewish Committee’s Interreligious Affairs Department, told the JTA today that he does not believe the intent of the film itself is to convert Jews to Christianity. He said that officials of World Wide Pictures have stressed to him that the film, which is being shown throughout the country, is aimed at Christians not Jews.
As for the missionary tracts being distributed in the lobby, World Wide claims that this is being done by local groups in each community, according to Tanenbaum. He said the producers have promised to send a letter to all theaters asking that this practice be stopped.
Tanenbaum said that Billy Graham told him about a year ago that he was concerned about the increase of anti-Semitism and wanted to make the film to show that it was Christian duty to help Jews. The claim that the film was aimed at Christians was also stressed by Leighton Ford, Billy Graham’s brother-in-law, and Dr. Paul E, Toms, president of the National Association of Evangelists, during the Evangelical-Jewish National conference now being held here, according to Tanenbaum, who is one of the conference’s co-chairman.
However, Tanenbaum said that despite its intentions, the film does prove to be offensive to Jews. He said the film shows Christian faith as being strong without showing anything of the strong Jewish faith that sustained many Holocaust victims. In addition, he said, the film uses the Holocaust as a prop or foil for showing the greatness of Christianity. Similar complaints have been made by some film critics and Jewish organizations, including the National Conference of Yeshiva Principals, (By David Friedman)
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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.
