Television stations in Los Angeles, St. Louis, Philadelphia and Pittsburgh were reported to have cancelled their scheduled showings of a Christian-oriented “Passover” program following a similar decision here last Thursday by WOR-TV. Rabbi Harold H. Gordon, executive vice president of the New York Board of Rabbis, and a spokesman for the Anti-Defamation League of B’nai B’rith reported the additional cancellations. The Rev. Dr. Daniel Fuchs, general secretary of the American Board of Missions to the Jews, advised the Jewish Telegraphic Agency through a spokesman that three other Los Angeles stations had picked up the program. But he refused to identify the stations involved. The program has also been scheduled by outlets in Denver, Minneapolis, Dallas, Miami, Phoenix, Washington and Chicago. It is titled “The Passover” and contends that the holiday seder is “a clear prophecy of a greater story–the story of redemption through Christ the Messiah…the redemption of all who will believe.”
The three traditional pieces of matzoh are said to “represent Father, Son and Holy Spirit,” with the finding of the afikomen connoting the resurrection of Jesus. The American Board of Missions is a Protestant group here that seeks to convert Jews. Dr. Fuchs’ own parents were such converts. He was quoted as saying that despite his and his members’ acceptance of Jesus as the Savior, “we feel that we are still good Jews.” Rabbi Gordon, whose protests against WOR-TV’s showing of the program were instrumental in its cancellation, told the JTA that the scheduling of it had been “very galling.” It was, he said, advertised by the mission board “under false and misleading pretenses,” with the implication that the group was an interfaith organization and not missionaries. The program, he charged, “does violence” to the Jewish traditions of Passover and presents “a mishmash of a Jewish holiday.” Joining the New York Board of Rabbis in protesting the WOR-TV scheduling were the ADL and the Synagogue Council of America.
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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.
