Rabbi Marc H. Tanenbaum, national director of interreligious affairs of the American Jewish Committee, has disclosed that Israeli government authorities will not permit a Danish film producer to make a pornographic film about Jesus in Israel. Tanenbaum said that the producer, Jens Jorgen Thorsen, “obviously attempting to cash in on the current sickness of pornography, has prepared a film script that blasphemously seeks to portray Jesus as a drunkard, a fornicator and homosexual.”
Tanenbaum stated that “the promoters, who seek to release the film about “the love affairs of Christ,’ have announced with incredible arrogance that the film will be ‘blasphemous, pornographic, sadistic.'” Tanenbaum revealed that he had made an immediate inquiry of Israeli government authorities in Jerusalem and had received this official reply: “Mr. Thorsen has not applied to enter Israel for the purpose of filming, and should he apply for such purposes, he would be denied entry. The government of Israel will not allow any film to be made that would be offensive to any religious group.”
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.
