'Gibson Doesn't Understand Us'

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With the wisdom of hindsight, it is easy to question whether people like Abe Foxman of the Anti-Defamation League and Rabbi Marvin Hier of the Simon Wiesenthal Center and other Jewish leaders helped generate countless box-office dollars for Mel Gibson's film, "The Passion of the Christ," which opens next Wednesday at some 2,000 theaters across the country.

After all, the film is mostly in Aramaic--with no English spoken--and depicts the last 12 hours of Jesus' life, focusing on his brutal treatment and suffering. If there had been no international controversy swirling around the film's alleged anti-Semitism, how many people would have gone to see it? Truth is, we'll never know. But it could be argued that the Jewish defense agencies overplayed their hand, speaking out so strongly and so often against the film that it worked to Gibson's advantage, creating widespread media attention and a backlash in the Christian community, rallying the faithful to come see the film in great numbers.

Of course if Jewish leaders had not spoken out against elements of the film that resorted to old charges of collective and eternal Jewish responsibility for Jesus' death, they would have been open to criticism that they failed in their mandate to protect the Jewish community and counter charges of anti-Semitism. What's more, the ADL and Wiesenthal Center can claim credit for pressuring Gibson to edit out what reportedly was the most prejudicial scene in the film. It is the one in which the Jewish High Priest says the Jews will take responsibility for Jesus' death, now and down through the generations, based on a widely reputed version of the Gospels. Even at this late date, though, it is unclear whether the scene is in or out of the film, and even if it is, Jewish leaders who have seen the film say it clearly depicts the Romans as peace-loving and Jews as bloodthirsty and demanding Jesus' death.

Many of us are torn between a sense of pride in Jewish organizations raising their voices in our collective defense and strong discomfort in being the center of a controversy, particularly one that makes a bad guy out of Gibson, one of the most popular Hollywood stars of his generation.

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