rat I TOVI , ..;1114r i)fr.V, 4110 1 '1 THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS 14 Friday, November 2, 1979 FULL TIME PROTECTION FROM 1;- MARV CHECK • • • • Burglary Vandalism Fire Personal Attack tt MARV ROSEN AM Price You Can Afford NCITTF1 7C 1: IE Automatically Notifies within seconds Police Dept. & Fire Dept. Central Office riidden Wire Installatio, You Won't Know We've Been There emergency reporting system with 24 hr. protection AMERICAN PROTECTIVE ALARM INC. 838 _7008 Revised. Passion Play Still Anti-Semitic SAN FRANCISCO (JTA) — Despite a serious effort by officials of AOberam- mergau, West Germany to cleanse the 350-year-old Passion Play of its anti- Jewish polemic and prej- udice, the drama remains "structurally anti-Semitic." It continues to malign Jewish law, to depict the Judaism of Jesus' time as corrupt and punitive, and to dramatize those Gospel sources which cast the most negative light on Jewish motives and actions. These conclusions emerge from the latest line-by-line analysis of the revised 1980 Obermammergau Passion Play published by the Inter- religious Affairs Depart- ment of the American Jewish Committee. The findings of the study, entitled "Oberammergau 1980 — Progress and Prob- lems," were made public last Thursday at a meeting of the AJCommittee's Inter- religious Affairs Commis- si on. "Our systematic study of the 1980 text finds that a number of significant passages, scenes, and language changes have been made which corre- spond in detail to the findings of the German- language analysis which AJC delegations submit- ted to the Oberammergau Town Council and dis- cussed with them during our four meetings in 1977, 1978 and 1979. The re- moval of these anti- Jewish passages are to be welcomed. "Nevertheless, the over- riding conclusion of our latest study is: 'As it stands, the drama retains an anti- Jewish impact despite the well-intentioned efforts of those who have revised it.' " Unfortunately, the study continues, "These well- meaning modifications are undermined by the drama itself:for the way in which the story unfolds and de- velops h not been basi- cally altered. . . . Thus, the Jewish religious leaders of the time are all lumped to- gether as hateful enemies of Jesus who cynically manip- ulate the populace into a screaming mob, and who hound Jesus to the cross and derive joyful satisfaction from his condemnation and suffering. The merchants, though their importance has been dimished (in this text), still play their non- Biblical role. "Pilate is still portrayed as a sympathetic weakling, forced into condemning Jesus by the cruel Jews against his will. Jewish law is still depicted falsely as harsh and punitive. The Jewish people still call down the blood curse upon themselves and their chil- dren. "In short, revision of the Oberammergau drama has taken the form of substantial cutting, but not of essential re- thinking. The traditional anti-Jewish polemic which shaped the origi- nal text has not been examined, nor have the insights of current bibli- cal and extra-biblical scholarship been incor- porated into the dynamics of the play." Tanenbaum reported that "significantly, a leading Catholic priest-scholar in Germany, Father Wilm Sanders of Hamburg, who is a member of the Ecumen cal Study Commission of the German Catholic Bishops Conference and German Coordinator for the Societies for Christian- Jewish Relations, has com- pleted his own study of the 1980 revised text, and his conclusions coincide with those of the American Jewish Committee study. Tanenbaum announced that the AJCommittee study was being published in German by the Bavarian Catholic Academy in Munich and would be dis- tributed to the German and international press as well as to tourists who will be attending the 1980 per- formance. Appearance of New Elie Wiesel Books Mark Lecture on Tuesday KV-1943 SONY Remote 3131idltEitlArtitglr 114E4.11'2411Ni. • 19" screen measured diagonally • Trinitron Color System • Keyboard Express Commander infrared re- mote control: 14-pushbutton design, up/down channel search, up/down volume control. vol- ume muting switch • Express Tuning: instant channel control with soft-touch 14-pushbutton electronic tuning system- Newly developed picture tube for improved picture quality, sharp resoution even at cor- ners • New Alpha chassis • Lumisponcier: automatically adjusts bright- nesi and contrast • Advanced VHF/UHF combined tuner for greater sensitivity end sek.ctivity • 100% solid state • Earphone included oNLy $55 SONY L-750 Brand New in Cartons L-750 BETAMAX VIDEO RECORDER CASSETTES I Record for up to 3 hours with new L-750 on With This Ad cassette. 30825 Greenfield Rd. (Just South of 13 Mile) Daily 10-5:30 Sat. 10-5 „ (any quantities) Only "$16" m astei WE WON'T LOSE A CUSTOMER OVER PRICE! TamaRoFF Buick Opel] Honda I 353-1300 28585 Telegraph Across from Tel-12 Mall — Near 12 Mile Out of town calls accepted. Open Mon. & Thurs. til 9 p.m. Two new volumes by Elie Wiesel are coming off the press this week simultane- ous with the eminent authority's lecture here next Tuesday evening at the Education Center of Lubavitch (the Labor Zionist Institute) Weisel will speak on be- half of Lubavitch to an in- vited audience of 200 com- munal leaders. Irving Laker will chair the eve- ning. Weisel, chairman of the President's Commission on the Holocaust, has pub- lished more than 17 books and novels on Jewish mysti- cism, Judaism and the Holocaust. He is a member of the boards of Oxford Centre for Postgraduate He- brew Studies, Ben- Gurion University of the Negev, Haifa University, Tel Aviv University, Bar-Ilan University, Yeshiva University and the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society. He is currently Andrew Mellon Professor in Humanities at Boston Uni- versity. Wiesel appeals to the con- science of mankind in his revealing works about the Holocaust and the horrors of the Hitler era. His writings protest against the indignities im- posed upon the Jew while depicting the dignity with which the sufferings were ,kndured. He raises his voice in protest against the threats to Jewish exist- ence and to the Jewish state. He is among the chief in- terpreters of Hasidism in his appeals for adherence to the traditions which are vital to Jewish existence. The most noteworthy of ELIE WIE SE L his writings are compiled in "A Jew Today" (Random House). Wiesel's "A Jew Today" packs into the 200-page paperback a number of the most important of the emi- nent author's essays. There is a measure of gloom in some of the con- cerns evidenced in his es- says over the state of af- fairs in Israel and the Diaspora. Nevertheless, the faith that is the do- minant factor in the Wiesel philosophy is up- permost in the analyses of conditions that affect world Jewry. A lifetime of experience as a survivor from the Buchenwald concentration camp, as a pleader for jus- tice for the Jew, as a visitor in Russia whence he brought the message of seekers of justice against the oppressions suffered there, Wiesel is the in- terpreter of conditions af- fecting Jewry in his ex- cerpts from his letters and his role as historian of con- temporary Jewish life is in- corporated in these essays. "A Quest for Jerusalem" is one of his powerful analyses of an issue that needed definition and re- ceived it from the master in- terpreter. When the shocking at- tack at the UN equated Zionism with racism, Wiesel registered the most powerful condemnation of the bigotry that emerged from the anti-Semitic cabal. That essay provides a refu- tation of such magnitude that the Wiesel statement is among the major articles written as a condemnation of bigotry. Wiesel exposed the un- friendly attitude of Ale- xander Solzhenitsyn and its incorporation in these essays is a valuable re- tention of important facts involving a Russian who has captured the head- lines in this country. His letter to a young Palestinian Arab is as timely today as rejection of misunderstandings. His plea against despair and retention of faith is a vital declaration serving as a guide for world Jewry. In its totality, this Ran- dom paperback is one of the very powerful collections which have made Wiesel famous as a major interpre- ter of Jewish traditional votions as well as the dett....-p) sive obligations for the pro- tection of Israel and the just rights of Jews in Russia. * * Wiesel's 'A Beggar in Jerusalem' Paperbacked Elie Wiesel's "A Beggar in Jerusalem," a notable work describing an experi- enced visit in Israel, with emphasis on the situation in Jerusalem, has been re- printed as a Simon and Schuster Pocket Book. This has emerged as one of the most recent of the Wiesel books defining con- ditions in the dreams of statehood. Written in the form of a novel, the major events of the century are depicted here.