Friday, June 13, 1980 5 :.:.:. ;;.;::::: 7.... 'WI , Daily—Hospital ..., THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS U.S. Cancels Oberammergau Passion Play Tours NEW YORK (JTA) — The Defense Department has ordered the U.S. armed forces to "cease im- mediately" all promotion of the Oberammergau Passion Play in West Germany be- cause of its "sectarian na- ture" and "anti-Semitic tone," the Anti-Defamation League of Bnai Brith has revealed. The ban, specifically di- rected to the Armed Forces Recreation Center, West Germany, which had been arranging tours to the con- troversial pageant, declared promotion "inappro- ; p e" and ordered that "no efforts be made in the future to promote similar commer- cial sectarian events." The Defense Department memorandum came in re- sponse to an ADL inquiry and information on the play. Disclosure of the ban was made in a report on the 1980 version of the Passion Play by Nat Kameny, chairman of ADL's program commit- tee, at the closing session of the 67th annual meet- ing of the agency's Na- tional Commission. Kameny said that while a "genuine effort" has been made to eliminate objec- tionable elements in the drama, "these . changes do not go nearly far enough." Noting that the villagers "emphatically deny" anti- PARIY-WIDOING-BRIINSMA111-BAR MITZYA LONG and SHORT DRESSES 1/2 OFF GROUP $99 GROUP $59 GROUP '99 $49 $29 PETITE-MISSES-EXTRA LARGE SIZES SHANDELS 154 SOUTH WOODWARD BIRMINGHAM * MI 2-4150 Semitic intent, he said that they nevertheless "do not comprehend the anti- Jewishness emanating from the traditional passion story accusation that the Jews collectively are eter- nally guilty of deicide." He declared that the cur- rent version, which incorpo- rates revisions suggested by ADL after analysis of the play's script, does reflect greater historical accuracy and today's enlightened Catholic theological atti- tudes. "But," Kameny went on to say, "although di- minished when com- pared to its predecessors, serious problems and major concerns remain." By RABBI MARC H. TANENBAUM (A Seven Arts Feature) I came, I saw, and I was appalled. I went to the Bavarian village of Oberammergau with a delegation of American Jewish Committee leaders to view an opening per- formance of the famed Pas- sion Play. Mayor Ernst Zwink of Oberammergau has made a number of widely- publicized statements to the effect that the play has been revised and purged of its anti-Semitic content. Would that were so! Three statements were added to the preface and prologue of the drama deny- ing the collective guilt of the Jews for the death of Jesus. But virtually everything that follows in the 51/2 hour drama makes powerfully the contrary statement: The Jewish High Priests and "the people of Jerusalem" are por- trayed as a virtual lynch , Jossi Stern, reg. $14.95 /2 Price JEWELRY: $1" 14Kt Chais, Mazuzahs, Stars, Chains Kiddush Cups, Talis Bags As Always, Spitzer's of Har- vard Row Has the Largest Selections at the Lowest Prices SPITZER'S presentations anywhere in production because four earlier AJCommittee mis- the world. Some 2,000,000 people sions had met with had been "exposed to its Oberammergau Mayor emotion-laden, anti-Jewish Ernst Zwink and with town message since World War officials who had assured II," Rabbi Tanenbaum said. the AJCommittee that they He said more than would make a "genuine ef- 500,000 persons from all fort to remove every vestige over the world are ex- of anti-Semitism in the pected to see the 1980 1980 production." Passion Play, which opened May 25 and will run through September. Performed every ten. FOR FATHERS years, the play follows Jesus into Jerusalem, through his arrest, trial, crucifixion and resurrec- tion. Tanenbaum stressed that the delegation had been shocked by the current Sympathy • • FRUIT '-:---, • -, BASKETS v • .. er . a ..,, 3 Times Dailiii ,t)„,,f. ••• •.• Nation-Wide ••• Delivery :.: .:. $ 1695 . . . RODNICK- :::: McINERNEY'S 779-4140 772-4350 "::: :779-4140 From OHRENSTEIN'S & TRAVELERS Tanenbaum Appalled by '80 Version of the Oberammergau Passion Play SPITZER'S FATHER'S DAY SPECIALS BOOK: People of the Book 1 Hopefully, he added, these will be addressed in time to revise the script and staging for special 300th anniversary pre- sentations already scheduled for 1984. Oberammergau has be- come "the international capital" of religious anti- Semitism, an AJCommittee delegation charged after having seen the opening performance of the 1980 Oberammergau Passion Play. Rabbi Marc H. Tanen- baum, the American Jewish Committee interreligious affairs director, said the Passion Play remained, after widespread protests, one of the most anti-Semitic /_At ja, %V3 ' Aw ',11, ' di . Harvard Row 11 Mile & Lahser 356-6080 contrary to historic fact, is shown as a noble weakling forced by the bloodthirsty, relentless Jews to crucify him. Bad as the text is, the cos- . turning and acting are even .- worse. The priests and rab- bis wear hats with horns, recalling the medieval image of the Jews as being in a league with the devil — the anti-Christ. The only consolation, and it is a scant one, is that many friends in Oberam- mergau, the reformers, are distributing German and English language studies RABBI TANENBAUM that the AJC prepared to mob who lust for Jesus' thousands of Christians death. Pontius Pilate, who will attend. Weizmann U. Developments Include Grants for Study REHOVOT, Israel — An unparalleled opportunity to understand one of the stor- miest periods in Jewish his- tory, stretching from the first years of political Zionism at the turn of the century to the early years of the state of Israel in the 1950s, is provided by the collected Letters of Dr. Chaim Weizmann, the 23rd and last volume of which has just been published by Yad Chaim Weizmann, the Weizmann National Memo- rial, in Rehovot, Israel. Israel President' Yitzhak Navon was presented with the first full set of these books in a ceremony at his official residence in Jerusalem. Meanwhile, some of the still mysterious aspects of immune system operation — details which may better explain certain inherited defects in immune system performance — will be studied under a $100,000 grant awarded by the Vol- kswagenwerk Foundation to the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot and to Mainz University in the German Federal Republic. 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