4 Friday, August 24, 1984
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Obermmergau Passion Play
continues the embarrassment
BY JAMES R. LYONS
Special to The Jewish News
I must admit that I felt a bit
guilty for attending the famous Pas-
sion Play at Oberammergau. I had
read the text. I was aware of the long
PRODUCTION:
history of anti-Jewish teachings
Donald Cheshure
ACCOUNT EXECUTIVES:
Cathy Ciccone
Lauri Biafore
within the play itself. I had studied
Curtis Deloye
Rick Nessel
the background to the present play,
Ralph Orme
Danny Raskin
and seen the proclamation that it had
Seymour Schwartz
been brought into conformity with
© 1964 by The Detroit Jewish News (US PS 275-520)
Vatican II, and that Catholic and
Second Class postage paid at South6eid. Michigan and additional mailing paces. Subscription $18 a year.
Protestant theologians had reviewed
VOL. LXXXV. NO. 26 the play. I was aware that nearly 2 1 /2
CANDLELIGHTING AT 8:02 P.M.
hours of the more violent anti-Jewish
texts had been cut from the text.
Even so, I wondered if my very
attendance which supported the
wealthiest town in Bavaria was not
adding to the continuity of the teach-
ing of contempt about Jews and
Judaism. Yet, I went. Why? I felt it
With the great influx of immigrants into this country around the turn of
was important to see for myself.
the century, we needed an education system that would effectively integrate
After viewing the nearly 51/2
large masses of people quickly into a product-oriented society.
hours
of the play, I was embarrassed
In that age, people needed data. It was necessary for most citizens to have
. . . as a Christian. The theology of
a ready store of information that would enable them to cope with the effects of
the play is right out of the Middle
the Industrial Revolution. And what you knew was more important than how
Ages and represents no competent
you knew it.
theology of today, either in the
Things have changed. In our service-oriented society, data is readily
Catholic or the Protestant traditions.
available. In fact, it washes over us daily in great, drowning tides. It has
When I reflected that 500,000 people
suddenly become important for people to discriminate among bits of
would see this production during the
information, to link disparate bits into a logical chain. In effect, it is
course of this summer, and that each
important to reason.
would carry away a concept of the
Now, at long last, a few educators appear to have glimpsed the answer to
meaning of the life and death of Jesus
the question we have been asking for some time: "Education for what?"
based. on an historically inaccurate
pupils
here
and
there
around
the
Washington
Post,
According to Monday's
presentation of the last days of Jesus,
country, aided by a man named Matthew Lipman, founder of the Institute for
I was angry as well as embarrassed.
the Advancement of Philosophy for Children at Montclair State College in
I was embarrassed as an histo-
New Jersey, are learning not what to think, but how to think.
rian and Biblical scholar. The mis-
The change is long overdue. At the pace things are moving, data is
representation of the Jews, the fail-
quickly outdated. Jobs rapidly become obsolete. Equipment becomes junk
ure to portray Pontius Pilate for what
overnight. The one meaningful, flexible, adaptable factor in all of this
he was, the twisting of the Biblical
hell-bent rush, the one element that stands a chance of coping with it, is the
narrative to fit a preconceived idea,
human intellect.
and a wide range of historical inac-
But the mind must be taught to think. Happily, more and more people are
curacies (including a scene of Jesus
realizing that thinking and reasoning are not only central to our efforts to
cope with the technological age, they are absolutely crucial to the survival of
Rev. James Lyons is
mankind. In effect, we must think in order to live, a paraphrase of the
director of the
Cartesian aphorism, "I think, therefore I am."
Education for what?
,
No place for Nazis in U.S.
Resolution of the dragged-out Valerian Trifa case is summarized and
appropriately defined in a statement by a responsible spokesman for the U.S.
Department of Justice, who gave the assurance that there is no place for Nazi
criminals in this country and that Trifa will never again be domiciled here. It
should serve as a warning to the scores of escapees from punishment for the
multiple crimes they committed against humanity, and especially their
brutal participation in the mass murder of Jews.
The pity is that Trifa's church gave comfort to a criminal and ignored the
expose of his guilt as well as his own admissions of a share, even leadership in
the horrors that were perpetrated under Nazism in Romania.
To Dr. Charles Kremer goes much of the credit for the determination
with which the exposing of Trifa's crimes was carried into the courts and
secured the action by the U.S. Department of Justice to assure his
deportation. Even his final refuge seems to have been accompanied to the
puzzled granting of an escape by Portugal, after the denial of his application
for a haven by several countries.
Perhaps his defenders will learn to recognize the need and the pursuing
of other barbarians will be additional warnings that such criminals can not
find approval in any sense in this country, and hopefully in any other free
country in the world.
Southfield-based
Ecumenical Institute for
Jewish-Christian Studies.
NOW SNOWING
FAUN
going to Jerusalem with what ap-
peared to be a painting of Jerusalem
with the Dome of the Rock) raised a
whole series of questions for me.
1 was embarrassed as one who
works in the field of creating better
understandings between Christians
and Jews. The Jews in "funny'
horned hats, the portrayal of a
"rabbi" as a leader in all of the efforts
to condemn Jesus (a strange histori-
cal inaccuracy in every way), the un-
biblical manipulations of the Ro-
mans by Jewish leaders — all made
me wonder who determined that the
play had been brought into con-
formity with the guidelines of Vati-
can II.
One scene brought a cold sweat.
In one of the final scenes, almost 500
Isn't it possible to deal
with the death of Jesus in
an historically accurate
way, without the teaching
of contempt inherent in
every line of this play?
people are on stage screaming for the
crucifixion of Jesus. Each time they
cried "crucify Him," they raised their
hands in a manner reminiscent of the
Nazi salute. A Scotsman sitting next
to me said, "We are in 1939!" Re-
membering that this play had been
performed before Hitler in 1934, and
that the entire cast — with the sig-
nificant exception of Judas — had
been Nazis, I could only agree with
him.
Why does this essentially Greek
drama, with its chorus and its posit-
ing of the forces of "good" against
"evil," continue? The world is told a.
story of a religious vow made by the
Continued on Page 6
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Nava2.- 11
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