NEWS

THE CADILLAC FAMILY PRESENTS

No down
payment

In Search Of
The Real Bach

ARTHUR J. MAGIDA

Special to The Jewish News

a month/36 months

1991 SEDAN DEVILLE

•Nbu must take retail delivery out of dealer stock. First month's lease payment of 5469. plus a 5500 refundable security deposit for a total of 5999 due at lease signing.
Other lees may be applicable at lease signing including GMAC acquisition fee. tax. license. title tees and insurance Example assumes a dealer funded capitalized cast
reduction of S3.630. Mileage chart tat per mile over 45.000. Lessee pays for excessive wear and use. GMAC must approve tease. Examples based on Sedan DeVitte:
832.191 MSRP, includes destination charge. Option to purchase at lease end br 815.581. Purchase at option price is fixed at lease signing and varies by vehicle model.
equipment level. usage and length of lease. See your participating dealer for qualification details Total monthly payments is S16.884.
"See Dreisboch Cadillac fir terms of this limited warranty.

Detroit's #1 CADILLAC DEALER!

*Cadillac customer loyalty certificate! Call for details.

SHOWROOM OPEN MON. & THURS. 9 AM.9 PM

Dreisbach
Sons

531-2600
GRAND RIVER

MICHIGAN'S 11

CADIIIAC SERVICE DEPT.

JUST W. OF TELEGRAPH

GLASS & PLASTICS

MAY SPECIAL!

•

Time to Inspect and
Repair Old, Cracked
and Foggy Windows

15% OFF ALL INSULATED
AND THERMOPANE GLASS

'"11111

7,11111 1

.47`e

• Complete Window and Doorwall
Repair Service
• Call For Free Estimate
• Commercial and Residential

Call today for a free estimate, or visit our Southfield showroom for a consultation,

22223 Telegraph Rd. (South of 9 Mile)
•353-5770

— Interior decorators and Builders Welcomed -
- Custom Glass Experts Since 1964 —

58

FRIDAY, MAY 17, 1991

T

olerance is better than
intolerance," said
Yale University
historian Jaroslav Pelikan.
"But understanding is
better than tolerance. From
that comes respect."
Speaking recently at a
symposium on "Religious
Intolerance in Western Cul-
ture: A Jewish-Christian
Dialogue on Bach's Saint
Matthew Passion," Mr.
Pelikan said the Christian
gospel from which the Bach
passion is derived is,
perhaps, of the four gospels,
"the most sympathetic"
toward the Jews.
Each gospel in the Chris-
tian Bible_ gives a slightly
different version of Jesus'
crucifixion and of Jews' role
in it. Matthew portrayed
Jews as being complicitous
in the crucifixion. He
depicted Pontius Pilate, the
Roman emperor in
Palestine, symbolically
washing his hands of
responsibility for the
crucifixion while Jews cry
out, "His blood be on us and
on our children.".
Mr. Pelikan said the
Gospel of Matthew, which
was written about six years
after the death of Jesus,
reflected "the counterpoint
of Torah to New Testament
being played out. It raises
issues of continuity and
discontinuity between the
two traditions."
The Gospel, said Mr.
Pelikan, attempted to bal-
ance established Jewish tra-
ditions with new, emerging
Christian beliefs. Garden of
Eden motifs, he said,
resonate in the portrayal of
Mary, Jesus' mother, that,.
in effect, equate her with
Eve, and also in several key
incidents in Jesus' life,
notably his sojourn in the
desert and his betrayal in a
garden.
"These antitheses," he
said, "are played out, also, in
Bach's Saint Matthew Pas-
sion."
This dichotomy was fur-
ther noted by Eric Chafe, a
Brandeis University pro-
fessor of music. The passion,
he said, retained Matthew's
assaults on Jews under the
guise of an accurate
historical account of the
crucifixion. But, he added,
this particular passion in-
cluded choral insertions by
Bach that reflected

Lutheran teachings which
focused guilt on the in-
dividual Christian sinner
and not collectively upon the
Jews.
"The parts of the passion
that could be seen as anti-
Semitic come from the text
of Matthew and not from
Lutheran beliefs," Mr.
Chafe said. "Lutheranism
shifted guilt to the listener
from the Jews."
Robert P. Bergman, direc-
tor of the Walters Art
Gallery in Baltimore, pre-
sented the evening's
bleakest examination of
art's portrayal of Jews.

"The parts of the
passion that could
be seen as
anti-Semitic come
from the text of
Matthew and not
from Lutheran
beliefs."

Eric Chafe

"In Christian art, there is,
at times, ambivalence
toward Christianity," he
said. But by the 12th cen-
tury, this ambivalence
almost never exhibited
toward Jews and Judaism.
Artists depicted a religion
that Christianity had risen
above. Art in Europe fre-
quently devalued the Old
Testament and portrayed
Jews as an ugly, base and
grotesque people who ritual-
ly killed children, sucked
-milk from the teats of a pig,
and who laughed at the
death of the man that Chris-
tians considered to be the
son of God.
Responding to a question
from the audience about
whether anti-Semitism in
music "as glorious" as
Bach's Saint Matthew Pas-
sion should be overlooked,
Mr. Pelikan responded,
"You do not perform
physical surgery, on a work
of art and remove the
offending parts. And you do
not bowdlerize an offending
text."
"What you do is place it in
its historical context," he
said. "And then you also
recognize that our grand-
children will see some things
in our work that will shock
them. But that doesn't stop
them from being our grand-
children."

❑

