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Fisher 'Tribute Event
Opens 1992 Campaign

Sixteen years after hosting
the first Allied Jewish Cam-
paign pacesetters "Fisher
Meeting" in his home, Max
Fisher became the guest of
honor at the event which
traditionally launches
Detroit fund-raising on behalf
of the Jewish people here and
around the world.
Tribute to the international
Jewish leader accompanied
an announcement that
$9,309,899 in pledges has
been made to Detroit's Cam-
paign. Some 150 friends and
family members attended the
dinner Monday evening in
the Ritz-Carlton.
The sum was $345,227
more than the same con-
tributors pledged last year.
The total however, was

$500,000 less than monies
raised at the same meeting
last year.
Lawrence Jackier and Nor-
man Pappas, chairmen of the
'92 Campaign, expressed
their gratitude that this get-
together — held a month
earlier than any previous
Fisher Meeting — never-
theless recorded the largest
sum ever raised from these
donors.
Leslie Wexner, United
Jewish Appeal leader and
close friend of Mr. Fisher, paid
tribute to the honoree. Jewish
Federation President Mark
Schlussel presented Mr.
Fisher with an architect's
rendering of the new Federa-
tion building that will carry
Mr. Fisher's name.

FOLLOW-UP I

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FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 20, 1991

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he producers of a con-
troversial series of
animated Bible videos
will try to remedy its alleged
anti-Semitic stereotyping
and storyline after par-
ticipating in eye-opening
crash courses in Jewish his-
tory and sensibilities at op-
posite sides of the continent.
The skillfully crafted
"Animated Stories From
The New Testament," aimed
at Christian children, have
drawn strong protests from
the Anti-Defamation
League, Simon Wiesenthal
Center and individual
viewers exposed to a 30-
minute television commer-
cial promoting the series of
12 videos.
Criticism has centered on
the drawings of Jews,
reminding some of Nazi
caricatures, with those who
opposed Jesus pictured with
long and hooked noses,
whining voices and sinister
leers. They are portrayed as
cunning money lenders,
bribe-givers and uncaring
doctors and rabbis and, if
anyone should miss the
point, almost always wear a
tallit and yarmulke.
By contrast, the Jews ac-
cepting Christianity have
fair, all-American features,
Gentile noses, soft voices
and appear minus tallit and
yarmulke.
Executives at the Dallas-

based Family Entertain-
ment Network, which pro-
duced the videos, have
reacted with apparently ge-
nuine surprise and shock to
the Jewish criticism. In
meetings with ADL leaders
in New York on September
11 and with the top echelon
of the Wiesenthal Center the
following day in Los
Angeles, the executives
made a convincing case that
while they may have lacked
sensitivity, their motivation
was neither malicious nor
anti-Semitic. As a sign of
good faith, they readily
agreed early on to excise
three particularly offensive
segments in their television
commercial.
In addition to its objections
to the offensive caricatures
of Jews, the ADL group pro-
tested other aspects of the
videos, particularly in-
stances of historical inac-
curacy and ignorance of
biblical Judaism.
While the producers
pointed to the enormous
difficulty and expense of re-
vising the videos, of which
reportedly 400,000 have al-
ready been sold, they agreed
to make every effort to meet
the ADL objections.
In a related development,
Father Michael Manning, a
Catholic television
evangelist, resigned from the
advisory board for the video
series, expressing disappoint-
ment in his inability to detect
offensive characterizations.

❑