Passion will incite

Letters

Editor: I am writing in response to "Passion: A rabbi's view." (Bulletin, Feb. 27) Rabbi Leff's confidence in the sophistication of the "average Christian of today" as compared to the watchers of passion plays in the Middle Ages is touching if perhaps a tiny bit naive, in view of the fact that the modern audience of the German passion play included many senior members of the Nazi party.

According to Rabbi Leff's analysis, the anti-Semitic violence of this audience was sparked not by the passion play itself but rather by "the anti-semitic sermons that went with them." In the case of the passion play that was performed in the village of Oberammergau, history has preserved the record of the speech that followed that performance verbatim. The speaker, Adolf Hitler, delivered the following declaration: "His blood be on us and our children ... [Matthew 27:25], maybe I'm the one who must execute this curse ... I do no more than join what has been done for more than 1,500 years already. Maybe I render Christianity the best service ever!"

According to Rabbi Leff, Hitler's Nazi audience was unlikely to be influenced by the content of the passion play. This notion is contradicted both by the use to which the passion play was put during the Middle Ages and especially during the Nazi era. The alleged wickedness and bloodlust of the Jews provided not only the motive for anti-Semitic outrages but, especially as used by Hitler in his speech, imposed upon the German people the holy duty of executing the curse that they are reported in the play to have placed on their own head.

Rabbi Leff poses the question of whether the play will inspire anti-Semitism. Since it has always been used for this very purpose throughout the ages, to expect this hoary, notorious leopard to suddenly change its spots stretches the borders of credulity. With friends like the producers of this movie, who indeed needs enemies?

John Gort
Vancouver

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