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December 3, 1999/24 Kislev 5760, Vol. 52, No.14
Valley Jews object to ASU trip to controversial play
CHRIS GARIFO
Staff Writer
Arizona State University officials are working to soothe ruffled feathers in the Valley's Jewish community over a planned ASU Alumni Association tour to the Danube River in 2000, which is set to include an optional excursion to Germany's Oberammergau Passion Play, historically considered to be anti-Semitic in its depiction of Jews.
However, producers of the play, who are elected by Oberammergau's residents, say they've made changes to the production and it no longer contains anything that could be considered anti-Jewish. Oberammergau, a town in Bavaria, has been producing the play about the final days of Jesus' life every 10 years since the 17th century.
In 1990, local Jewish leaders were outraged when the ASU alumni association offered a trip to see that year's production.
According to Jonathan Marshall, former publisher of the Scottsdale Progress and an ASU supporter, ASU agreed as part of a compromise negotiated in 1990 that the university would be sensitive in the future to the implications of sponsoring trips to Oberammergau. However, university officials now admit, it appears that no discussions were held with members of the local Jewish community prior to the alumni association's offering of the 2000 Oberammergau trip.
Marshall sent a letter to ASU President Lattie Coor, dated Nov. 5, objecting to the alumni association again offering a trip that includes the play. According to a letter Coor sent to Marshall on Nov. 16, the ASU president then asked Allan Price, ASU vice president for institutional advancement, to look into the circumstances surrounding the decision to include the Oberammergau option with "The Magical Blue Danube River Cruise Tour" in 2000.
Marshall, who together with his wife has been involved with ASU since 1963, including setting up and endowing a lecture series, called Coor's response "vague."
"As far as I'm concerned, either they cancel the Oberammergau part of the trip and substitute something else, or they send out a disclaimer saying it is an anti-Semitic thing and the university will have nothing to do with it in the future, or something like that," Marshall said. "Otherwise, they lose me as a supporter; and I'm sure quite a few other people."
Marc Lieberman, chairman of the regional board of the Anti-Defamation League in Phoenix, also wrote to Coor, requesting in a Nov. 22 letter that "if possible, the university not schedule a stop at Oberammergau for the play."
Rabbi James Rudin, director of religious affairs at the American Jewish Committee in New York, said "it's discouraging" that ASU is involved in a trip to see the passion play.
"I would hope, if they're going to do it, that before they leave, at least the leadership of the group avails themselves of a seminar in Arizona ... about passion plays in general and the dangers that they represented in the past for transmitting anti-Jewish images, the problems with this play over the years, the attempts at change and reform, (and) the current status," Rudin said.
ASU's Price said he would be in contact with leaders of the greater Phoenix Jewish community to explore ways of making the Oberammergau trip more palatable to them. He also hopes to "create some institutional memory about this so that 10 years from now this isn't happening again."
Price said the AJC's suggestion of a workshop about the passion play and its history sounded reasonable.
"We're in the education business, and I think creating an opportunity (for participants to) receive information about the views people have of the passion play would be totally consistent with the mission of the university," Price said.
The people of Oberammergau began presenting the play in 1634 to keep a vow that town leaders made to God, as part of an effort to save the village from the Black Plague, which was decimating Europe at that time. The play lasts about six hours, and the cast of about 2,200 is made up solely of town residents.
The play has a reputation of being anti-Semitic, in part because it depicts a Jewish conspiracy to kill Jesus. Adolf Hitler, after seeing the play, reportedly called it a perfect tool in the fight against international Judaism.
Otto Huber, the text writer and one of two directors of the year 2000 production, said that the play has been heavily reworked to eliminate Jewish stereotypes and to portray Jesus as a good Jew who followed Jewish laws and traditions.
"For example, when Jesus gives the blessing over the wine, he says (in Hebrew), 'Baruch atah, Adonai Elohenu, melech ha'olam (Blessed are you, O Lord our God, ruler of the universe),' " Huber said. "I think in our play, it is very, very clear that Jesus was 100 percent Jewish. ... And we make it clear that Jesus is in the tradition of the Jewish prophets."
Huber, one of a group of reformers elected to bring the play to the stage, said scenes are presented in such a way as to make clear that the main characters are Jews who had differences of opinion on what it meant to be a Jew, and on how the Jewish religion, laws and traditions should be observed.
"I (would) get really upset if somebody would (say) that our play shows contempt for Judaism," Huber said.
Although he admits that the people of Oberammergau have made a great deal of noteworthy reforms to the production, Rabbi Leon Klenicki, ADL director of interfaith affairs in New York, insisted that more still needs to be done.
Klenicki said the ADL recommended 29 changes to the play, of which 13 were incorporated. Among the recommended changes incorporated in the year 2000 play:
- Jesus is called "rabbi" instead of "master," stressing his Jewishness.
- The term "Old Testament" is replaced by "Hebrew Bible."
- The phrase "the blood be upon us" (Matthew 27:25) has been taken out.
- The 30 pieces of silver paid to Judas to betray Jesus are not mentioned.
- A reference to Jesus' violating Shabbat and other Jewish religious laws is gone.
However, other ADL suggestions were not incorporated, such as: changing the depiction of Pilate (the Roman governor who ordered Jesus executed) from that of a weak character controlled by the Temple and the High Priest Caiphas; discontinuing the use of typology, in which text from the Hebrew Bible is presented followed by text from the New Testament, suggesting that the two passages are linked; and presenting a clearer depiction of the complex social, pluralistic nature of Judaism .
"I do feel that people who are interested in democracy and pluralism should do everything possible to overcome the sins of the past, and the passion play doesn't do that," commented Klenicki.
The AJC's Rudin echoed Klenicki's attitude toward the play.
"I think that the play is still flawed, and I had urged them in Oberammergau that they really develop a whole new play," said Rudin, "based on new scholarship and the Second Vatican Council (of the Roman Catholic Church)."
Rudin and Klenicki have been in close contact with Huber regarding changes to the production. Huber said he was surprised and disappointed by the two rabbis' dissatisfaction with the 2000 production. Rudin and Huber are scheduled to meet Dec. 9 in Berlin to discuss the most recent changes.
The text of the play is based on an 1860s text written by the Rev. Alois Daisenberger, a Catholic priest, but the play is not sanctioned by the Catholic Church. Eugene Fisher, director of ecumenical affairs for the National Conference on Catholic Bishops in Washington, D.C., called the play "problematic" and said it "could easily make people vulnerable to anti-Semitism."
Fisher said the play, despite the changes the reformers have been able to achieve, "doesn't pass the muster" of the Vatican's "Notes on the Correct Way to Present the Jews and Judaism in Preaching and Catechesis of the Roman Catholic Church" of 1985. He also suggested the play could make use of the guidance provided in the conference's "Criteria for the Evaluation of Dramatizations of the Passion," written in 1988.
"We're sympathetic with the efforts (of the reformers), and I would urge the local people of Oberammergau to keep rethinking and reworking and improving (the play)," he said.
Leonard Swidler, a professor of Catholic theology and inter-religious dialogue at Temple University in Philadelphia, who has been working with Klenicki and Rudin on seeking changes to the play, said the play now shows clearly that Jesus and his followers were all Jews.
"So, you can't hate Jews if you want to love Jesus," Swidler said. "If you hate Jews, well, you're obviously hating Jesus and Peter and all the other Jewish guys."
The play, which runs from May 22 to Oct. 8, has been sold out for a year.
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