Canadian Jewish Congress addresses concerns over the film

The Passion of the Christ

20 February 2004

OTTAWA, FEBRUARY 20, 2004 - In advance of the release next week of the film The Passion of the Christ, Canadian Jewish Congress national president, Keith Landy and religious and inter-religious affairs national chair, Rabbi Reuven Bulka issued the following statement concerning the controversy. To date, Canadian Jewish Congress has not been given the opportunity to see the film.

"We are issuing this statement amid the anxiety surrounding the release of Mel Gibson's film," says Mr. Landy. "Rabbi Bulka and I would like to widen the perspective and place it in the context of the ongoing positive Christian-Jewish relations developed over many years."

Canadian Jewish Congress is one of the founding partners of the Canadian Christian Jewish Consultation (CCJC) and has participated in that dialogue since 1977. Currently chaired by Rabbi Bulka, the CCJC is Canada's primary national vehicle for Christian-Jewish dialogue, bringing together representatives from the Catholic and Protestant churches as well as the Canadian Council of Churches.

Canadian Jewish Congress statement to our fellow Canadians of the Christian faith in advance of the release of The Passion of the Christ

Mel Gibson's film The Passion of the Christ, prior to its release date of February 25, has generated much controversy over its potentially negative impact on the Jewish community and Christian-Jewish relations. At the same time, among Christians who already have seen this dramatic representation of Christ's Passion there are those who have praised it and affirmed that it does not stir anti-Jewish feelings.

The story the film depicts is at the core of the Christian faith and as Jews we are sensitive to both the profound meaning of the crucifixion for Christians and to how deeply the Passion engages their intellect and emotions. The subject matter of the film, however, also deals head on with events that are at the very root of the historic divide between Christianity and Judaism.

There are believers who do take all the Gospels literally but it is our understanding that others, equally true to their faith, do not. There are those who, among other things, challenge the veracity of a judicial proceeding before the Sanhedrin and/or the High Priest and indeed question the involvement of any Jews in the trial, condemnation and death of Jesus. Crucifixion it must be stressed, was a Roman, not Jewish, form of capital punishment.

Historically, therefore, what transpired at the time of Jesus is unclear. What is clear and significant specifically for Christian-Jewish relations is that the actualization of the deicide charge, flowing from some of the Gospel accounts and the perverse use to which these were put, has led over these two millennia to the immeasurable suffering of the Jewish people. It is this reality that worries Jews and Christians about Gibson's film.

Admittedly, the state of Christian-Jewish relations in many countries, and certainly in Canada, has undergone a remarkable transformation for the better in the past few decades. We only have to look back over the earlier history of Canada, when two principal themes -- the rejection of Jesus and the deicide charge -- dominated Christian attitudes towards Jews, to appreciate how much things have evolved.

Since the Second Vatican Council of the early 1960s, the founding in 1977 of the Canadian Christian Jewish Consultation (CCJC) and continuing through the pontificate of Pope John Paul II, Catholic-Jewish relations have progressed to a point one would not have believed possible two generations ago. Four documents dramatically reflect these changes in Canada: the Anglican Church's From Darkness to Dawn: Rethinking Christian attitudes towards Jews and Judaism; the United Church's Bearing Faithful Witness; the Roman Catholic Church's Renewing Our Common Bonds with the Jewish Community and the most recent, A Church Leaders' Letter against Antisemitism.

These documents, among other things:

• Categorically reject the deicide charge: "This calumny should never again be repeated" (Renewing Our Common Bonds).
• Recognize and glorify Christianity’s Jewish roots: "Jesus was and always remained a Jew" (Renewing Our Common Bonds), "Understanding Torah must become an important undertaking for Christians, perhaps the most important biblical study” (Bearing Faithful Witness) and "We... are ... deeply grateful for the Jewish roots of our faith traditions" (Church Leaders' Letter).
• Abandon supercessionism (i.e. the notion that Christianity's advent negated God's covenant with the Jewish people) and affirm Judaism's vigour and inspirational power not only for its adherents but also for other believers: "The Jewish people's ... election and mission have a permanent validity and they play a decisive role in the religious history of humanity" (Renewing Our Common Bonds), and "We...declare our unqualified gratitude for the gifts of the Jewish people to world civilization in general and Canadian society in particular" (Church Leaders' Letter).
• Understand antisemitism and its roots and commit vigorously to fight for its eradication: "We acknowledge with sadness and regret, and with no little shame, the historic burden of persecution, which Jews have borne throughout western history; a burden all too often inflicted by Christians, who have maligned Jesus' own people in Jesus' name," and "We challenge all churches, parishes, congregations and people of good will to find ways and means to expose and eradicate antisemitism... (Church Leaders' Letter) and
• Commit to pursue Christian-Jewish dialogue, for its own sake yes, but also as a means for tikkun olam, i.e. the repairing of the world: "... our common calling with Jews to align ourselves with God's world-mending work" (Bearing Faithful Witness).

All these many years, Canadian Christians and Jews, multilaterally and bilaterally, have worked together very hard and very successfully for rapprochement between our two faiths. We are confident, therefore, that our Christian partners are most sensitive to our concerns over anything in the film The Passion of the Christ that might help fuel antisemitism. We are relying on them to play a constructive, harmony fostering role in the viewing of the film for those Christians who have not been engaged much or at all in the dialogue process and for whom the results of this process have perhaps not filtered through.

As antisemitism is dangerously on the rise throughout the world, we are also looking to them for leadership in sensitizing their fellow Christians in those countries where Christian-Jewish relations are less advanced, on the importance of acceptance, respect and peaceful co-existence.

It is our hope and expectation that, apart from the central role The Passion of the Christ is to play in moving Christians and strengthening them in their faith, Gibson's film also will be used to foster greater mutual understanding and further demystification of Christian and Jewish beliefs. In other words, we must not allow the film to be a source of tension; we must translate it into an opportunity.

We conclude with the words shared with us about The Passion of the Christ by Fr. Thomas Rosica, C.S.B., a long-time member of the CCJC, who is one of the representatives of the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops on this important national interfaith dialogue group: "We have embarked on a journey of reconciliation that only moves forward. To life... to reconciliation and to peace, together."

To this goal, we are all passionately committed.

Keith M. Landy
National President

Rabbi Dr. Reuven P. Bulka
National Chair
Religious and Inter-religious Affairs

For information:

Ron Singer
Director of Communications, NATIONAL
613 233-8703 ext 223
or
Eta Yudin
Director of Communications, QUEBEC
514 345-6411 ext 3165 or 514 894-7440