History has taught us that it takes but a small spark to ignite the flames of Anti-Semitism. A crazed Jew shooting the President or a Jewish vice president attacking Iraq, could easily be the excuse for a pogrom, Heaven forbid. Just try to remember what happened just a few years ago in Crown Heights, when a Jewish driver accidentally ran over a black child.
While for a few years Christian hatred of Jews has lied dormant, the new movie “The Passion of the Christ” crosses a dangerous red line. The potential viewers number in the billions and the plot has been fanning the flames of anti-Semitism throughout the ages. While American Jews have been fortunate not to have suffered violent forms of anti-Semitic persecution and pogroms as have Jews living in Russia or Europe, millions of Jews have been murdered on account of such false accusations.
While the rationale to hate Jews has been latent for some years, in some countries it is now slowly raising to what it was in the early 1930’s in Germany. Just read how most of the world views the Israel-Palestinian war and you will undoubtedly smell the hatred for the Jews emerging from between the lines. Israel is not even permitted the right of self defense against suicide bombers on the way to kill them. Putting up a fence to protect themselves is seen as a crime against humanity and for that they are taken to the World Court. Imagine a person putting up a lock on his door because he has been robbed a dozen times yet a court of law forces him to remove the lock because it inhibits other people’s freedom of entry.
While Gibson denies being an anti-Semite, his father has let the cat out of the bag by claiming that the Holocaust was not really what the Jews make it out to be. “I do not believe it’s an anti-Semitic movie, ” said Abe Foxman, national director of the Anti- Defamation League, “but, I believe that this movie has the potential to fuel anti-Semitism, or to reinforce it.” “If I were a Jew I would be concerned,” said Mike Sergeant, a film critic who attended the first screening of the film. The portrayal of the Jews is virtually uniform, from the cruel manipulative figure of the Jewish High Priest Caiaphas, to the howling cries of a Jewish mob, to even the presentation of young Jewish children as “satanic.” It should be quite obvious that this film is blatant anti-Semitism in a religious guise.
Our only way to fight against the “Hamans” of the world is to do what the great Mordechai Ha’tzadik did. To gather together the thousands of young children and teach them the holy words of our Torah. Their words are mightier than all our tanks, planes and guns and have ensured our existence throughout the ages. It’s time we follow his example. If we can’t do what he did, then let’s at least support those who do!