Letters

Editor-> Hello Melanie, Thank you for sharing your thoughts and feelings about this film with me and the Megillah family. Your feelings are indeed sincere and heartfelt and you expressed them in a way that is understandable and honest. I am sure many people share your views. All the best, Michael

Melanie Carlson		March 5, 2004
	Passionate Reaction
Shalom Michael, I read you editorial, Rabbi Michael Lerner's, Charles Patterson's, and Helen Budd Hanna's editorials and well I felt I had to weigh in. My husband and I went to see the film last Saturday. I am the granddaughter of a survivor and my husband is hopeless goyim who was raised with no religion (read: hippie parents from San Francisco and yeah they were the real 1960's hippies). When I left the theater I was in shock and afraid. I said to my husband that it was the most dangerous film I had ever seen. The violence in a sense was not even the worst of it though that was untenable and horrible enough. No the fact that every Jew (who is not a disciple of Jesus) is portrayed as rabble screaming for the crucifixion of Jesus was just one aspect that bothered me. Oh sure Simon and the other lovely woman who offers him the towel are much more sympathetically portrayed, but I do not think that your average person has been taught that much critical thinking skills. Jesus is once again portrayed as a white man. Hello, he is described in the bible as having hair like wool and dark skin. Where does this white straight haired European come from? The Sociologist that I am training to be, has all kinds of theories about why that continues to occur. Then there is the historical fact that Pontius Pilot was put to death by the Emperor Tiberius for "excessive cruelty." Now that is a statement about the Romans for sure. However, in the film he is played out as this trapped compassionate man. So wrong so very very wrong. The demonic Jewish children oh do not get me started on that. The Jews that are Jesus' disciples will not be viewed as Jews, I would argue that they are viewed as Christians and that concerns me. Already, one church in Colorado put up a banner outside their church that said, "Now we know the truth the Jews really did kill Christ." No the scary part is that the ideology that our ancient people's killed him is still alive and well and this film reinforces it in a way that I found truly terrifying. Ellie Weisel once stated that all he knew was that the people who committed the Holocaust were Christians. Do I think that all Christians are bad or that they think about Jews this way? Certainly not. But I do think that this film could push someone over the edge, who is teetering right on it. And what did my husband think? Interestingly enough about the same. One last rant, when will these people ever inform or portray the Last Supper as a Passover Seder. Body and blood Ha! Whose ritual did they steal and reframe anyway??? I know this e-mail has many grammatical errors, but I just wrote from the heart and so well, there you have it.
Editor-> Hello Melanie, Thank you for sharing your thoughts and feelings about this film with me and the Megillah family. Your feelings are indeed sincere and heartfelt and you expressed them in a way that is understandable and honest. I am sure many people share your views. All the best, Michael
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