COMMENTARY: Reforms coming to reduce anti-Jewish flavor of Oberammergau Passion Play

c. 1998 Religion News Service (Rabbi Rudin is the national interreligious affairs director of the American Jewish Committee.) OBERAMMERGAU, Germany _ According to tradition, the plague that swept Germany in 1633 spared this Bavarian village, and in gratitude for their deliverance, the townspeople promised to honor God by performing a play depicting the death of […]

c. 1998 Religion News Service

(Rabbi Rudin is the national interreligious affairs director of the American Jewish Committee.)

OBERAMMERGAU, Germany _ According to tradition, the plague that swept Germany in 1633 spared this Bavarian village, and in gratitude for their deliverance, the townspeople promised to honor God by performing a play depicting the death of Jesus.


Oberammergau presents its famous Passion Play every 10 years, and in 2000 there will be six months of performances its sponsors hope will attract 500,000 viewers from all parts of the world.

The elaborate production, nearly six hours in length, is produced, directed, staged and performed solely by the villagers. Unfortunately, almost from its inception there have been anti-Jewish elements in the play. But with the end of World War II and the Holocaust, along with the positive teachings of the Second Vatican Council, many Christian and Jewish leaders have called for a radical reform of the play’s script and staging.

Critics argue the production conveys the pernicious belief that the Jewish people then _ and now _ are guilty of Jesus’ death and as a result must endure collective punishment from God for their”crime.” Past productions removed Jesus from his Jewish roots and religious tradition, portrayed Jews in malicious stereotypes, whitewashed Pontius Pilate, the cruel Roman governor of Judea, and departed from the Bible in significant ways.

This long anti-Jewish legacy was the focus of a three-day conference in Oberammergau that brought together U.S. Jewish leaders and the people responsible for the 2000 production. Oberammergau Mayor Klement Fend, was joined by Christian Stueckl and Otto Huber, the play’s director and dramatist, and Professor Ludwig Moedl of Munich, a prominent Catholic theologian.

Because reform of the play is so controversial, the official mandate for change came only when Stueckl and Huber won a village plebiscite on the issue.

The two men, both Oberammergau natives, stressing the need for innovations and revisions, have significantly recast Jesus, the play’s central character. Moedl said the revisions will make it clear Jesus was”at home”with the Jewish community and the Judaism of his time, and he promises the 2000 version will”avoid all anti-Jewish allusions.” In the judgment scene in the 1984 production, 250 men, women, and children were on stage shouting for Jesus’ death by crucifixion _ a Roman form of capital punishment:”We take his blood upon us and upon our children.”This grotesque scene _ that transmitted the belief Jesus’ blood was upon all Jews _ has been removed from the next production.

Other changes emphasize the dynamic Jewish religious world in which Jesus lived. Pontius Pilate is portrayed as the venal governor he was. He was so brutal he was removed from Jerusalem and recalled to Rome by his superiors. And the 2000 production will emphasize the oppression the Jews, including Jesus, suffered under Pilate’s rule. The high priest Caiphas will be accurately portrayed as a political pawn of Rome, a collaborator with the enemy.

In past productions, the Jewish priests were avaricious and wore sinister costumes topped by black-horned hats based upon anti-Jewish caricatures from the Middle Ages. All objectionable costumes will be eliminated in 2000.


The despised Judas figure, traditionally clothed in yellow, the same color as the Star of David Jews were forced to wear during the Holocaust, has been recast as a highly complex figure, no longer the two dimensional”bad guy”of past productions.

The revised 2000 play will also contain extensive script revisions including new prologues and speeches. Oberammergau officials told me nearly 70 percent of the play will be changed.

The major reforms promised for 2000 reflect the 30 year public campaign waged by the American Jewish Committee, the Anti-Defamation League and other groups against the Oberammergau Passion Play’s egregious anti-Jewish elements.

It has been a long, difficult struggle, including a boycott of the 1970 production, because the initial calls for reform met with strong opposition from many Oberammergau leaders.

But three days of intensive meetings made clear that today’s Oberammergau officials are committed to reform. Although some problems still remain, I welcome the changes and hope the new production will not perpetuate the play’s anti-Jewish past.

Perhaps finally, the world’s most famous Passion Play will present a new and positive understanding of Jews and Judaism.


DEA END RUDIN

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