*Sightings* 9/16/2010

Scholars Recommend Rewrite of 400-Year-Old Passion Play

— By Eric J. Greenberg

This spring ten scholars came together to discuss the removal of
anti-semitic elements from the world ¢â‚¬â„¢s oldest Passion Play produced by the
village of Oberammergau, Germany. The review of the play was part of a joint
collaboration between the Anti-Defamation League and the Council of Centers
on Jewish-Christian Relations (CCJR), the United States ¢â‚¬â„¢ leading association
of educational institutions to promote mutual understanding between Jews and
Christians. The scholars include the Rev. Dr. Peter A. Pettit, Associate
Professor of Religion at *Muhlenberg** College* and Sister Mary C. Boys, the
Skinner and McAlpin Professor of Practical Theology at Union Theological
Seminary. The scholars made recommendations for changes in the script of the
Oberammergau play about the trial and death of Jesus.

The small Bavarian village has been performing their Passion Play about
every decade since 1634, when residents swore to honor the Lord with a
Passion Play if He saved them from the plague.

While the script has gone through several incarnations over the last 400
years, one troubling theme has remained constant: the ugly caricatures and
negative stereotypes of Jews and Judaism, including the false charge of
deicide, that Jews killed Jesus.

In the twentieth century Adolf Hitler attended the play twice in
Oberammergau, praising it for showcasing “the whole muck and mire of Jewry.”
Even after the Roman Catholic Church repudiated the deicide charge at the
Second Vatican Council in 1965, Oberammergau did not make changes to the
script.

Since the 1970s, the Anti-Defamation League and other Jewish groups have
worked with Oberammergau play officials who have slowly made changes in the
staging and text of the play. For example, they eliminated horned-headwear
for Jewish priests. In 1990 with the appointment of the young new director
Christian Stuckel and his partner Otto Huber, further changes helped not
only reduce anti-Semitism, but also emphasize the Jewishness of Jesus and
his disciples.

In a sixteen-page report recently overwhelmingly endorsed by CCJR, the
scholars welcomed key changes that present Jesus and his disciples as fully
observant Jews. The play shows Jesus holding a Torah scroll and reciting the
key Jewish prayer  ¢â‚¬Å“Sh ¢â‚¬â„¢ma Yisroel ¢â‚¬  ( ¢â‚¬Å“Hear, Israel, the Lord is our God, the
Lord is One. ¢â‚¬  Deut. 6:4-9).

According to the report, “Jewish opponents of Jesus are unjustifiably
depicted in such extreme terms as to risk impressing on the audience a
negative image of the entire Jewish community. ¢â‚¬  Therefore the scholars
recommend that an entirely new script be commissioned that would not be
dependent on earlier versions which retain embedded anti-Jewish elements. They
also urge the German Bishops Conference to adopt guidelines on the
presentation of passion plays, similar to guidelines adopted by the United
States Conference of Catholic Bishops some 25 years ago.

As a result of this historic project, the 2020 Oberammergau play can become
a global model that reflects the positive new relationship between Catholics
and Jews. Most importantly, the recommendations of the scholars will
hopefully be applied to Passion Plays performed around the world.

Rabbi Eric J. Greenberg is the Director of the Department of Interfaith
Affairs at the Anti-Defamation League in New York.
———-
*Sightings* comes from the *Martin Marty
Center*
at the University of Chicago Divinity School.

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