Texas Jewish Post (Fort Worth, Tex.), Vol. 34, No. 26, Ed. 1 Thursday, June 26, 1980 Page: 4 of 20
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TEXAS JEWISH POST THURSDAY, JUNE 26, 1980 POSTORIAL PAGE 4
oostoriQl
Promises, Promises!
MEDIA SPOTLIGHT
[monitor Pandering For Arab Favor
The United States should reject Saudi Arabia’s
request for bomb racks and fuel extension equipment
for the 60 F-15s the United States sold the Saudis in
1978. For the Carter Administration not to do so would
be to go back on the promise it made to Congress and
the American people when it sold the planes.
As Sen. Frank Church [D. Idaho], chairman of the
Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and others
pointed out, when the Administration first proposed the
sale of the F-15s to the Saudis, it committed itself not to
sell any additional equipment which would change the
interceptor role of die aircraft.
There can be litde doubt that if the new request is
granted, Saudi Arabia would have the ability to attack
Israeli targets. It would also find it difficult to keep out
of any new Arab war against Israel.
The Administration pushed the sale of the planes as a
means of encouraging Arab “moderates.” But Saudi
Arabia has been part of the rejectionist front that
opposes the Camp David agreements. King Hussein of
Jordan in his recent visit to Washington again refused
to join the autonomy negotiations now going on
between Israel, Egypt and the U.S. If Saudi Arabia had
been the moderating force it is supposed to be it could
have convinced the King to join the negotiations.
The Carter Administration has tried to float some
trial balloons by suggesting that the Soviet threat in the
Middle East as a result of its invasion of Afghanistan
has changed the situation. But the Saudis could be more
helpful in meeting the Soviet threat if they allowed the
U.S. to have bases within Saudi Arabia which they have
refused up to now.
It is important for the government to keep its word,
or does it all add up to the familiar refrain, “Promises,
Promises!”
erman In U.S.
ones For Nazis
NEW YORK [JTA] - An
internship program created
by the Anti-Defamation
League of B’nai B’rith and a
West German group com-
mitted to atonement for the
Holocaust has sent its
second intern here for a
year’s study and service in
the United States.
She is Susane Willems of
Dusseldorf, who arrived
here in May. Nat Kameny,
chairman of the ADL pro-
gram committee, said the
interns spend a year in this
country under auspices of
the ADL center for Holo-
caust Studies. He said the
goal was to provide the
interns with a “positive
experience” in American
human relations techniques
for coping with prejudice
and to develop intergroup
See Girl on Page 14
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Permit No. 540940
BY LEONARD J. DAVIS
How appropriate that the
European nations issued
their Middle East declara-
tion last week from Venice, a
once beautiful city now
plagued with pollution and
crumbling foundations. For
the declaration shows the
depths to which Europe,
where the art of diplomacy
developed, has sunk in its
pandering for Arab favor. It
is almost as if world history
has been reveresed; and
now Europe has become the
colonial satrapy for the Arab
world.
Several publications have
defended the European ini-
tiative. The Times of Lon-
don, pointing to the escala-
tion of tensions in the Middle
East, wrote that “European
governments are quite
rightly concerned about this
state of affairs and find it
hard to believe that the
Camp David process is on
the way to defusing it.”
Recognizing that Euro-
pean success at winning
Arab hearts and oil through
the new initiative was
“doubtful,” The Economist
(London) concluded, “The
European Economic Com-
munity can do a useful job in
prodding America to prod
Israel, provided the PLO is
prodded into providing the
other side of the bargain.”
“President Carter’s ap-
parent diplomatic impotence
in an election year” was the
excuse given by The Chris-
tian Science Monitor for
defending the European
initiative. The White House
opposition to the European
plan may be because it has
“its eyes on the American
Jewish community as No-
vember approaches.” And
The Monitor repeated a
familiar refrain by warning
that without resolution of
the Middle East problem “it
will grow increasingly diffic
cult to establish stable
relations with the Islamic
countries, assure steady
supplies of oil, and prevent
the Soviet Union from
exploiting regional ten-
sions.”
Voices of Principle
The idea that the
European initiative would
solve the Soviet threat and
win friends for the west was
demolished in a penetrating
editorial in last week’s New
Republic. “The anti-Soviet
motive would have been
more credible to Ameri-
cans,” the magazine wrote,
“had the European leader-
ship shown some greater
alarm at Soviet adventurism
in recent months and years.”
Moreover, the editorial
argued, an anti-Soviet Arab
bloc is implausible. “Many of
these Arabs are in sympathy
with Soviet ideology and
designs,” it said. “Others are
deeply in Soviet debt for
arms and political support.”
The strongest denuncia-
tion of the declaration came
from The New York Times
which called the European
plan “pathetic” and “ab-
surd.” The Times sarcasti-
cally suggested the follow-
ing motives for the Euro-
pean crassness: “We need oil
and Arab trade so badly that
we cannot wait any longer
for America, Israel and
Egypt ... The autonomy
negotiations (are) stalled ...
We hope that by granting
the Palestinians a state
we will somehow persuade
them to accept Israel. Even
if it doesn’t work, the Arabs
will think better of Western
Europe and treat it kindly.”
In Britain, Hugh Fraser, a
member of Parliament, at-
tacked the European diplo-
matic flurry. “In the last six
months the European pow-
ers have jointly launched
four grand initiatives, each
ending, alas, in ritual dance
or farce — the boycott of the
Olympics, the neutralization
of Afghanistan, limitations
on Soviet trade and sanc-
tions against Iran,” Fraser
wrote in The Times. “To go
outside the Camp David
guidelines is to step into a
minefield ... The exercise of
power without responsibil-
ity is a luxury. Possessing
neither, meddlers should
stay at home.”
Fraser also expressed
concern over the resultant
strains on the western
alliance. But the concern
was best expressed by The
New Republic: “Allies are
allies only if they behave like
allies. Fair-weather friends
are not allies. To call France
an ally today is to mistake
nostalgia for reality.” And
perhaps it is not only
France.
"CRIT,QUE: The Oberammergau Passion Play
BY NAT KAMENY
[Copyright 1980, Jewish
Telegraphic Agency, Inc.]
Anyone involved in pro-
gramming for education on
the Third Reich and the
Holocaust is inevitably
drawn to the scene of the
crime.
It is not surprising,
therefore, that an invitation
from the Mayor of the
Bavarian village of Ober-
ammergau to preview their
1980 Passion Play was
accepted when it arrived at
the Anti-Defamation League
of B’nai B’rith addressed to
me as national program
chairman. The invitation,
along with one for Theodore
Freedman, the program
division director, came after
several visits over a two-
year period, with the Mayor,
the producers, directors and
other officials responsible
for production of the world’s
most viewed presentation of
the crucifixion passion.
More than 500,000 people
will come to this year’s
Oberammergau Passion
Play, some 300,000 of them
from the U.S. Presented
every 10 years since the
mid-Seventeenth Century, it
is widely regarded as the
most important such folk
pageant in the world. That
any passion play would be
acceptable to Jews is hardly
possible, and organized Jew-
ry long faced the choice of
leaving it be as beyond
redemption, or recognizing
that such plays will probably
continue far into future
history and spread the evils
of the Gospels as they
portray the life and death of
Jesus of Nazareth. The ADL
chose the latter as a realistic
conclusion, and decided to
influence future portrayals
and lessen the negative
influence they continue to
have on large numbers of
Christians. Therefore, dur-
ing our visits to Oberam-
mergau, we worked inten-
sively to reflect the signifi-
cant progress made in
Catholic-Jewish relations
over recent years, especially
in the pronouncements of
the Second Vatican Council
and subsequent Vatican-is-
sued guidelines to Catholic-
Jewish relations.
Our organization’s ap-
proach, developed after our
first meetings in 1978, was
to refrain from interceding
in the heated political
argument prevalent in Ober-
ammergau as to which of
their two scripts was to be
selected for 1980’s presen-
tation. Recognizing that a
no-win result would accom-
pany our siding with one
town faction against another
and that we couldn’t find
ourselves endorsing either
of the two considered texts
because of the anti-Jewish
theology expressed in both,
we chose to work with the
town administration and
local church officials to
remove blatantly anti-Jew-
ish portrayals and resultant
anti-Semitic attitudes. To
help in the difficult task, two
noted Catholic theologians
were asked by the ADL to
help analyze the chosen text,
and make specific recom-
mendations that would re-
flect greater historical ac-
curacy and current Catholic
attitudes, yet be acceptable
to local conservative Catho-
lic forces responsible for the
Passion Play.
A major rewrite was
undertaken by the town,
based on ADL’s input,
resulting in a shortening of
the play by two hours from a
previous seven-hour produc-
tion, and with extensive
changes that materially re-
duced the negative portray-
al of the Jerusalem scene of
2000 years ago. Much is still
left undone. That Oberam-
mergau perceives their cur-
rent production free of
anti-Jewish and anti-Semitic
strains was apparent by the
fact that we were invited
along with international
press people and all levels of
West German officialdom
including West Germany’s
President, as the U.S.
Jewish reviewing team for
the pre-opening production.
Because we had already
received the final text, we
expected no great surprises
in the staging. Our less than
whole-hearted acceptance of
the play’s revisions was
surprising and disappointing
to the Mayor and producers.
Nevertheless, we created a
working relationship that
permitted them to accept
further criticism and sug-
gestions in a positive man-
ner, so that even more
changes appear probably in
a special 1984 anniversary
presentation already sched-
uled.
What more did we want?
Freedman and I were met at
Oberammergau by Prof.
Leonard Swidler, of Temple
University, one of the two
Catholic theologians who
had worked on the critique
with ADL, and Dr. Joseph
Lichten, ADL’s liaison with
the Vatican, who flew in
from Rome. Clearly, as
noted by Swidler, the play
missed the point that Jesus
was Jewish, that his dis-
ciples, followers and family
were Jews, and that he died
a Jew. The Jewishness of
Jesus, as pointed out by
Swidler, is considered ex-
tremely important to Catho-
lic theology, and the folk
portrayal of the Passion
Play avoided this necessary
historical fact, though they
did add a single such
reference when Judas called
Jesus “Rabbi.” One must
consider that the term
“Rabbi” was an honorific
term, and not a position of
authority or profession of
the time. Nevertheless, it
was a Jewish salutation, and
likely to have then been
conferred by followers on a
teacher of Judaism.
There were many objec-
tionable areas pointed to by
Swidler, e.g.; the portrayal
of Judas as a greedy
opportunist in a Streicher-
like caricature, was unac-
ceptable and historically
inaccurate; the constant
reference to the “old Coven-
ant” as being replaced by a
“new and better Covenant”
was similarly inaccurate; the
See Passion Play on Page 10
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Wisch, J. A. Texas Jewish Post (Fort Worth, Tex.), Vol. 34, No. 26, Ed. 1 Thursday, June 26, 1980, newspaper, June 26, 1980; Fort Worth, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth753205/m1/4/: accessed June 27, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; .