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However, Christians are likely to become upset when they are falsely accused of anti-Semitism, which is what Foxman appears to be doing, and of accusing the Gospels of anti-Semitism for merely stating the fact that the Jewish establishment of Jesus' time did not like him and lobbied the Romans to put him to death. It is the injustice of Foxman's accusations excites the anger, not anti-Semitism.

We have never accused Gibson of being an anti-Semite. But judging from the E-mails and letters we have received since we spoke out after seeing the film last month - some blatantly anti-Semitic, many more suggesting our criticism was somehow dishonest - there is a need to clear the air.

First, let us repeat that we do not believe that Gibson intended his film to be a passion of hate. Our concerns stem from history. For nearly 2,000 years, Jews have been the victims of persecution and pogroms fueled by the age-old canard that Jews bear responsibility for the death of Jesus for all time. >

The charge of "deicide" or of Jews as being "Christ killers" has persisted through the presentation of Passion plays despite the Catholic Church's historic Vatican II pronouncement in the early 1960s. It denounced anti-Semitism and stated clearly that the Jews of the past, as well as the Jews of today, bear no responsibility for Jesus' death.

May I ask you this? Who was responsible for Jesus's arrest?
who wanted to see him executed? who beleived Jesus was leading Israel astray? practicing sorcery? who was in the crowd when Pontuis Pilate said "Should I let Jesus go? or Barabbas? Who took Jesus off the cross and to the tomb? who visioned the Resurrection? who spent 40 days with Jesus before he descended into Heaven? Do you know the answers to these questions?

LAST: Jesus Christ is alive and well and seated at the right hand of the Father...

The Church never said that no Jews of Jesus' time were responsible for Jesus' death. The correct language from "Nostra Aetate" is as follows:

True, the Jewish authorities and those who followed their lead pressed for the death of Christ;(13) still, what happened in His passion cannot be charged against all the Jews, without distinction, then alive, nor against the Jews of today. Although the Church is the new people of God, the Jews should not be presented as rejected or accursed by God, as if this followed from the Holy Scriptures. All should see to it, then, that in catechetical work or in the preaching of the word of God they do not teach anything that does not conform to the truth of the Gospel and the spirit of Christ.

Foxman disclaims that he is calling Gibson anti-Semitic, but he is saying that the mere presentation of the Gospel story, in which certain individual Jews of the time of Jesus lobbied to condemn him to death, incites anti-Semitism and that it is contrary to Catholic teaching of Nostra Aetate. That is simply false. It is important that people do not hold Jews collectively responsible for Jesus' death, except in the general sense that Jesus died for the sins of all of sinful humanity. However, that is a separate issue from the Gospel story. If you are arguing that the Jewish establishment did not lobby to put Jesus to death, I submit that all historical evidence is to the contrary. Foxman shoots way wide of the mark by trying to say that mere presentation of historical fact and the Gospel story itself incites anti-Semitism.