The Pope's Thumbs Up for Gibson's 'Passion' (Liberal Jewish writer accuses Mel of using the Pope)

NY Times ^ | January 18, 2004 | FRANK RICH

[drjimmy]

I am a Pole and my country lost 6 028 000 citizens during WWII. A half were Polish Jews and the other half were Poles. Fifty - fifty!
Can you explain to me the difference between Polish Jews and Poles? According to my math, instead of 50-50 it should be 100% Poles who were killed.

[brazucausa]

I get booked that day specifically to see that. It surely will be amazing to watch it

[Thorin]

In addition, most Jews were not Polish nationalists and did not have a strong attachment to Poland as a political entity. As just one example, Menachem Begin joined the Polish Army units attached to the British Army in WWII, and deserted at the first oppotunity, since his goal was to get to Palestine, not fight for Poland.

[drjimmy]

They were citizens of Poland of Jewish nationality.
Which Jewish nation did these people come from?

[weegee]

John Paul's free plug is being exploited by the Gibson camp to aid the movie star's effort to recoup the $25 million he personally sank into a biblical drama filmed in those crowd-pleasing tongues of Latin and Aramaic.

What? Is it wrong that Mel Gibson had the guts to put his money where his mouth is and finance a project he believed in?

Mel will have NO problem making his money back based on the reviews I've read (including those from the agnostic fanboy talkbackers at Ain't It Cool News).

The movie does not need "endorsement" from the Pope to make money. Approval from the Pope does serve to hold religious scholars/critics at bay who might argue with the accuracy of the presentation. The Pope is not the final authority on all things Christian (at least for protestants) but he has devoted his life to religious teachings.

[weegee]

This clymer should realize that all this talk of The Passion being a film that promotes "antisemitism" will be shown to be hollow when the film is finally seen by the masses. In the mean time he's giving the film a lot of free publicity by generating a "controversy".

With press coverage like this, who needs the Pope's quote for the poster?

[weegee]

Dean Blows Stack During Iowa Q & A

Then, in a particularly ugly sound bite, the Democratic front-runner added, "It's not the time to put up any of this 'love thy neighbor' stuff."

[rmlew]

Your comments were not targeted.
Conservative Jews have defended Gibson.
You presume that ATHEIST of Jewish descent speak for a community. They do not.
I am sure that you have been given grief for apostacy. That is to be expected. Get over it.

[rmlew]

It is ridiculus to blame Poles for the Holocaust.
It is factual that many Poles participated. A smaller, but significant number saved Jews.
The same is true for Ukranians, Lithuanians, Russians, Latvians, Hungarians.....

Poland's relationship with Jews has been decidedly mixed. Kasimir the Great invited Jews. On the other hand, many Poles and Ukranians joined the slaughter of Jews during the Bogdan Khmelnitsky uprising.

[rmlew]

To a large degree, Polish nationalism excluded Jews.
How do you expect Jews to respond, if not to want their own state?

[quietolong]

>>>> the movie star's effort to recoup the $25 million he personally sank into a biblical drama <<<<



Female, forty and furious http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/1060610/posts

[VOA]

Since I am one of the many curious Jews who have not been invited to press
screenings of "The Passion," I have no first-hand way of knowing whether the film
is benign or toxic and so instead must rely on eyewitnesses.

(engage Joe Pesci voice/attitude emulator)...
"Yo, Frankie! It's nuthin' personal...You didn't get dis-invited because youse are a
"curious" type of Jew, whatever the f--- that means...you didn't get
an invite because youse are an A--hole. OK? Like I said , it's nuthing personal!"
(disengage Joe Pescie voice/attitude emulator).

[Thorin]

I certainly don't object to Zionism. But I think that it is disingenuous to attack a poster for differentiating between ethnic Poles and Jews living in Poland, since they certainly saw the difference. Isaac Bashevis Singer once said that the Poles did not consider the Jews to be Poles, and neither did the Jews.

[VOA]

Mr. Gibson has said he felt that the Holy Ghost was the movie's actual director — Mr. Michelini
says that the successful campaign for the Vatican thumbs up is an example of
divine providence. Jews in show business might have another word for it — chutzpah.

When the "Making of 'The Passion'" documentary is released to show how the
record-breaking movie came to be...
I wish we could see Frank Rich gag when he learns that "The Passion" was helped
along by some decent Jews possessed of discerning intellects.

Besides, it's an open secret that hardly anything done in Hollywood gets made
without the involvement of Jews (observant or not):
An Empire of Their Own : How the Jews Invented Hollywood
by Neal Gabler (Author)

I'll never forget hearing the funny response of a Los Angeles talk-radio host
(of Jewish ethnicity) when a caller mentioned this book:
"Yeah, so what? Of course we Jews made Hollywood!"
(it's just refreshing to hear a bit of honest group/ethnic pride in
these PC times!)

[malakhi]

And he is not the only Jew who has been unable to keep his mouth shut.

So you're fine with Jews, as long as they keep their mouths shut? That's good to know...

[malakhi]

AMEN, freedomson! Jesus IS LORD and one day every knee will bow and every voice proclaim it.

So just keeping our mouths shut (see my previous post) isn't enough for you? We must be forced to agree with you? That's good to know...

[malakhi]

For example the hate expressed by a rabbi writing in the Jerusalem Post saying the passages in Gopsel of Matthew where the crowd accepts respsonsibility for Jesus' death were "crude forgeries" and saying that the New Testament had been edited to make it hostile to Jews.

How does that qualify as "hate"?