Never has a film produced so much controversy, months before its scheduled release date, than Mel Gibson's "The Passion". The film depicting the last twelve hours on earth of Jesus Christ is scheduled to be released on Easter of next year but already a host of Jewish political leaders and rabbis are attempting to censor it, in its present form, because they say it is anti-semitic. The Jews are worried that the film will unleash a wave of hatred, bigotry and anti-semitism because "The Passion", they say, portrays them as "Christ killers".
Abraham H. Foxman, National Director of the Anti Defamation League of B'nai B'rith (Sons of the Covenant), said that St. Anne Catherine Emmerich was anti-Jewish. He said that the diaries are "an account of a 19th century mystical anti-semitic nun that distorts New Testament interpretation by selectively citing passages to weave a narrative that oversimplifies history, and is hostile to Jews and Judaism."
Rabbi Eugene Korn, ADL Director of Interfaith Affairs, said that "The Passion" contains a number of troubling themes and images, all raising the specter of "deicide," or Jewish complicity in the death of Jesus.
Rabbi Marvin Hier, founder of the Los Angeles-based Simon Wiesenthal Center, said that he has already received hate telephones calls because of the contents of the upcoming film and as a consequence is now urging the Jewish community to send him more money.
Considering the "Passion Plays" of the Dark Ages were used a basis for the inquisition and later the Holocaust, I think I can understand their worries.