(Editor’s Note: The following article on controversies surrounding the annual Oberammagau Passion Play was submitted to the BULLETIN by William A. Gralnick of the Atlanta office of the American Jewish Committee.)

Since the Holocaust, relations between Jews and Germans have been stand-offish at best. A group of American Jews and German Catholics are working hard on a project, which may be a long step forward in post war German Jewish relations. They are working on changing the text of the world famous, and notoriously anti-Semitic Oberammagau passion play.

Negotiations in this regard have been going on for over a decade, spearheaded by the American Jewish Committee and the National Interreligious Affairs Director, Rabbi Marc H. Tannenbaum. AJC produced a comparative content analysis entitled “Oberammagau 1960 to 1970 - A Study in Religious Anti-Semitism.” It led to a decision on the part of some Oberammagau officials to replace the Daisenberger text with an earlier text (the Rosner script), in which the role of the Sanhedrin and “The Jews” is less central to the drama. However, it was not to be. The play is the property of the city and the decision was reversed when ultra-conservative factions committed to the Daisenberger text were voted into office in Oberammagau.

Here the Roman Catholic Church of Bavaria stepped in. It brought together for an AJC delegation key church officials, academics, educators, media specialists, and a group from Oberammagau. AJC proposed that the time was past due for a serious systematic examination by German scholars and church leaders of the Catholic church’s present understanding of Jews and Judaism, and the ways in which passion plays advance that understanding or contradict it. This idea was ultimately carried out under the direction of Professor Franz Henrich, director of the prestigious Bavarian Catholic Academy, at the Academy itself.

It was a fascinating encounter, entitled “The Passion of Jesus As A Spiritual Drama.” Over 400 people attended. They represented four nations’ worth of high level scholars, theologians, educators, government officials, and the media. Each received the comparative study, a synopsis of why AJC felt the play was anti-Semitic, and a basic document on Judaism that was prepared by AJC and published by the Vatican in seven languages in 1975. The symposium, however, opened under the pall of a letter from Mayor Ernst Zqink of Oberammagau, charging that the symposium was a “conspiracy on the part of the American Jewish Committee and certain Oberammagau people” to undermine the passion play, and asking that the symposium be cancelled. However, Dr. Henrich rejected the Mayor’s contention forcefully. He said, “The Oberammagau passion play cannot be considered the affair of only the village” and stressed the “Christian duty” to apply current historical research and biblical theology to an understanding of the passion narrative.

Rather than the details of what was presented, the spirit can be summed up by this quote from the proceedings: “In depicting the passion of Jesus, the Jews must now be portrayed with more honesty, with greater respect for their religious traditions, and with greater recognition of their rich traditions of scholarship...the Catholic Church has taken the heed of the decisions of the Vatican Council II in revising its Christian education, teachings and liturgy. There is a whole assortment of passion plays throughout the world, at the head of which is the Oberammagau passion play, which have acted as though relations between Christians and Jews have not changed. After Auschwitz, it is a scandal to continue in that matter.”

The proceedings received a further jolt of adrenaline through a surprise appearance of Italian film director, Franco Zeffirelli. He was the producer of the NBC-TV production “Jesus of Nazareth.” He appealed to the producers of the Oberammagau play “as a Christian and as a son of Abraham” not to repeat the errors of the past.

The reader can get the feel for the great strides that have been taken as well as the great barriers that had to be overcome by realizing that Father Daisenberger in his written instructions to the director of the first production of his play in 1860 said: “Instruct the actors playing the Jewish parts to do so in a manner that is filled with hatred and vileness. Those who play Christian parts should do so with love and merciful qualities.”

The spirit of the symposium spread to the village itself; the Jewish delegation was invited to lecture on “the history of anti-Semitism and Jewish/Christian relations today.” There were filmstrips and discussions as well. For many of the villagers it was their first exposure to the history of anti-Semitism in the Christian west, the Holocaust as viewed through Jewish prospectus, and to some basic knowledge about Jews, Judaism and Israel. The reception area was warm and appreciative. The contact will be continued next year when AJC, by request, will originate a week-long seminar of lectures by Jewish scholars.

So what does it all mean? It means that the spirit of Vatican II, conceived by Pope John Paul XXIII and courageously pursued by Pope Paul VI, is living as testimony to their blessed memory. As we have seen in many cities throughout the American south, Jews and Catholics have built on Vatican II to create a better community amongst themselves and their neighbors. But to see it happening in Germany, is extraordinary.

As Rabbi Tannenbaum said, “Certainly the debate over the Oberammagau passion play is no longer a controversy between American Jews and Oberammagau villagers. The Munich Academy symposium has shifted the perspective - now it is German/Catholic academicians, theologians and church officials who are demanding that justice be done and that the town officials put an end to anti-Semitism and a new sensitivity based on knowledge, and honest dialogue is beginning to develop in Oberammagau itself.”