Senior Rabbi: Don't Boycott Mel Gibson Film

A senior American rabbi has broken ranks with fellow Jewish leaders and urged them not to boycott Mel Gibson's controversial upcoming religious treatise, "The Passion of Christ."

Britain's Guardian reports that the film, which is earmarked for U.S. release next year on Ash Wednesday (Feb. 25), centers on the final hours of Christ's life and has upset Jewish leaders, who say the production blames Jews for Christ's death.

However, Rabbi A James Rudin, who is the American Jewish Committee's senior adviser on interreligious affairs, has seen a rough cut of the film and said Jewish leaders should use it as an example of how Christ's death has been used to stoke anti-Semitism.

"Use this movie in what we call a teachable moment to bring together Jews and Christians to look at the whole story of how the Passion has been used and abused," Rudin told an interfaith group in Baltimore.

Jim Caviezel and Monica Bellucci star in the film, which Rudin likened to a medieval passion play in which the Jews have been portrayed as thugs.

"Many Christian leaders taught that Jews and their 'discredited' religion must be treated with anger, contempt and rage, and all of this was played out on passion play stages," Rudin is reported as saying in the Detroit News. "It's a clear case of scapegoating."

Editor's note:
Mel Gibson fights back and talks with NewsMax Magazine – Click here for new revelations