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Abraham Foxman

Mel Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ: Legitimizing Anti-Semitism

Mel Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ: Legitimizing Anti-Semitism

May 1, 2006 | Abraham H. Foxman
In January 2003, Mel Gibson announced that he intended to make a film that would tell the whole gospel truth about Jesus' crucifixion. The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) decided to reach out privately to Gibson for assurance that this film would not lead to charging Jews with deicide and to anti-Semitism. There were increasing indications that the movie was going to depict the Jews in a highly negative way. Despite a number of direct and indirect approaches, Gibson avoided contact with the ADL.