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The Southern Israelite Page 19 The Passion Play Versus Fair Play ! \bstract of address given by Dr. Stephen S. Wise before the Free Synagogue at Carnegie Hall, May 12, 1929.) It is not for me to deal with the Passion Play of the Freiburg Players as an artistic spectacle, but rather with the meaning and context. “The King of Kings” was bad enough; this is worse. “The Kings of Kings” was a Hollywood edition of the Oberam mergau Play. This is the Passion Play, done a la Chauve Souris. What ever the Freiburg players may be and do under the shadow of their own noble cathedral, this spectacle, I felt as I looked upon it, is profanation,— i will not say prostitution,—of very precious things. 1 would not accuse the two Jewish producers of venality. But alterna tive of ignorance and unconcern touching everything Jewish. The chief producer comes from the classic land of programs. He cannot be igno rant of what the mere recurrence of the Eastertide means in his own country from year to year, that no year in Eastern or Central Europe goes without its blood-ritual Jewish libel. It is not a matter of chance that the first ritual murder accusation in America, at Massena, New York, came after the production of the "King of Kings,” even as the Ford charges of many years and the revival of the Protocols were simultaneous. I do not seek to drive these Jews out of Jewish life. They cannot be driven out for they have taken them selves out. Terribly have they sinned against the Jewish people, against truth. These men have taken the risk of bringing awful hurt, of perpetuat ing tragic injustice to the Jew. The ■Jewish tragedy is always betrayal from within, for it alone is irredeem able. France had its Esterhazy; Israel has its producers of the “King of Kings” and of the Freiburg Passion Play. The producers might say,—might not the people who see this play read ■t in the New Testament, and the New Testament cannot be suppressed? For one thing much that this play contains is not in the New Testament. Much is added, overlaid, embroidered upon the text of the New Testament. But there is one thing more and per haps most important of all,—there is the element of visualization and the terrible power which it exerts. Thus Jesus, Mary, John Magdelene, all these are portrayed as Nordics of the Nordics, but Judas and the priests are characterized and caricatured as Southics of the Southics, Hebrews of the Hebrews. At Oberammergau I heard curses both loud and deep against Jews. What the visualization of the Passion drama will do is wit nessed by the fact, culled from Jewish history, as mentioned by GYaetz, “in the year 1339 all the Jews of Freiburg were burned at the stake with the ex ception of twelve of the richest men, who were permitted to live that they might disclose the names of their creditors.” The Passion Play, whether reverent ly done at Oberammergau or garnish- ly and vulgarly done as at the Hip podrome, undoes every earnest and honest effort in the direction of what is come to be known as good-will be tween Jew and Christian. The imme diate effect of the Passion Play is to strengthen the notion that the Jew is, above all things, a vindictive, merci less Christ-killer. Every Passion Play thus perpetuates anew the myth of the Christ-killing Jew, instead of for tifying faith in the Christ-bringing Jew. A Pope of by-gone days demanded “The Truce of God.” We today ask the truce of God between the people of the Christ and the people of Jesus the Jew. Jesus once prayed, “Father, for give them for they know not what they do.” Despite the Passion Plays and the actual agonies of the ages, the Jew still prays, “Father, forgive them though they know well what they do!” M 1NNKSOTA LEGISLATURE ENACTS KOSHER FOOD BILL Minneapolis, Minn. (J. T. A.).—A Kosher food products bill, modelled after the New York state law, was passed by the Minnesota State legis lature. The bill prohibits the advertising M foods as Kosher when they are not p °^ er - The bill was sponsored by Kabbis David Aronson and Jesse L c % ' ar t z of Minneapolis and Rabbi Berman Cohen of St. Paul. JEWS PARTICIPATE IN ROU MANIAN UNITY CELEBRATION Burcharest—(J. T. A.)—The Union of Roumanian Jews in Bucharest was officially represented at the exercises held throughout the country in com memoration of Greater Roumania’s unification which resulted from the World War. 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