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September 21, 2011 | 3:35 pm

Could Gibson be good for the Maccabees?

Posted by Danielle Berrin

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Mel Gibson Photo by Ian Wilson/WENN.com/Newscom

As loathsome and absurd as it may seem to many, Mel Gibson’s plan to produce a movie about the Maccabees is not an existential threat to Jews — unless, of course, he decides to change the ending so that the Maccabees lose.

Of course, that a man who, in 2006, turned a drunk-driving arrest into an opportunity to assail Jews for waging all the wars in the world should now set about making a film based on two of the Jewish holy books does seem bizarre. Is this Gibson’s attempt at some kind of perversion of teshuvah, or just a deeply insensitive expropriation of Jewish lore?

At best, the notion resonates as a kind of grand farce.

“If you were making a satire of Hollywood, you would have the anti-Semitic, drunk, racist, misogynistic movie director making the Judah Maccabee biopic,” The Atlantic’s Jeffrey Goldberg said to me by phone from Washington, D.C. “It’s an act of outrageous chutzpah for an anti-Semite to appropriate a Jewish hero for a movie. Would you have a person who is widely believed by black people to be a racist involved in a movie about Martin Luther King Jr.? Would you have a person most gay people believe is a homophobe direct ‘Milk’?”

At worst, the film could become a kind of insidious Christian propaganda film, à la “The Passion of the Christ,” in which Jews were mostly depicted as extremely unattractive, blood-lusting and demonic, not to mention complicit in deicide. “If this [movie] were shown in the theater during the Third Reich or in Iran, people would cheer that the Jews, who rejected Christ, are finally shown for what they are,” Rabbi Marvin Hier, dean and founder of the Simon Wiesenthal Center Museum of Tolerance, said.

But, in fact, no Jews were harmed in the making of that film — or in the movie theaters that showed it, or even outside of them. Mostly, “The Passion” played out in the pages of the press, and life went on. Hurt feelings aside, the worst grievance Jews could direct at “The Passion of the Christ” was that it made its already wealthy anti-Semitic creator even richer.

Any Gibson-produced Maccabee movie is unlikely to pose actual danger to Jews. In an age of real violent threats, “This is not a crime against humanity,” Goldberg said wryly. But even so, that is not why many Jews oppose it.

When the story broke, Jewish outrage was palpable. Anti-Defamation League national director Abe Foxman told The Hollywood Reporter that the decision was a travesty: “Judah Maccabee deserves better,” he said. Hier called the project antagonistic and disrespectful — “an insult to Jews.” Others called it “bottom-feeding on the bottom line.”

The danger, as these Jewish leaders see it, is that allowing an anti-Semite to have his way with Jewish history in this far-reaching and influential medium casts him as a kind of cultural authority on the subject and lends legitimacy to his worldview, which they believe comprises deep theological hostility to Jews and Judaism.

They don’t look at Mel Gibson and see a great artist; they see a Nazi.

As one friend put it, “Had Mel Gibson lived in 1940s Germany, he would have been one of those Nazis who shot Jews from a rooftop and then went inside and listened to Bach.”

But the Jewish leaders who flooded the pages of the Hollywood trades with their dismay and disgust do not know Mel Gibson. And the portrait that emerges from talks with some of the Jews who have worked with Gibson, including Alan Nierob, his publicist of 17 years, is one of a loyal, caring friend and a consummate professional.

“People love working with him,” said Dean Devlin, producer of “The Patriot” and a close friend of Gibson. “He is one of the few movie stars who doesn’t bring any ego to the set, and he was always making people laugh.” Devlin said Gibson would help carry equipment and play practical jokes, and that he helped set up a clinic for battered women near their South Carolina set, as well as a local chapter of Alcoholics Anonymous, whose meetings Gibson attended. “But,” Devlin added, “he also has this reputation for being a guy who would say outrageous stuff and infuriate people; Mel is a guy who loves to shock.”

Richard Donner (nee Schwartzberg), who directed Gibson in the “Lethal Weapon” movies and has known him for three decades, agreed that Gibson is “one of the nuttiest guys” he’s ever met but does not believe he’s anti-Semitic. He described Gibson as an “off the wall” creative genius who can sometimes do bizarre and outlandish things. He said he was “thunderstruck” when he heard about Gibson’s 2006 tirade.

“I couldn’t believe it — I didn’t want to believe it,” Donner said. “And yet, in my heart, having known how he was brought up, I said to myself, ‘Well, maybe this is something that’s been suppressed for so many years and it decided to raise its ugly head now.’

“If you’re brainwashed from infancy,” Donner added, referring to Gibson’s Vatican II-

rejecting father, Hutton Gibson, a Holocaust denier, “that probably causes great emotional anguish.”

“Mel has never, ever said anything against the Jews on the record,” Devlin insisted. “Somehow, in a drunken, crazy rage, he was reported to have said some ridiculous things; but I gotta tell you, if every single one of us had every word recorded in the height of drunken anger, we’d all look like lunatics.”

Whether Gibson’s colleagues are defending a friend or in denial, it’s clear there is also little consensus in Hollywood on what constitutes anti-Semitism.

As recently as December 2010, the actress Winona Ryder revealed to GQ Magazine a disturbing encounter she’d had with Gibson long ago: “I remember, like, 15 years ago, I was at one of those big Hollywood parties. And he was really drunk,” she told GQ. “I was with my friend, who’s gay. He made a really horrible gay joke. And somehow it came up that I was Jewish. He said something about ‘oven dodgers.’… I’d never heard that before. It was just this weird, weird moment. I was like, ‘He’s anti-Semitic and he’s homophobic.’ No one believed me!”

Perhaps an industry-wide malaise of shame or self-hate makes it too difficult to call anti-Semitism what it is. With few exceptions, like Amy Pascal, who decried Gibson’s 2006 outburst in an interview with the Los Angeles Times, and Ari Emanuel, who wrote on the Huffington Post that, “alcoholism does not excuse racism and anti-Semitism,” the silence has been deafening. Calling out anti-Semitism where it exists seems too tribal and parochial for such a worldly industry. God forbid Warner Bros., the studio that greenlighted the Maccabee film, should bear any moral responsibility for assigning a Jewish story to a storyteller who has repeatedly antagonized Jews. All that its Jewish studio head Barry Meyer could muster through a PR rep was: “No comment.”

Rabbi Irwin Kula, president of Clal, The National Jewish Center for Learning and Leadership based in New York, said he couldn’t care less about analyzing the vagaries of Gibson’s attitude toward the Jews. “I worry about anti-Semitism when it actually wields power that is going to hurt the Jewish people,” he said. Kula has been consulting with Gibson about the Maccabee movie and said Gibson has as much right to produce the story as anyone.

“No one owns the Jewish story; this is a historic story,” Kula said, adding that the Jewish community should view the film as an opportunity. “More [Jewish] people celebrate Chanukah than any other festival — 80 percent of American Jews claim they celebrate some sort of Chanukah, which means Chanukah is bigger than Rosh Hashanah, bigger than Yom Kippur. What if, when the movie comes out, we were able to create a national conversation around one of our most important stories?”

After all, not even Gibson’s critics deny that he is one of Hollywood’s most talented filmmakers. And his penchant for archetypal good-versus-evil stories could wind up highlighting Judah Maccabee’s heroism, omitting some of the harsher, more ambivalent aspects of the Book of Maccabees, such as the zealous persecution of secular Jews. What if, in the end, Mel Gibson makes a darn good movie extolling Maccabean virtues that would make Jews proud?

“People say to me, ‘You know what? Maybe he wants to make amends with Judah Maccabee and this is his way of saying, ‘Welcome me back,’ ” Rabbi Hier said, confessing that as a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, he voted for Gibson back in 1996, when he was nominated for “Braveheart.”

“Why can’t the Jews just forget Mel Gibson?” Hier asked, rhetorically.

“Because he himself has not allowed us to forget, because he hasn’t done anything to correct the way he’s thought of. I’ve seen nothing in Mel Gibson to make me think he’s worthy to be put in trust of a film like Judah Maccabee; he wants us to trust him, but he has not earned our trust.”

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Mel Gibson is no more qualified to make a movie about the Maccabees as Barack Obama’s pastor, Rev. Jeremiah Wright.

Comment by Funny And Jewish on 9/21/11 at 8:56 pm

As a Jewish man, even I find this article horribly biased. I, in my own admission, have said some extreme comments on Islam when I have had too much wine. Saying that, in my sober and clear thought, I am not anti-Islamic. Gibson isn’t perfect but he sure makes great movies and this Maccabee movie will probably be awesome

Comment by Ross on 9/22/11 at 11:31 am

Hollywood Jews might heed the advice Bernard-Henri Lévy: “A memory that functions is a memory that makes us sensitive to the suffering of the other. A memory that makes us sensitive only to our own suffering is not a memory that works. Memory is for the other, not for oneself. And if there is indifference to suffering, it means a civil society has problems with its memory. For Jews, this is tragic. To ignore the suffering of the other betrays what Judaism has brought to universal history.”

Comment by Robert on 9/22/11 at 12:12 pm

Robert’s comment was incredible!  I may have to borrow that for later if you don’t mind!

As a Jew I fear that being pro-Judaism in this day of the internet blogger means finding what hollywood celebrity dared drunkenly say something stupid.

Is this what our proud people have been reduced to?  Finger-pointing thugs obsessing about ‘ruining’ anyone who dare say they don’t like us?

I absolutely beg the Jewish Journal to ask Ms. Berrin to write about something more substantial than what celebrity dared, DARED look our people askance!  This is not doing our people any favors, quite the contrary, it makes us look like a vindictive, isolated and nasty people. PLEASE STOP THESE ARTICLES!

Comment by Ilan on 9/22/11 at 3:42 pm

yeah time to give Gibson a break…. and Palestine.

Comment by Zach Orangestein on 9/22/11 at 6:19 pm

If I remember correctly Gibson mentioned he was interested in making the Maccabee movie right after ....he was busted in malibu or as he was getting bad press while making his “holy cristo movie”....It was obviously a ploy to make some kind of amends.

The fact that Warners is willing to trust him with the big bucks it’s gonna take is kind of astounding???

Comment by Stormin'Norm on 9/22/11 at 6:23 pm

Yes Could be very useful & effective. Good idea.

Comment by Attila on 9/22/11 at 7:14 pm

Warners do not risk a penny.  Whatever rasist, jewhater, antisemitic he is, this jirk is talanted.  His “Passion..” did not honor jews, but was a success.  His matured hatress would help him to creat antihuman “hero” that breakfasts by poor palestinians ready to accept Christianity.
Who could read a sick mind and predict other desasters?

Comment by Arkady on 9/22/11 at 8:56 pm

Here’s a question I’ve not seen in all the pages on the net since the story broke last week: Why, with all the Jews in Hollywood since its inception almost a hundred years ago, has a movie about the Maccabees never been made?  It’s actually a great topic!  Don’t you think that if a good movie had been already crafted, this idea wouldn’t have even entered his poor misguided head.

Hollywood has forever hidden from its Jewish roots.  Cast A Giant Shadow, Exodus, Defiance, and…and…dang, I can’t think of any more proud films about strong Jews.  Guilt ridden Jews, secret Jews, Shoah victims, Woody Allen’s nebbishes, greedy Jews, these have all been made.

Comment by Grantman on 9/22/11 at 9:54 pm

Dang you, JJ.  Get rid of the 700 character limit!!!

And to finish my paragrahp above:

As much as I dislike Gibson’s personality and his apparent loathing for we of the Hebraic persuasion, he’s a helluva filmmaker and I’d like to see what he can do.  That is, because no one else will.  Hey - how ‘bout one about Bar Kochba?  No more neurotic, nebbishy, greedy, sappy Jews.  Show us with strength.

Comment by Grantman on 9/22/11 at 9:56 pm

Show me a Jewish Actor playing a Jewish Hero and I will say Amen. Hollywood has only ONCE done this with Brendan Fraser in school ties, and has many times shown Jewish men as weak and ineffectual. It takes a lot of strength to stand up as a Jewish man with love in this world that full of those who hate us without reason; now or at any time, and I can not even begin to praise our Sacred Jewish women. I am a Veteran Paratrooper show me a Hero, thank G-d for giving us the Torah, we can always stay strong, Moshiach NOW!

Comment by Aaron J Levy on 9/22/11 at 10:29 pm

i seriously doubt that mel gibson, can make amends with G-D more or less anyone in this world. especially when there is a good chance, any movie made about scriptuew may bear false wittness. and the last thing we don’t need, is someone insulting G-D with religious alterations.

when we even know, that cicle b demil’s movie, lied about how many commands were given. and you can’t tell me, that G-D was happy about that. so we don’t need help, from any one who can only make G-D more angry at us here in TheTorah today.

Comment by jimmie c boswell on 9/22/11 at 10:48 pm

Jesus….jimmie c. boswell… try using spell check sometime your writing is pathetic
(where did your name come from???)

Comment by Baba Rose on 9/23/11 at 1:32 am

A. Levy…
Brendan Fraser ISN’T Jewish…  try the 3 Action movies mentioned above…Paul Newman in Exodus, Kirk Douglas in Cast a Giant Shadow, Liev Schreiber in Defiance,  also Eli Roth (the bear Jew) & Melanie Laurent in Inglourious Basterds.
A ton of Jews in Jewish comedies in recent years not a lot of heroic films.

The Jewish moguls were afraid to even make a Jewish movie let alone allow a Jewish star in one…REMEMBER they were all forced to change their names…. most people didn’t even know who they were.!!! In the early days How many people knew Paulette Goddard was Jewish, Theda Bara, Bronco Billy Anderson, Hedy Lamarr,  Douglas Fairbanks????
,

Comment by Stormin'Norm on 9/23/11 at 1:45 am

I am truly disappointed at the negative reaction of a few Rabbis and some prominent Jewish leaders over the fact that Mel Gibson is going to make a movie about an ancient Jewish hero.  I am one Jew who is not offended about Mel making this movie. These criticisms border on lashon hara and are disgraceful.  Mr. Gibson is an excellent actor and filmmaker.  He has treated African Americans, indigenous peoples and women with respect in his films, in the Clint Eastwood mode.  I cannot say that about every director (even those that are allegedly liberal) in Hollywood.

Comment by Aaron on 9/23/11 at 9:18 am

hey aaron…I’m truly disappointed in mel…..we gave him a lot of love and he turned on us…That is a jolt to the system to find out someone you really liked had all this bottled up hatred against your “family”!!!...however who knows… he might turn out a winner about the Maccabees…then again it might become a marx bros. farce…time will tell.

Comment by NateDuhGrate!!! on 9/23/11 at 10:21 am

If Mel had burned a cross on someone’s lawn, wore a hood and threatened a black man or a Jew, than talk to me.  The fact he is a drunk and has problems managing his anger does not detrack from his work, no more than the fact that Michael Moore is overweight because he cannot control his appetite.  Let his work speak for itself.  The fact that the Israeli Philharmonic finally played a real anti-Semite composer’s music (Wagner) makes my point.

Comment by Aaron on 9/23/11 at 10:50 am

Aaron, my man, Why Would I want to talk to you ????

In Show business MONEY TALKS>>>

Gibson is a fine film maker…being an anti-Semite does not detract from that…however it keeps me from spending my bucks to see the Maccabees or any of his work…mike moore is fat…so what…I do object to his support of the palestinians…no more bucks for moore…dick wagner was a serious Jew hater…his top 40 hits ain’t on my I-Pod!!!

I hereby grant them the freedom to hate and I grant me the freedom not to support those Bozos!!!

Comment by NateDuhGrate!!! on 9/23/11 at 3:32 pm

Cool and conscious words, Aaron. Everybody should breathe today’s air, not yesterday’s. Ilan, what’s mine is yours, but the hero is Bernard-Henri Lévy.

Comment by Robert on 9/23/11 at 3:48 pm

NateDuhGrate: Each of us has to decide what kind of spiritual environment he or she want to live in.  One where conduct is important or one where words—which were illegally reported—spoken in a state of drunkeness (after an arrest) is important. I prefer the former.  We all say stupid stuff, particularly when we self-medicate with drugs or booze. I do not even know if Mr. Gibson is an anti-semite; I know that he has made statements that are construed as anti-semetic.  I have seen no anti-semitic moviess. You want to boycott Gibson, then do so.  I will not. You need to start acting like an adult.

Comment by Aaron on 9/23/11 at 4:03 pm

Say what you will about the guy but he makes great “war movies” And that’s really the Maccabee story

Comment by Bill Pearlman on 9/23/11 at 4:34 pm

aaron:
Since when are the words you utter NOT YOUR CONDUCT???...and then you claim “illegally reported” by a Jewish sheriff who arrested him and he was drunk… sooo they don’t count??????    What planet do you live on anyway???
If they don’t count check out the box office of the movies gibson has appeared in since his malibu coming out party…apparently I have a lot of company in my personal boycott!!!  ...and you forgot about his megahit the passion of JC…was that not anti-Semitic???  hitler was insane sooo mein kampf doesn’t count because he knew not what he did???...sorry I’m so childish!!!

Comment by Nate on 9/24/11 at 1:25 am

aaron baby——-I think maybe you are “self Medicating” a little too much lately. gibson was raised by his well known looney anti-semitic daddy, hutton gibson, so I guess he was christened as a Jew hater, early.
BUT My G-d “his words were illegally reported”?  What the hell does that mean? Are you friggin brain dead?

Comment by Baba Rose on 9/24/11 at 1:39 am

When one is arrested, statement by the arrested individual are a part of a confidential record and may not be published unless there is a trial, Baba Rose.  The fact that Mel Gibson’s father may be an anti-semite (which is gossip, a sin in Judaism)has nothing to do with whether or not Mel Gibson will make an excellent movie.  I am shocked at the lack of knowledge about the law and Jewish ethics.  (Look up lashon hara).

Comment by Aaron on 9/24/11 at 2:40 am

Go to Judaism 101.  It says, “There are two mitzvot in the Torah that specifically address improper speech: Thou shalt not go up and down as a tale-bearer among thy people (Lev. 19:16), and ye shall not wrong one another (Lev. 25:17, which according to tradition refers to wronging a person with speech).”

Comment by Aaron on 9/24/11 at 2:58 am

Finally Judaism 101 states, It is a violation of this mitzvah to say anything about another person, even it is true, even if it is not negative, even if it is not secret, even if it hurts no one, even if the person himself would tell the same thing if asked! It is said that the telling of gossip leads to bloodshed, which is why the next words in the Torah are “you shall not stand aside while your fellow’s blood is shed.”

Comment by Aaron on 9/24/11 at 3:02 am

This negative gossip about Mel Gibson is putting your soul in danger.  We have become so insensitive and unrefined as a culture, we ignore our Jewish ethics and law and behave not like a nation of priests, but a nation of uncivilized, animalistic beings.  Shame on you who criticize Mel Gibson.

Comment by Aaron on 9/24/11 at 3:05 am

aaron——Do you ever listen to yourself??? ...“a statement by the arrested individual are a part of a confidential record and may not be published unless there is a trial”...THEREFORE HE DID NOT SAY IT AND IT DIDN’t HAPPEN??? who are you the D.A.??? This isn’t a trial this is life!!! The SOB is a latent anti-Semite. My point in mentioning his “famously anti-Semitic father” is to show you that gibson was raised that way…there’s no MAYBE about it.
Why are you bringing the Torah into it…worry abut your own soul, We’re actually secular BECAUSE of people like you…who hide their heads in the sand!!!

Comment by Baba Rose on 9/24/11 at 8:13 am

aaron…Go back to the Torah…and let the rest of us deal with the real world.
also…
you don’t mess with BabaRose ...she’ll eat you up and turn you into potato pancakes….ask our grandkids!!!

Comment by Mr. BabaRose on 9/24/11 at 8:20 am

You are secular because you do not know any better.  You have no morals or ethics because you probably have a college degree where you were brainwashed by our Marxist institutions of higher learning.  The subtlety of the Torah cannot been seen when you have your head in the sand. See, now you have me behaving like you.  Oh well, I never said I was perfect, just trying to be ethical, moral and not a gossiping harpy.

Comment by Aaron on 9/24/11 at 10:41 am

The adoption of the Torah is what made the Jewish people Jewish.  We now have individuals who are secular calling themselves Jews because their parents were Jewish and because in Jewish tradition, if your mother is a Jew you are a Jew, by definition.  However, if you do not believe in the divine inspiration of the Torah, are you Jewish?  I refuse to let Hitler be the final arbiter on the subject.

Comment by Aaron on 9/24/11 at 10:44 am

the greatest threat to the state of Israel are people like aaron who believe they (Israel) will survive only by Devine intervention and then use that excuse to refuse to take part in their own defense.
They refuse to serve in the IDF and insist that the state, which they don’t recognize, support them because they are too busy studying the Torah.

That conclusion in 1939, waiting for Devine intervention,  also lead a lot of them to the gas chambers!!!
It’s a free country, believe what you will, but if you refuse to try to protect yourself don’t count on strangers doing it for you!!!

Comment by Stormin'Norm on 9/24/11 at 11:38 am

Yes, Aaron, I’m the Jew.  I do remember early childhood when Russian kids were throwing stones in me and screamed “kike”.  I remember ‘53 when some friends from KGB (even there there were good people) hinted my uncle that whole family shall be together and we lived a few days before Stalin’s death in ancle’s apartment.
I’d list millions of Jews, religeous and secular, killed by Hitler, Stalin, Petlura and Peten.  So, Jews are people with Hebrow ethnic background, and as long as we’re not stupid we should fight in the same raw.

Comment by Arkady on 9/24/11 at 11:44 am

A rabbi traveled to Nekhizh to ask the zaddik if it was true that he heard and saw all things. “Think of the words of our sages,” said the zaddik, “a seeing eye and a hearing ear.” Men are created to see and hear whatever they want. It’s a question of not corrupting your eyes or ears.

Comment by Robert on 9/24/11 at 3:53 pm

Instead of seeing anti-semitism, at all times and in all places, it might be fresh to acknowledge the unglamorous yet countless Gentiles who’ve fought anti-semitism the past century. Like my great grandfather, a goy as aloof as they come, who gave Herbert H. Lehman’s dreams of public service traction and propulsion. Or his son, my grandfather, who protested Harvard President Lowell’s unspoken anti-semitism by hiring Jewish physicians on the faculty of the Harvard Medical School. Or those Waspy “idealists,” like my father, who lost their sanity or lives killing Nazis in the Battle of the Bulge.

Comment by Robert on 9/24/11 at 3:55 pm

I condemn any person who physically attacks a Jew or discriminates in housing, jobs, or schools.  My son was suspended from school because he would not his fellow Jewish friend to be beat up.  I supported by son’s conduct.  I condemn the Palestinians and other Muslims who lie about the history of Isreal, who refuse to make peace with Israel, who send missles or humans strapped with bombs into Israel. I condemn Iran who threatens to annialate Israel.  These are real threats.  Delusions about threats does not help the Jewish cause.

Comment by Aarpm on 9/24/11 at 4:18 pm

Dear Robert: If I were to choose, I’d better save one Gentile man of your backround instead of three Aarons, calling for respecting Gibson’s talents.  We know already what he created by “Passion..”  We could be only horryfied in anticipation what he will do from “Maccabies”.  I love and respect people like your family, people that fought against nazis with my father, and my muslim friends of my soviet past.  But I would not shake hands with Gibsons…
By my opinion he will twist any historical fact to please his hateness.

Comment by Arkady on 9/24/11 at 6:13 pm

The most racist movie ever made in America is “Drive”.

Refn has included every negative Jewish stereotype in this antisemitic Jew hating movie. If any other minority was treated so despicably, there would be outrage.

I believe it violates various countries hate laws.

Comment by Martin H. Leaf on 9/25/11 at 12:37 am

We now have Arkady expressing his displeasure with my refusal to approve of his hating Mel Gibson.  He believes that how Jews were treated in Germany and Russia (murder by the millions and displacement by the millions) with some dumb statement Gibson made while drunk.  He is so displeased it matters not that my father served in WWII and that I have children who live in Isreal. Arkady, you are one very disturbed individual attempting to impose your experience in another country on this country. you need therapy dude.

Comment by Aaron on 9/25/11 at 1:54 am

robert…I suggest you watch the old movie “Gentlemans Agreement” to get just a little taste of the abomination that anti-Semitism is. You can’t know it if you haven’t experienced it!!! Then maybe you’ll understand why Jews see it at all times and in all places.
On our first trip to Israel in 1977 my wife and I were walking through Ben Gurian Airport…she started whispering to me “look at the Jewish flag over there…look at the stars over there…look at the chasid over there”...I said why the hell are you whispering…she said “someone might hear”...I said..“We are all JEWS here whatayou afraid of?!!!”

Comment by Nate on 9/25/11 at 11:42 am

So,now we have a Passion of Senior Shizo.  Typical signs of mental inadequancy: refusal recognicion of secular Jews as the Jews, but ready to lick any goy-anticemite whenever allowed to.
Looks like, certain elements of shizika’re common of all twisted liberals, so to be clear: I do not care about your neither Gibson opinion.  I do not hate Gibson personally, but would not alow him within three yards stick to any jewish history related move.  I’d rather hate “aarons” that do not understand that fighting Jews of all streams got in the same deathcamp.

Comment by Arkady on 9/25/11 at 12:02 pm

Episcopalians, like Jews, are mixed. Back in the Day, after throwing bricks at cops with Norman Mailer in Harvard Square, I ran home. “I and Thou” was on my mother’s table.

The human creature, Martin Buber wrote, means mixture. Words are pure and men are mixed. Men are made of prattle and silence. Their silence is not that of animals but of men. Out of the human silence behind the prattle the spirit whispers to you. The spirit as soul. She is the beloved.

Comment by Robert on 9/25/11 at 5:51 pm

Maybe this is Mel Gibson’s way of making atonement for his actions?

It will probably be a pretty good movie and spark some interest in ancient Jewish history

Comment by mazel on 9/25/11 at 6:03 pm

As they said in my time, “Jews’re very smart.  But if a Jew is stupid, he is STUPID”.
We already know what dirt he did from “Passion…”  There’re still IDIOTS predicting “Maccabees…” to be pretty good movi.
A lot if IDIOTS had a chance to read about Mr. Obama toast at his friend, Arafat speechwriter table.
But they voted for a “Change”

Comment by Arkady on 9/26/11 at 10:12 am

Mel Gibson has wanted to make a film on the Maccabees for a long time. When I saw Braveheart, I thought he could make a great film based on Howard Fast’s story of the Maccabees, “My Glorious Brothers.” I did not know, at that time, that years later I would read that this is exactly what he wanted to do. Due to the controversy over “The Passion of the Christ,” Howard Fast’s widow would not sell him the rights. Then later came the antisemitic remarks.

I have not changed my opinion. Gibson could make a tremendous film about the Maccabees. And perhaps, this could be his way of doing penance to the Jewish commiunity.

Comment by Susan Garber on 10/14/11 at 7:02 pm

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