That Jew Died For You (Video)

The link to this site was sent to me by a friend who’s involved with Jews For Jesus. Having been to Auschwitz twice, I found it compelling.
Tomorrow is Good Friday. In the face of tragedy or pain people often ask the question or level the charge ‘Where was God when…’
When I speak at our service on ‘Measuring the love of God – how long and wide and high and deep,’ my focus throughout this Easter weekend is to remember, whatever we go through – our God is right there, the suffering servant and the risen Lord.

2 thoughts on “That Jew Died For You (Video)”

  1. Subject: I do not agree with those who are attacking the video showing Jesus carrying a cross and being sent to the showers from the gates to Auschwitz

    I am the son of Holocaust survivors. Most of my family perished in the Holocaust, either in the crematorium or they were shot dead on the street. Like many children of Holocaust survivors I never had grandparents. I became a rabbi as a concept of never again. I vowed that I’d do everything in my power to stop evil and to make certain that people that are like the Nazis, demons that they are, would never succeed.

    When I viewed the film, “That Jew Died For You,” I recognized it as a movie of compassion. I am not a stranger to this subject having just authored a new book The Holocaust as Seen Through Film, one of the many books that I have written with a Holocaust theme.

    I do not believe that Jesus was the Messiah but I do believe he was a Jew. I am completely non-judgmental with regards to anyone’s religious observances. I don’t judge anybody because I did not go into the clergy for religious sake. I went into clergy for humanity’s sake. There are not too many Holocaust survivors’ kids around that think the way I do.

    I do not agree with those who are attacking the video showing Jesus carrying a cross and being sent to the showers from the gates to Auschwitz. If Jesus were at Auschwitz he would have been murdered just for being a Jew. If anything the attack on this video bolsters Jews for Jesus, which I’m sure was not the intent of those critics. I think that the purpose of the video was to show that indeed Jesus was a Jew; whether you accept him as the Messiah is up to you. LET ME STATE CLEARLY: I DO NOT ENDORSE JEWS FOR JESUS OR THEIR BELIEFS. But I think their intent was not to harm our Jewish people but to depict Jesus as the observant Jew he was. The historical Jesus was a devout Jew.

    I witnessed Mel Gibson’s Passion of the Christ in Manhattan when it first came out and there was an uproar—there was a fear that it would create a lot of anti-Semitism because of the way that Jesus is persecuted and victimized. The fact is Jesus, at least the spiritual Jesus, was supposed to die and be resurrected and that did happen in this film. It was not the Jews that killed Jesus; rather it was Pontius Pilate and the Romans. In fact, if you saw that picture, you would see that the Roman soldiers did the floggings. Many people do not understand history at all.

    I believe that it was the teachings of the Church, not Jesus, that allowed Hitler to spread his ideology of hatred for the Jews. I am happy that the teachings of the Church regarding the Jewish people have changed. A special thank you to the Christians who support the state of Israel.

    The bottom line is that Jesus’ message was not to hate the Jews, but to love all humanity, and he would certainly not say that one should hate his own people. Instead of hatred in the world, there should be love. And if that was the message Jesus communicated, then that was an outstanding message for all of mankind. During this period of Easter and Passover, as well as the remembrance of the Holocaust, may love conquer evil and may we together fight hatred and intolerance.

    Rabbi Dr. Bernhard H. Rosenberg

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