July 31, 1997

Up Front

The Play's Not the Thing

According to reviews, "Mendel and Moses," a musical playing at the Canon Theatre in Beverly Hills, isn't much of a play. But it is provoking -- at least in some corners of the Jewish community -- significant controversy. Rabbi Benzion Kravitz, founder and director of the anti-cult group Jews for Judaism, is appalled that not only did The Jewish Journal run a review of the small-stage show about a stereotypical Jewish man who goes back in time to visit Moses, but that we even printed ads for the show. Didn't we know that Jeremiah Ginsburg, the play's writer and director, is a devout messianic Jew, whose ultimate aim is to proselytize Jews to Christianity? Didn't we understand that the play is part of a devious scheme to entrap unsuspecting Jews into Christian fundamentalism? How dare we lend credence to such deception. Contacted by Up Front, Ginsburg didn't deny that he is a messianic Jew. Indeed, he advertised his 1991 off-Broadway musical, "Rabboni," as a way "to share the Gospel with your Jewish friends and family." But he said that "Mendel and Moses" is not affiliated with Jews for Jesus or any other missionary group. "If I am a believer, how is that relevant to what the play is about?" he said, impassionedly. "I have been persecuted mercilessly for trying to bless our people. The evil forces of Lucifer and Beelzebub are out to destroy the Jewish people, and all I am trying to do is defend them." Whatever. Let's assume that Ginsburg, 61, would like you to believe exactly as he does. Even if that is the case, his play at the Canon is not propaganda. It contains no overt Christian content. Some devil imagery here, some Lucifer language there -- nothing you wouldn't see on "Rosanne" or "The Simpsons." No proselytizing takes place during the performance, or surrounding it. Should we refuse to run ads based not on the content of the object advertised but on the religious beliefs of the advertiser? We don't think so. If Ginsburg's play itself reflected a philosophy anathema to the Jewish community, then, of course, we would reject his ads. But it doesn't, so we won't. -- Robert Eshman, Associate Editor