"Inevitably, this article led to horrified press reports that Gibson's father was a 'holocaust denier'(a charge that both Mel and his father emphatically reject) and gave rise to suspicions that his unfinished film about Jesus expressed some anti-Semitic agenda. After all, the few facts known about the project prior to its completion made it sound weird, eccentric, and excessive. The star invested nearly $25 million of his own money to make the film.At one time he suggested that the dialogue, almost entirely in Aramaic with a smattering of Latin, would appear without subtitles. Reports from the set suggested that leading man Jim Caviezel (The Thin Red Line, The Count of Monte Cristo), another devout Catholic, had become so immersed in the role that he suffered significant injury while filming the violent torture of Christ. The rumors about the movie reached such an intense pitch that Paula Fredriksen's bruising attack on a film she had never seen appeared under the sneering headline,'Mad Mel.'
Meanwhile, the Anti-Defamation League, the world's most prominent watchdog group combating anti-Semitism, had received an early, unauthorized copy of Gibson's script (presumably before its translation into Aramaic) and assembled a group of Catholic and Jewish scholars to evaluate it. Gibson and colleagues were furious that this stolen script, which they insist has been changed in many of its essential elements, was subject to such analysis. Predictably, the scholars 'unanimously agreed that the screenplay reviewed was replete with objectionable elements that would promote anti-Semitism.' In a blistering June 24 press release, the ADL expressed very public concerns that The Passion would 'portray Jews as bloodthirsty, sadistic, and moneyhungry enemies of Jesus.'
At this ppoint, I became personally involved in the burgeoning controversy. As a film critic and cultural commentator who also happens to be an observant Jew (and a long-time president of an Orthodox congregation), I felt heartsick over the harsh denunciations of an unfinished motion picture that almost no one had seen. In the past, I've supported and spoken for the Anti-Defamation League, even serving as one of the featured speakers for its national convention eight years ago. I called the ADL office in New York City to express my opinion that the hostile tone of its press statements would destroy all chance that Gibson might cooperate in making adjustments to his motion picture. I also invited ADL director Abe Foxman to discuss the controversy over The Passion on my nationally syndicated radio show, but on several occasions he declined. In discussing the issue on my broadcasts, and in an op-ed column, I emphasized my sense that Gibson had been unfairly targeted with wildly premature attacks on his movie, and by a guilt-by-association campaign focused on his elderly father.

I also expressed my belief that the criticism of his unseen movie stemmed in part from the predominantly liberal political perspective of the Anti-Defamation League and other groups speaking for the Jewish establishment. Numerous commentators have noted recent shifts in the political allegiance of Jewish voters. George W. Bush has won greater popularity in the Jewish community than any Republican since Ronald Reagan. And fervent support for Israel by evangelical Christians has produced an increasingly vibrant alliance between committed Jews and Christian conservatives. The ADL, which has been outspokenly critical of the so-called "Christian Right" on many occasions, clearly looks askance at this emerging coalition. Could the controversy over The Passion help to divide Jews from the fervent Christians likely to embrace the film?"