Newsmaker

Gibson asks Jews for help in healing

(AP)
Updated: 2006-08-02 17:02
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LOS ANGELES - Mel Gibson's latest apology drew mixed reactions from Jewish leaders, with some saying they were willing to help the actor address the anti-Semitic slurs he made during a drunken driving arrest and others demanding proof of his repentance.

Gibson made his second public apology Tuesday, four days after he was arrested for investigation of drunken driving following a hostile, offensive confrontation with deputies.

Gibson asks Jews for help in healing
In this booking photo released by the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department, actor-director Mel Gibson is seen in a booking photo taken Friday, July 28, 2006. An official police report on Gibson's arrest on drunken driving charges on Friday substantiates claims that he made anti-Semitic remarks and threatened a deputy, a law enforcement official said Monday, July 31. [AP]

A law enforcement official who spoke on condition of anonymity said the sheriff's report says Gibson told the arresting deputy: "The Jews are responsible for all the wars in the world," and asked him, "Are you a Jew?"

The apology went far beyond the first - directed primarily to deputies - and addressed Jewish groups directly. "Please know from my heart that I am not an anti-Semite. I am not a bigot. Hatred of any kind goes against my faith," he said in a statement.

"There will be many in that (Jewish) community who will want nothing to do with me, and that would be understandable," he added. "But I pray that that door is not forever closed."

Gibson, 50, has had an edgy relationship with Jewish organizations since his 2004 blockbuster "The Passion of the Christ," which some criticized for portraying Jews as responsible for Jesus' death. Supporters said the movie merely followed the Gospel story.

His apology prompted one rabbi to invite Gibson to speak at his temple on Yom Kippur, the Jewish day of atonement. Other Jewish leaders say the healing process will take some time.

"Anti-Semitism is not born in one day and cannot be cured in one day and certainly not through the issuing of a press release," Rabbi Marvin Hier, dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles, said in a statement. Gibson should read about Jewish persecution and the Holocaust, among other things, Hier added by telephone from Israel.

"When Mr. Gibson embarks on a serious long-term effort to address that bigotry and anti-Semitism, he will find the Jewish community more than willing to engage and help him," he said.

Abraham H. Foxman, national director of the Anti-Defamation League, said the process requires hard work. "You can't just say I'm no longer a drunk; you can't just say I'm no longer a bigot. You need to work hard at it, and we're ready to help him," Foxman said.

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