A Game by Any Other Name

Imagine sitting around the house with family and friends. It’s game night, and you pull out the latest and greatest game. To promote the wholesomeness of the evening, the game will have to be something with good values. It should not use profanity.It will promote healthy competition. Most importantly, the game will be fun.

Like in Mafia, the evil Pharisees, set out to “stone” unsuspecting innocents each and every evening. In conspiracy with the “snake,” the Pharisees pick characters such as the Disciples or biblical prophets like Moses or Joseph to “stone” to death. The main character to be stoned is Jesus. Unlike other characters, however, Jesus comes back to life after “being dead” for three rounds of gameplay. The Pharisees slowly try to take over the world by killing off as many innocents as possible. Working with evil doers such as Judas or Pontius Pilate, the Pharisees aim to destroy the ministry of Jesus. Meanwhile, the “good guys”, who are most of the population, try to uncover the clandestine plots and excommunicate the evil doers before the Pharisees destroy all that is holy.

The stated aim of the “party game” — beyond just having fun sneaking around as evil Pharisees killing everyone — is to teach the lessons of the Bible. Yet, I’m not sure which Bible they are teaching. One doesn’t get the sense from the New Testament that the Pharisees indiscriminately ran around stoning people. In addition, the game smashes together a bizarre mixture of biblical characters from the Hebrew and Christian scriptures. Figures who lived in different periods are presented as if they lived together: King David, Elisha, Noah, Daniel, Zekhariah, Pharaoh, Paul, Jesus, etc. One gets the feeling that the only educational message the game creators deem important enough to convey is that the Pharisees were murderers.

Probably the most dangerous element in this entire travesty of history is it wasn’t Pontius Pilate who crucified Jesus, but rather the Pharisees who stoned him to death. In fact, Pilate is actually listed as a member of the good guys in the game since he can pardon as well as put to death. Thus the creators have authored a new and sinister narrative placing the blame of Jesus’s death squarely on the shoulders of the Pharisees. This is a serious accusation couched in a beautifully illustrated card game.

The equation made between the various games is clear: Werewolves = Mafiosos = Pharisees = Murderers. The goal of good society is to stop this combination from winning. Of course, the continued equation is a famous one: Pharisees = Rabbis = Jews.

Haven’t we gotten beyond the danger of this type of message? Does the material honestly reflects present-day Christian Theology? Even if it does, does it truly reflect the text of the New Testament?

The Campbells’ game goes along with a narrative which is only one step away from medieval blood libels of Jews sneaking around at night killing innocent Christian children for their own nefarious purposes.

This, too, was just a kids’ game. Yet, it was as a brick in the wall of Nazi propaganda which led to Auschwitz. Juden Raus represented a concerted effort to impact the youth culture in Nazi Germany and to nurture hatred for the Jews in the minds and hearts of German children. The Germans could easily have taken a page out of the biblical book of Proverbs, “Teach a child according to his way, when he ages the instruction will not leave him” (22:6).

Perhaps it is time for the Pharisees: the Party Game’s creators and Amazon to rethink selling this particular game?

Rabbi Todd Berman is the Associate Director at Yeshivat Eretz HaTzvi. He has held numerous posts in education from the high school level through adult education. He founded the Jewish Learning Initiative (JLI) at Brandeis University and served as rabbinic advisor to the Orthodox community there for several years. Previously, he was a RaM at Midreshet Lindenbaum where he also served as the Rav of the dormitory.

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