Dear Mr. Neuman:

We were outraged by the winter 2004 issue of Heeb, which contains a shocking parody of the controversy surrounding Mel Gibson's film "The Passion of the Christ."  Your "Crimes of Passion" photo display - where Jesus is portrayed as a sex object with his genitalia wrapped in a Jewish prayer shawl, and the Virgin Mary as seductress with exposed breasts and body piercings – is deeply offensive and indeed blasphemous to both Christians and Jews.

There is a point when parody crosses the line into tastelessness.  The "Crimes of Passion" feature in Heeb not only crosses that boundary but engages in highly destructive anti-Christian images that are both insensitive and ill-timed.

For us, it is no more acceptable to be anti-Christian than it is to be anti-Jewish.  Coming at a time when a major motion picture is threatening to turn back the clock on decades of positive interfaith relations, your magazine's irresponsible attempt at parody has done a great disservice to the Jewish community.