The first UK screening of Mel Gibson's controversial film The Passion Of The Christ provoked a furious response from Britain's Jewish community today.

Representatives of the Jewish faith were invited to see the film in London a month before its nationwide release.

Many left the Odeon in Leicester Square branding it "disgusting," "deplorable," and likely to incite racial hatred.

Depicting the last 12 hours in the life of Christ, Gibson's blood-drenched epic, which is estimated by its distributor to have made $20 million (£10.74m) in its first day in the US yesterday, had already been accused of anti-Semitism.

It shows Jewish high priests demanding Christ's crucifixion, then looking on as he is tortured and put to an agonising death.

Neville Nagler, director general of the Jewish Board of Deputies, said: "It would have been better if this film had never been made. The glorification of violence and bloodshed and the reinforcement of medieval stereotyping of the Jewish people are extremely dangerous.

"At a time when we are trying to develop co-operation and dialogue within our diverse and multi-cultural society, this film overturns the recent teachings of the Church and is completely unhelpful in fostering closer Jewish-Christian relations."

Lord Janner, former president of the Board of Deputies and now vice-president of the World Jewish Congress, said after the screening: "I hated it. The Jews come out of it as a pretty nasty lot and I believe it could cause very great harm in relations with the Jewish community."

Yitzchak Schochet, a leading rabbi, said: "The cinematography was fantastic, the acting was brilliant - but the content was deplorable in the extreme. It is filled with grotesque blood-letting. Much of it is based on hearsay.

"The idea of the priests standing there smiling as Jesus was crucified is fatally flawed. I hope they ban it, or at the very least edit out some of the scenes… No Christian will walk out of this film without bad feeling towards Jews."

Gibson is a conservative Catholic, a member of a breakaway group which does not accept the Vatican II reforms of 1962 which absolved Jews of responsibility for the crucifixion.

One of Israel's two chief rabbis today urged the Pope to reiterate the 1962 decision.

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