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School slips as girls shun 'antisemitic' Shakespeare



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Published Date: 01 March 2008
By Tim Ross
A JEWISH school tumbled down national league tables after pupils refused to answer questions on Shakespeare because they believed he was antisemitic.
Nine girls at the Yesodey Hatorah Senior Girls School in Stamford Hill, north London, got no marks for their national curriculum Shakespeare tests as a result of their protest.

The view of Shakespeare as prejudiced against Jews stems from his portrayal of the money-lender Shylock in The Merchant Of Venice.

Rabbi Abraham Pinter, the principal, stressed that he did not advise girls to boycott Shakespeare but respected their views. "I think this is very positive," he said. "I'm really proud our kids are prepared to take the consequences of their convictions."

Last year, girls at the school were on average five terms ahead of 14-year-olds across the rest of England in maths, English and science. But the school's ranking fell from first to 274th in this year's table.

Simon Gibbons, of the National Association for the Teaching of English, said he did not believe that the play was prejudiced against Jews, but added: "It is noble of the school to take the view that the individual pupils' views are more important than its league table position."





The full article contains 208 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
Page 1 of 1

  • Last Updated: 29 February 2008 10:38 PM
  • Source: The Scotsman
  • Location: Edinburgh
 
1

clola,

Mumbai india. 01/03/2008 02:42:42
what irrelevant drivel.
2

Tom in Belmont,

Belmont 01/03/2008 02:47:54
OK. So as an Irish-American I can choose to stay ignorant of Milton because he shilled for Cromwell, and of Dr. Johnson because he opposed the US War of Independence.
Pity that an institution calling itself a school is abetting this nonsense.
By the way: just who were the last people in Europe to insist that their educational system include only authors approved by the Volk, um I mean "their" people?
3

Samantha M.,

Dundee 01/03/2008 15:37:52
It is exactly the sort of thing English kids should be doing. They have a nerve to stage, stage being the operative word, a protest about a 400 year old play when Hollywood arrogantly pumps out anti-gentile movies continuously.

A recent, perhaps trivial, example of this kind of intellectual ethnic warfare is the popular movie Addams Family Values (released in November 1993), produced by Scott Rudin (Jewish), directed by Barry Sonnenfeld (Jweish), and written by Paul Rudnick (Jweish).
The bad guys in the movie are virtually anyone with blond hair (the exception being an overweight child), and the good guys include two Jewish children wearing yarmulkes. (Indeed, having blond hair is viewed as a pathology, so that when the dark-haired Addams baby
temporarily becomes blond, there is a family crisis.) The featured Jewish child has dark hair, ears glasses, and is physically frail and nonathletic. He often makes precociously intelligent comments, and he is severely punished by the blond-haired counselors for reading a
highly intellectual book. The evil gentile children are the opposite: blond, athletic, and unintellectual. Together with other assorted dark-haired children from a variety of ethnic backgrounds and white gentile children rejected by their peers (for being overweight, etc.), the Jewish boy and the Addams family children lead a very violent movement that succeeds in destroying the blond enemy.

The movie is a parable illustrating the general thrust of Jewish intellectual and political activity relating to immigration and multiculturalism in Western societies. It is also consistent with the general thrust of Hollywood movies. SAID reviews data indicating Jewish domination of the entertainment industry in the United States. Powers, Rothman and Rothman (1996, 207) characterize television as promoting liberal, cosmopolitan values, and Lichter, Lichter and Rothman (1994, 251) find that television portrays cultural pluralism in positive terms and as easily a
4

Tom in Belmont,

Belmont 01/03/2008 16:10:33
According to a recent comment by San Francisco columnist Bill Mandel (himself a very liberal Jew) 80% of Hollywood's decision makers were raised Jewish (which does not mean they practice). Ironically, Mandel criticized anyone complaining about this as (you guessed it) "anti-Semitic".
Narrow, ethnocentric readings of history and literature lead their societies to bad ends, whether its American Know-Nothings, German Nazis, Serb and Russian ultra-nationalists, Islamicists or Zionist Jews. Yet in this politically-correct world, the last group may never be criticized.
The girls don't fully realize what they are doing, but the rabbi does.
5

Lobeydoser,

02/03/2008 00:25:48
Not sure what Tom in Belmont is getting at:
"According to a recent comment by San Francisco columnist Bill Mandel (himself a very liberal Jew) 80% of Hollywood's decision makers were raised Jewish (which does not mean they practice). Ironically, Mandel criticized anyone complaining about this as (you guessed it) "anti-Semitic"."

Why would anyone want to "complain" - about a private religious belief? What would they be complaining about - how some child was raised? Who would they complain about - the parents?

Enlighten us all Tom. Or perhaps you're not too sure yourself!

6

Tom in Belmont,

Belmont 02/03/2008 03:28:08
#5 I was merely adding to #4's commentary on Hollywood. This Mandel went ballistic when some black and Hispanic actors complained that they were not getting their cut of good roles and other opportunities, and suggested that Hollywood was discriminating against them because of their race. For some reason, he thought this was anti-Semitic, and I found it odd that he didn't identify what it was that they had said that was anti-Semitic. The 80% figure and the words "raised Jewish" were his, not mine.
I have no complaints about anyone who got what they got honestly, I just don't like this "poor little me" whining by those who've made it. If you have power and money, somebody will complain about it, regardless of your race or religion. Get used to it and get over it.
7

,

02/03/2008 16:20:27
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