U.K. Jewish pupils boycott Shakespeare test over Bard's anti-Semitism - Haaretz

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Tue., March 10, 2009 Adar 14, 5769

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Last update - 00:00 03/03/2008

U.K. Jewish pupils boycott Shakespeare test over Bard's anti-Semitism

By Haaretz Service

Tags: jew, anti-semitism, jew,

A number of girls taking the English national curriculum test at a Jewish school in Britain refused to answer required questions on Shakespeare, in protest over his portrayal of the Jewish character Shylock, a U.K. newspaper reported.

According to the Independent, the school has plummeted in educational rankings, after authorities annulled the test results of the nine students who boycotted questions.

The 14-year-old girls, whose actions were supported by their parents, The Independent said were protesting anti-Semitism in Shakespeare's portrayal of Shylock in The Merchant of Venice. The exam questions they refused to answer were actually about The Tempest, a different work of Shakespeare's.

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"Many Jewish people would not listen to Wagner on the same grounds," The Independent quoted school principal Rabbi Abraham Pinter as saying. "I do not see an exact comparison and I don't share their view, but their decision is something I respect," he said, adding "I think Shakespeare was reflecting the ethos of the time in his portrayal of Shylock. If he was alive today, he would probably be going on anti-war marches."

Yesodey Hatorah Senior Girls' School, an Orthodox Jewish school with 249 pupils, was a private school until two years ago, when it took advantage of new government legislation allowing independent schools to opt in to the state sector, the paper noted. "It was launched as a state school with a high-profile visit from Tony Blair, then prime minister."

Pinter said past students had protested in this way, but their other marks were not forfeited as they had signed their names on the test papers. The Shakespeare section of the exam counts for 18 percent of students' overall marks, allowing students who achieve high scores in other parts of it to pass even without answering it.

However, Rabbi Pinter said: "I think it was a bit harsh to remove all their marks. Next year I will be recommending they put their name on the paper."

He said the school was not worried by its league table position, stating: "274th out of more than 3,000 is still good." He added that it was important for young people to be able to express their sincerely held views.

The newspaper quoted Simon Gibbons, of the National Association for the Teaching of English, as saying, "I do not believe The Merchant of Venice is anti-Semitic. But it is noble of the school to take the view that the individual pupils' views are more important than their league table position."

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1.	i bet the kids don`t even understand Shakespeare	09:19	\|	Leona	03/03/08

2.	This is great	09:47	\|	Colin Wright	03/03/08

3.	Good reason not to study the Old Testament too	09:52	\|	Chanalau, Tova	03/03/08

4.	joanna epstein	10:04	\|	brainwashed students	03/03/08

5.	I KNEW IT	10:14	\|	indrajaya	03/03/08

6.	Who is teaching?	10:15	\|	Marisa	03/03/08

7.	kudos to these kids	10:23	\|	Ashley Meyers	03/03/08

8.	Something rotten	10:25	\|	Horatio	03/03/08

9.	Merchant	10:33	\|	Sherlock Holmes	03/03/08

10.	anti-Semitic over used	10:38	\|	SJ	03/03/08

11.	Deeply anti-semitic Shakespeare	10:39	\|	Clickfool	03/03/08

12.	Shakespear	10:39	\|	Naim S. Mahlab	03/03/08

13.	Anti-semitism in Britain	10:45	\|	US CITIZEN	03/03/08

14.	Try reading books instead of boycotting them!	11:04	\|	Adam Baker	03/03/08

15.	then they fail the exam	11:09	\|	mehmet	03/03/08

16.	Much ado about nothing	11:10	\|	Danny	03/03/08

17.	Shakespeare & anti-Semitism	11:19	\|	Nehemia	03/03/08

18.	Shakespeare & anti-Semitism	11:28	\|	Nehemia	03/03/08

19.	#1 Joanna Epstein	11:41	\|	Question Mark	03/03/08

20.	Shakespeare & Shylock	11:46	\|	Nehemia	03/03/08

21.	Me thinks the students doth protest too much	11:47	\|	The Queen	03/03/08

22.	read the play .......	12:00	\|	bingbong	03/03/08

23.	THE VOICES OF THE MIDDLE AGES))))	12:18	\|	Robert	03/03/08

24.	typical English anti-semitism	12:32	\|	Seth	03/03/08

25.	Today Shakespear wrote....	12:35	\|	kiwi girl	03/03/08

26.	Well put joanna	12:40	\|	kiwi girl	03/03/08

27.	# ashley	12:41	\|	Axel	03/03/08

28.	Shakespeare made fun of everybody and everything	12:41	\|	Ron	03/03/08

29.	Anti-anti-semitism laws in Germany etc	12:47	\|	Fritz T.	03/03/08

30.	First step to sectarism	12:50	\|	Zirbry	03/03/08

31.	#13 Seth	12:51	\|	Adam	03/03/08

32.	on Art & politics	12:52	\|	European Jew	03/03/08

33.	#5 Christians are Jews too	12:52	\|	Edith	03/03/08

34.	#13 Seth there is no safe haven...	12:54	\|	Edith	03/03/08

35.	Read Orwell on Antisemitism in Britain	13:08	\|	Question Mark	03/03/08

36.	Too right!	13:29	\|	io	03/03/08

37.	Kiwi girl and Clickfool	13:34	\|	Nik Miller	03/03/08

38.	Kiwi girl and Clickfool	13:34	\|	Nik Miller	03/03/08

39.	Mehmet - from what pulpit?	13:42	\|	io	03/03/08

40.	I read The Merchant of Venice. Yep.	13:48	\|	Raphael	03/03/08

41.	Strange happenings in Stamford Hill	13:58	\|	K	03/03/08

42.	It is anti-semitic	14:14	\|	Michael Berg	03/03/08

43.	Reply to #10	14:36	\|	Joe	03/03/08

44.	How about Moby Dick?	14:14	\|	Axel	03/03/08

45.	What next?	14:16	\|	Chris Linthwaite	03/03/08

46.	Reply to #21	14:17	\|	Joseph	03/03/08

47.	Judeo Taliban for Females	14:24	\|	Yaakov Sullivan	03/03/08

48.	#35 Nik Miller	14:26	\|	Chris Linthwaite	03/03/08

49.	#31 Edith	14:35	\|	Boycott	03/03/08

50.	Raphael, What these Girls Did	14:36	\|	Yaakov Sullivan	03/03/08

51.	so stupid!!	14:37	\|	a jew	03/03/08

52.	For Question Mark, who quotes George Orwell # 33	14:38	\|	Clickfool	03/03/08

53.	Stamford Hill Jews	14:40	\|	Yaakov Sullivan	03/03/08

54.	#3 Indrajaya	14:42	\|	Moshe	03/03/08

55.	Get them off	14:42	\|	Ron	03/03/08

56.	In defence of Shakespeare	14:42	\|	AliciaYasmeen	03/03/08

57.	Those girls deserve a good spanking!	14:46	\|	Austin Powers	03/03/08

58.	#38 Raphael	14:47	\|	Boycott	03/03/08

59.	On literary anti-semitism	14:47	\|	Clickfool	03/03/08

60.	Shakespeare & Antisemitism	14:51	\|	Nehemia	03/03/08

61.	Axel on Moby Dick	14:51	\|	Yaakov Sullivan	03/03/08

62.	#9 cf	14:52	\|	Moshe	03/03/08

63.	#43 Chris	15:06	\|	Moshe	03/03/08

64.	io, tu sei confuso	15:10	\|	mehmet	03/03/08

65.	Chanalau Tova, what of Song of Songs?	15:11	\|	Yaakov Sullivan	03/03/08

66.	#9 boris the clucking fool misses the point again	15:15	\|	v hardman	03/03/08

67.	#54 Alicia	15:17	\|	Moshe	03/03/08

68.	For Yaakov Sullivan # 51	15:21	\|	Clickfool	03/03/08

69.	Ashley Meyers # 5 It is not allowed in American schools either	15:28	\|	American in NY	03/03/08

70.	Ridiculous!Shakespeare portrays a remarkably sympathetic characte	15:35	\|	lakshmi	03/03/08

71.	# 23 Na He would have wrote	15:35	\|	petra	03/03/08

72.	Seth # 22	15:36	\|	American in NY	03/03/08

73.	#53 Ron	15:37	\|	K	03/03/08

74.	#50 Clickfool	15:49	\|	Question Mark	03/03/08

75.	Ron No 53	16:16	\|	jackie	03/03/08

76.	The Rabbi does not share the student, so why the hostility?	16:18	\|	S Judah	03/03/08

77.	Can we learn nothing from an anti-Semetic?	16:19	\|	Mark B.	03/03/08

78.	epstein	16:21	\|	david	03/03/08

79.	A ex-Yesodey Hatorah pupil replies	16:23	\|	Shalom Mandelbaum	03/03/08

80.	david of london and his hysterical nonsense	16:30	\|	Yaakov Sullivan	03/03/08

81.	This is a Sickness really	16:34	\|	Yaakov Sullivan	03/03/08

82.	#56 David of London	16:38	\|	Chris Linthwaite	03/03/08

83.	The Bard	16:52	\|	Michael T	03/03/08

84.	indrajaya	16:52	\|	Michael	03/03/08

85.	# 56 david	17:30	\|	Axel	03/03/08

86.	THESE GIRLS SHOULD MOVE TO ISRAEL - THEY HAVE NO RIGHT TO WHINE	17:53	\|	ANDREW	03/03/08

87.	Sullivan - wannabee yaakov	17:58	\|	io	03/03/08

88.	They have a really superficial understanding	18:06	\|	Rebekah S	03/03/08

89.	"Merchant of Venice" isn`t anti-Semitic	18:34	\|	DJStahl	03/03/08

90.	U.K. Jewish pupil boycott Shakespeare test	18:37	\|	psi	03/03/08

91.	#58 Axel	18:37	\|	Moshe	03/03/08

92.	Dear Kiwi Girl...thanks!	18:50	\|	David James Vickery	03/03/08

93.	Stupid students should boycott the Talmud for being anti-Gentile	18:50	\|	Tosefta	03/03/08

94.	Ridiculous. I was going to use `Much Ado..	18:50	\|	Deborah	03/03/08

95.	mehmet of Istanbul...on testing	18:58	\|	Lynn	03/03/08

96.	Wait a Minute	19:00	\|	CHGODMK	03/03/08

97.	Lubitsch`s o be or not to be	19:01	\|	roberto	03/03/08

98.	Shakespeare	19:10	\|	Jonathan	03/03/08

99.	What comments could we read here ...	19:22	\|	Axel	03/03/08

100.	# 59 jonathan	19:28	\|	Axel	03/03/08

101.	Next thing they will ask is to wear an IDF uniform in class and	19:49	\|	Andreas	03/03/08

102.	the other Jew in English literature	19:51	\|	Euro-Jew	03/03/08

103.	Read the Play	19:58	\|	MichaelF	03/03/08

104.	Mehmet - io responded very well	20:03	\|	David Israel	03/03/08

105.	#10 - Naim S. Mahlab	20:09	\|	MichaelF	03/03/08

106.	Jonathan #59	20:09	\|	Baz Mann	03/03/08

107.	what worries me about this .....	20:18	\|	whoopsie	03/03/08

108.	Axel, the differnce is this on the Jews and Muslims	20:20	\|	Yaakov Sullivan	03/03/08

109.	The high duty of Jews	20:35	\|	Yakov	03/03/08

110.	They would not read Dickens	20:36	\|	Yaakov Sullivan	03/03/08

111.	BRAVO!!	20:44	\|	felix	03/03/08

112.	Yakov in NJ on the "savages"	21:00	\|	Yaakov Sullivan	03/03/08

113.	#66 Yaakov	21:01	\|	Moshe	03/03/08

114.	# 67 yakov	21:13	\|	Axel	03/03/08

115.	Good for These Kids	21:15	\|	Ron	03/03/08

116.	69. education and reading	21:20	\|	Euro-Jew	03/03/08

117.	#68 Yakov; read Isac B.Singer´s books	21:32	\|	AliciaYasmeen	03/03/08

118.	#51 Yaakov Sullivan	21:37	\|	Rave On	03/03/08

119.	Fagin	21:55	\|	Clickfool	03/03/08

120.	Let them nottake van exam in Shakespeare	22:03	\|	Avi Yerushalmi	03/03/08

121.	Advice for Yakov # 68	22:03	\|	Clickfool	03/03/08

122.	Jews	22:06	\|	Clickfool	03/03/08

123.	This is NUTS	22:06	\|	Shahid	03/03/08

124.	Bravo to brainlessness?	22:21	\|	hala	03/03/08

125.	Foolish students should boycott the Talmud for being anti-Gentile	22:23	\|	Tosefta	03/03/08

126.	Teaching your children how to never grow up	22:58	\|	Labhras	03/03/08

127.	Better keep them away from the Magna Carta	23:13	\|	Labhras	03/03/08

128.	To Raphael	23:19	\|	Theodore	03/03/08

129.	"Merchant of Venice" isn`t anti-Semitic	23:28	\|	DJStahl	03/03/08

130.	#68 Yakov has reading comprehension problems	23:48	\|	Labhras	03/03/08

131.	#60 Axel	23:49	\|	Moshe	03/03/08

132.	#42 Axel	23:55	\|	Moshe	03/03/08

133.	Originally Staged	00:11	\|	pw	04/03/08

134.	# 67 yaakov	00:11	\|	Axel	04/03/08

135.	#51 Yaakov	00:16	\|	Moshe	04/03/08

136.	Indeed Question Mark.	00:27	\|	ave	04/03/08

137.	Foolish students should boycott the Talmud for being anti-Gentile	00:31	\|	Tosefta	04/03/08

138.	#54 Shakespeare`s Shylock Alicia	00:41	\|	Moshe	04/03/08

139.	Sectariansm	00:45	\|	Truth	04/03/08

140.	Indeed Question Mark.	01:21	\|	ave	04/03/08

141.	DIG HIM UP...	01:39	\|	PADDY	04/03/08

142.	Yaakov Sullivan	01:43	\|	mohamed	04/03/08

143.	How asinine	02:21	\|	Mark Lincoln	04/03/08

144.	#75 Ave	02:32	\|	Question Mark	04/03/08

145.	Every non-Jew in Britain during that time was anti-semitic	03:16	\|	anti-racist	04/03/08

146.	Kiwi Girl #23, TRUE, BEAUTIFUL and SAD	03:19	\|	anti-racist	04/03/08

147.	Oh, what a surprise; lots of stupid comments	04:29	\|	Hannah	04/03/08

148.	Joanna Epstein - who is calling for anything to be banned?	04:32	\|	Hannah	04/03/08

149.	#81 "anti-racist" and Kiwi Girl	04:32	\|	Question Mark	04/03/08

150.	62 Michael F,the Dark Lady of the Sonnets is generally thought to	05:37	\|	lakshmi	04/03/08

151.	#1, Chanalau, not as bad as England kicking Jews out of Israel	05:58	\|	David	04/03/08

152.	Shakespeare, Cromwell and Uncle Tom Cobbley&all.	06:14	\|	EGW	04/03/08

153.	These girls could have gained valuable insights	07:27	\|	PETER SM	04/03/08

154.	KIWI girl.They did not riot,kill nuns,burn buildings or cry Jihad	07:34	\|	PETER SM	04/03/08

155.	Protesting about shakespeare	08:07	\|	John Williams	04/03/08

156.	As a Jew, I disagree...	08:21	\|	Michael	04/03/08

157.	# 13 - Mehmet	10:44	\|	Michael	04/03/08

158.	Michael - very unlikely	14:06	\|	Hannah	04/03/08

159.	#138 Moshe in Rockwell: thank you	14:20	\|	AliciaYasmeen	04/03/08

160.	Please!	16:33	\|	pw	04/03/08

161.	#158 - Hannah	18:48	\|	Michael	04/03/08

162.	#161 Michael	19:49	\|	Nice Try	04/03/08

163.	Re #150, etc.: And "Godfather" is anti-Italian, and "MacBeth" ...	22:06	\|	DJStahl	04/03/08

164.	# 162 - Sanctimonious "Nice Try"	00:49	\|	Michael	05/03/08

165.	Colin @ 2	02:08	\|	Greg	05/03/08

166.	Michael	03:18	\|	Nice Try	05/03/08

167.	166 - Nice try	07:29	\|	Michael	05/03/08

168.	156 - Michael	18:43	\|	Shalom	05/03/08

169.	Shakespeare was a Jew	01:52	\|	Elisheva	11/03/08

170.	Shakespeare	03:23	\|	a student	10/03/09

171.	to `a jew`	03:28	\|	a student	10/03/09

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