A leading Jewish school which let pupils boycott a Shakespeare test because they claimed he was anti-Semitic has slumped down the league tables.
Nine teenagers from a 45-strong group refused to sit the Key Stage Three Shakespeare test last May because they were offended by The Merchant of Venice.
As a result the school lost its place as top performer for progress in English and was sent tumbling down the league tables.
The girls made the protest after studying the Jewish character Shylock, who demands a pound of flesh from a debtor in The Merchant of Venice.
This is despite the fact that the national curriculum test for 14-year-olds centred on a different Shakespeare play, The Tempest.
Those pupils at Yesodey Hatorah Senior Girls’ School in Stamford Hill, North London, who refused to do the Shakespeare scored zero, even though they sat reading and writing tests which were also part of the exam.
Under National Assessment Agency rules, any pupil failing to write his or her name for any one of the tests will score nothing overall. Those zeros dragged down results for the 235-pupil school.
Last year, it was the top performer in England on the “value added” measure – the progress made by pupils between the ages of 11 and 14.
But principal Rabbi Abraham Pinter said: “I’m proud of them for being prepared to face the consequences of their beliefs.”
(Source: Independent UK / Mirror UK)
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19 Responses
Positive?Beliefs?By far the stupidest thing I have heard in a while. That’s called looking hard to be a victim and self defeating martydom for no good reason. What did they prove. What did they accomplish. Its usor to answer a question about an author who’s been dead for hundreds of years and you don’t like how he potrayed Jews!? .Yiddeskiet its not. Its just insane over sensitivity that needs to be stopped.Its called feeding a stereo type.Please don’t make these girls into hero’s
What yeridas hadoiros, where’s the heter to read such pritzus. In my time a girl who even knew what shakespear was would have a hard time finding a shidduch.
And he wasn’t anti semitic when he wrote The Tempest?
What kind of test was this – essay, fill in thereround circles? Was there any place to register their protest about the unfairness of including a work not on the syllabus, or the (presumed) tenor of the questions asked on Merchant?
Me thinks there is more to the story, or do the young ladies protest too much?
Who cares! Shakespheare died a l- o -n -g time ago (if he even ever existed)
Now,if some Jewish or Biblical character is accused of being a racist and the “Jews” are then accused of mistreating non-Jews,then we’ll cry ‘foul’! Stop the madness!R Pinter,focus on EDUCATING the little darlings and not making racists out of our children!
I agree with #1. This protest accomplished nothing but getting the girls and the school low scores. Shakespear was certainly antisemitic, as was Charles Dickens and many other classic authors. But that’s all water long under the bridge. To sacrifice an important exam and lower the ratings of the school for such a thing is insane.
I’m very proud of these girls that stood up and protested!!
I think that it’s very wrong to learn shakespear, specially a frum school!!
Kol Hakavod!!
Sorry but I don’t understand. If it’s ok to study Shakespeare, then why not do the test, and if it’s not ok then why did Rabbi Pinter allow them to study in the first place. Or had Rabbi Pinter not heard of Shakespeare before the test
I don’t know if Shakespeare was an anti-Semite or not. chances are he never met a Jews since they had been expelled from England well before he was born and were not allowed back until Oliver Cromwell annulled the expulsion, well after the Bard had died. But Shakespeare is full of contradictions in his plays. Macbeth is about a man who is too slow to act and suffers, while Othello is about a man who brings tragedy upon himself for acting too quickly. Macbeth is about the tragic consequences of forsaking the love of a mentor for power, while Lear is about the tragedy of forsaking power and property for the love of a child. Who really knows what Shakespeare’s true views were. It’s impossible to know based on his writings.
In our HS they actually taught The Merchant of Venice precisely b/c it had anti-semitic themes in it.
To say Shakespeare was an anti-semite b/c one or two of his many plays had those themes in it is a stretch. To say he harbored no love of Jews, given the prevalence of anti-semitism at the time is also probably not a stretch. But, to “protest” the works of THE most eminent playwrite in history on questionable grounds is patently ridiculous when the school is apparently teaching hsi works .
Either the school should teach Shakespeare or they should not – either is fine. But they can’t teach it AND allow their students to boycott a test about it….that’s just absurd.
I am very disappointed in this simple-minded stunt. One of the reasons the Merchant of Venice is such a compelling play precisely because it grapples with and challenges the anti-Semitism of the day, when other works typically just accepted it.
Yasher koach to these girls, it was a right decision to sacrifice some voluntary tests for higher beliefs.
The question I have for these girls, is this: IF you are so vehement in your rejection of Shakespeare because is of his nagative protrayal of Shylock, is the converse true? Will you now embrace Mark Twain who was very complementary of the Jews, although hsi writing is hardly on the level of Shakespeare? Are you prepared to accept the existentialism of Jean Paul Satre, who was also very well disposed toward Jews? Are you prepared to try to reconclie the world view of thie friend of the Jews with traditional Jewish philosophy? (I’ve taken classes at YU which attempted just that. It was fun, but not really doable). What of Camus, the Jew? Would you accept having Soren Abeye Kirkegaard (especially his Fear and Trembling), again a great friend of the Jews, taught in your yeshiva instead of Shakespeare? And here is the kicker, if an author’s statements about Jews is the litmus of teaching his/her works in a yeshiva, what are we do to with Friederich Nietzsche? On the one hand he severely castigated his sister for her anti-Semitism, and once famosly wrote that he hates all religion, but if he had to choose one, he would be a Jew since Judaism is the most logical of all religions. Then again,Hitler based his Teutonic philosphy upon a mis-representation of Nietzsche’s thought. It’s easy to reject any of the great works. It’s much harder to deal with the world with all its complexities and nuances. These girls should consider exactly what they seek to learn in school.
I think back then practically everyone was anti semetic. It was a chidush to find someone that was a ohev yisroel. So why make such a big eisek out of Shakespeare? Everyone drives a Ford today and we all know the anti semitic sentiments of that rosha.
On a side note, I learnt in that school ( the boys division), I had no idea shakespeare was even on the agenda over there. All I knew there was Six of the best !!
we dont learn shakespear in my school bec he was anti semetic.
girls shouldnt be protesting
2B or not 2B THAT Is the “?” Whether it is nobler in the mind (of a Jew) to suffer the slings and arrows of vitriol expressed here, or to take up arms against a sea of overblown goyish nobodys that assimilated pseudo intelectuals embrace because it makes them think that they’re really cultured (so is yougart BTW) and by protesting, end them. The girls are right. Shakespeare was a burp on the Jewish Richter scale. Who needs him? But alas me thinks I doth protest too much. and BTW, it the “liver of blaspheming Jew” in the witches recipe in Macbeth that dampered by enthusiam for the Bard and English literature more than Shylock. But as long as we are on English literature, no discussion would be complete without mentioning Robin Hood. To give an example of how Goyish influence has befuddled the Jewish mind, I ask, was Robin Hood good or bad according to halacha? Yes, the land owners and government brutally over taxed the peasants, but does that give them the right to steal or partake of stolen property, in light of sheva mitzvos bnei noach? Next question, at the end of the story, RH is cornered by the sheriff of Nottingham and the Evil King John. Trumpets are heard in the distance and in the nick of time, King Richard the Lion hearted appears and saves Robin Hood. Is King Richard Good or bad? The answer to the first question is quite lengthy and not for here. But as for the second question, where did King Richard go for the last few years that he left his kingdom in his brothers hands? The answer: He is returning from the third crusade. He has just finished murdering the ba’alei tosfos and leaving Europe knee deep in Jewish blood. The “good guy” at the end of Robin Hood is actually the Adolph Hitler y”sh of his generation. So… the next time you think about the good guy in a Goyish story, try to look at it through Jewish eyes. The story may be very different.
good for them! the english schools test far too often and they wouldn’t be studying Shakespeare if it wasn’t compulsory – they’re mearly saying that texts that look kosher may not be acceptable to some parts of society and people shouldn’t accept the status quo.
I imagine that “The Tempest” was a book set by the examination board and that the school did not raise any objections. In this case, who gave the girls concerned the right to stage a protst which would effect the school’s positions in the league tables. Such chutzpah is unacceptable and should not be condoned in any way. OK Rabbi Pinterr came out with comments priasing the girls but what alternative did he have? The school were wrong not to have objected to the choice of book and not to have requested an alternative.
#16 – the teachers had probably also not heard of Shakespeare! But seriously, if Y.H. want the State Aid from government, then they presumably have to study the subjects required by government.
Rabbi Pinter cannot just take the money and then refuse to teach the subjects