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Family & Education

School report: Why I, an Orthodox rabbi, love teaching my mostly Muslim class

Hendon School is a paragon of peaceful co-existence

March 16, 2025 12:28
Hendon School.jpg
Hendon School

It has become almost axiomatic to our understanding of Jewish life in the United Kingdom that antisemitism is rife. It is expanding both in terms of the number of incidents and in terms of the intensity and venom of those incidents. The evidence is unarguably true. Statistics show that reported attacks are on the rise.

The BBC, quoting the Community Security Trust, informed us that cases of damage and desecration to Jewish property rose by 246 per cent from 24 in the first half of 2023 to 83 between January and June 2024. No one dares to point out that in absolute terms this seems to be relatively low, especially if we factor in the likely increase in the reporting of events.

What could be ignored in 2023 as “not worth worrying about” has become a significant attack in 2024. The statistics are reinforced by anecdotes which are often, in turn, supported by the serendipity of an onlooker with the wit to record the event and distributed through the uncritical channels of social media.

With antisemitism apparently pervading every corner of British societ,y there is respite in the form of a remarkable school. This is a school where earlier this week they had a guest teacher. None other than the very Christian Rector of Harpenden, aka Patrick Moriarty, erstwhile head teacher of JCoss.