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Parents accuse UK’s ‘wokest’ school of teaching that Jews are of ‘low status’
Jewish parents called a meeting last week to complain about a recent Holocaust Memorial Day display
March 10, 2022 11:26
Jewish parents called a meeting last week to complain about a recent Holocaust Memorial Day display
March 10, 2022 11:26The acting head of Britain’s “wokest” school has come under fire from parents who accuse it of teaching that Jews, men and white people are inferior.
Jewish parents of children at the £32,000-a-year American School in London (ASL) – the most expensive day school in the country – called a meeting last week to complain about a recent Holocaust Memorial Day (HMD) display, which celebrated left-wing figures who had no relevance to the genocide other than being Jewish.
One furious parent reportedly accused the school of attributing a “high status to certain immutable characteristics that are considered worthy of compassion” and a “low status” to others, such as being white, Jewish or male. The school strongly denied the accusation.
According to notes written after the meeting, another parent said the display — which prompted a complaint from 32 parents last month — contained virtually no facts about the Holocaust and was mainly concerned with identity and critical race theory.
Another, whose mother and father were Holocaust survivors, reportedly said that the display had diluted the importance of HMD and was “deeply offensive”.
It comes as Ofsted downgraded the exclusive London day school from “outstanding” to “requires improvement” for focusing on identity politics at the expense of the curriculum.
According to the regulator, students at the St John’s Wood school “spend much time repeatedly considering identity (including analysing their own characteristics) rather than learning, for example, geographical knowledge”.
In November, former head teacher Robin Appleby resigned from her £400,000-a-year role amid allegations that the school had presented children with a chart claiming Jews were more “privileged” than other religious groups.
Her replacement, acting head Sacha McVean, admitted that she had not anticipated that the HMD display would be hurtful to some Jewish parents, but added that there was a range of different views on it. Other Jewish parents were supportive of the display, she said.
One of the “outspoken Jews” highlighted by the display was Eve Peyser, a culture writer for Vice, who describes herself as an “anti-Zionist”. Others included Rabbi Ruti Regan, who focusses on the “intersection” of disability and Jewish texts, and Rabbi Sandra Lawson, a gay African-American Jew.
A spokeswoman for ASL said the acting head had issued a formal apology.
She said: “We are taking this feedback from some members of our Jewish community extremely seriously, we have met the families and this apology has been made: ‘To the signatories of this letter of complaint, I am writing to extend my apology for the content of the bulletin board recognising Holocaust Remembrance Day (sic). I do understand that the presentation was deeply upsetting to you and I want to reiterate that I am taking steps to ensure that we at ASL handle these presentations with greater deliberation and care in future.”
Speaking about the parents’ notes of the meeting, the ASL spokeswoman added: “I would like to state very clearly that the ‘transcript’ … is no such thing. It does not accurately reflect the conversation that was had and it would be false and misleading to present the content from that document as fact."