Jews under attack

Jewish student told by teacher she would be sent "to one of your gas chambers

By Charlotte Oliver, April 13, 2014    https://twitter.com/charSoliver

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Entrance to North London Collegiate School (Photo: Jonathan FeBland)

The parents of a Jewish student at North London Collegiate have expressed outrage after their daughter was told by a teacher she would be sent "to one of your gas chambers" for jumping the lunch queue.
According to a report in the Mail on Sunday, the 17-year-old's father - who wished to remain anonymous - said the incident happened in January, when his daughter cut in front of the lunch queue at school and entered the dining room.
The teacher, who had virtually no contact with the student beforehand, reportedly said: "Don't do that or I'll have to send you to the back of the queue or to one of your gas chambers."
According to her father, the school has not done enough to highlight the severity of the incident. Though the teacher made a private apology to the family, North London Collegiate refuses to name the teacher, state whether any disciplinary action has been taken against her, or make a public statement.
A spokesperson for the school told the newspaper: "North London Collegiate School is proud of its rich, multi-cultural history and celebrates equality and diversity within the school community.
"The school was recently made aware of an allegation of an offensive statement made by a member of staff. The school promptly commenced an investigation.
"Having reached a determination and sought specialist legal advice, appropriate action was taken."
The incident was reported to the Community Security Trust. Communications director Mark Gardner said: "This would be highly offensive in any circumstance, but to be directed at a pupil by a teacher is unheard of and makes it far worse.
"We are working with all parties to resolve the matter."

Teacher sacked for Hitler and Jimmy Savile outbursts
By Charlotte Oliver, October 31, 2013

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A teacher at a private school in Scotland was fired and struck from the teaching register on Monday after a disciplinary hearing found him guilty of making antisemitic and lewd comments during class.
Religious education teacher David McNally told his pupils at Kilwinning Academy in Ayshire last November: “Hitler was not all bad; he killed the Jews, the gays and the disabled.”
Mr McNally also said he “would rather have been a prison warden or a child abuser” than a teacher and made inappropriate comments about Jimmy Savile.
A disciplinary hearing of the General Teaching Council for Scotland was called on Monday after furious parents complained to the school. Mr McNally failed to attend the hearing, but admitted to making the comments, arguing it had been “a particularly bad day” for him.
As well as striking his name from the teaching register, the hearing’s panel ruled he could not re-apply for a teaching post for the next two years.
They also recommended his case be considered by Scottish ministers, to decide whether he should be banned from working with children.
They said: “The panel was of the view that the explanations by the respondent did not reduce their gravity and considered that under any circumstances they were entirely inappropriate.”
Mr McNally will have an opportunity able to appeal against the ruling

Ballet teacher cleared of racial harassment despite 'deplorable' comment
October 31, 2013

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A leading ballet teacher has been cleared of racial harassment, despite a court finding he made a “deplorable and ill-considered” antisemitic remark in the presence of a Jewish student.
Jonathan Barton told a group of pupils at Scotland’s prestigious Ballet West school: “You look like a bunch of Jews lining up waiting to be shot in the rain.”
He then asked whether anyone there was Jewish, and when Genevieve Huss, the granddaughter of a Holocaust survivor, raised her hand, he apologised, Oban Sheriff Court heard this week.
Mr Barton, 31, of Taynuilt, Argyll, was accused of causing alarm and distress to Ms Huss, but was found to have no case to answer.
Sheriff Douglas Small said prosecutors had failed to provide evidence that Mr Barton — a renowned ballet dancer who has worked with the English National Ballet — had acted with “malice or ill will” when he made the comment in December 2010.
Ms Huss, 20, gave evidence on Monday, telling the court: “I was shocked in a very bad way that a comment would even be made like that in this day and age. I just think it shouldn’t be made. It was unnecessary — there was no reason for it.”
But during cross-examination by defence lawyer Gary McAteer, she admitted the remark could have been made “innocently” and that she believed Mr Barton “liked her”.
Sheriff Small concluded: “It is my opinion that while the remarks made by the accused were made, and were deplorable and ill-considered, they do not, in all the circumstances, amount to a sufficiency in law for the case to proceed.”
Following the trial, Mr McAteer claimed Mr Barton’s father was Jewish and that he had been “very supportive” of his son.
Mr Barton has previously been awarded the Solo Seal of the Royal Academy of Dance (RAD) and won a medal at the prestigious Genée International Ballet Competition.
Off-stage, he has appeared as a dancer in a number of music videos and pop concerts. He was also the lead teacher for Scotland’s largest gathering of male dancers, the RAD’s Boys Only.

• Ballet school vice-principal charged with racially abusing Jewish student
• Scottish teacher accused over Hitler comments
• Attacks on Scottish Jews rise
• Teacher sacked for Hitler and Jimmy Savile outbursts

Attacks on Scottish Jews rise
By Marcus Dysch, June 27, 2013

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Jews in Scotland are more likely to be attacked because of their faith than Muslims or Christians, a report has revealed.
Figures published by the Scottish Government showed there were 27 criminal charges relating to attacks on Jewish people between April 2012 and March this year. The figure compares to 14 charges in the previous 12 months.
The Muslim community, which is seven times the size of the Jewish community, saw 80 charges relating to Islamophobia.
The Scottish Council of Jewish Communities (SCoJeC) said the report was evidence of an “undeniable trend” of hostility, in which Jews were 20 times more likely to face religious hatred than Christians, and several times more likely than Muslims.
Alex Salmond, Scotland’s First Minister, is to meet Jewish leaders to discuss the figures. He said he backed a zero tolerance approach to hate crime.
Ephraim Borowski, SCoJeC director, said: “We welcome the Scottish Government’s seriousness about tackling religious hatred, and we just wish that it was shared by other agencies such as trades unions and the church.”

Antisemitic incident statistics 2012 February 2013 Scotland is generally a welcoming place for Jewish people to live, as the findings of our Being Jewish in Scotland project showed, with fewer antisemitic incidents relative to the population than in England. That is borne out by the Community Security Trust’s recently released annual Antisemitic Incident Report for 2012, which reports a 50% fall in reported incidents in Scotland, although the figures for the entire UK are the third highest ever recorded. However, it is important not to be too complacent, since the answer to a recent question in the Scottish Parliament gives cause for concern about the pattern of religious hatred in Scotland. What the media highlighted was that there were more charges for incidents “derogatory to” Roman Catholicism than to any other religion – 509 as compared with 353 against Protestantism, 19 against Islam, and only 14 against Judaism. However, when the size of each community is taken into account, there is a significant change in the pattern. Figures from the 2011 census will not be available until later this year, so the most recent figures available are from the 2001 census. size of community (2001 census*) number of charges ratio charges per 10,000 members   Church of Scotland 2,146,251 353 1 in 6,080 2   Roman Catholic 803,732 509 1 in 1,579 6   Muslim 42,557 19 1 in 2,240 4   Jewish 6,448 14 1 in    461 22 * 2011 census figures will not be available until later this year. The figures need to be qualified because it is not the religion of the victim that the Scottish Government has reported, but the religion which was targeted by the offender, so that the final column does not show the likelihood of any individual having been a victim. Nonetheless, it is a matter of concern that the disparities remain so large. The fact that there was one charge for incidents derogatory to Judaism for every 461 people in the community, means that individual Jewish people in Scotland are more likely to be aware of incidents than members of other faith communities, where the ratio ranges from one charge per 1,579 members, to one in 6,080. It is also important to remember that not all reported incidents result in a charge, and not all incidents are reported, so the number of people who have experienced or know someone who has experienced an antisemitic incident is likely to be even larger than the table would indicate.  As the Association of Chief Police Officers in Scotland (ACPOS) put it, “Whilst all crime can increase the fear of being targeted in people other than the victim, fear of hate crime escalates dramatically in those who share with an immediate victim, the same group identity that has made a victim a target.” That fear was evident in many of the responses to Being Jewish in Scotland, such as the view expressed by one man who told us that he “wouldn’t wear a kippah in the street because I’ve seen what happens to people who do, and that would be asking for it.” In her parliamentary answer, the Community Safety Minister, Roseanna Cunningham, stated: “The Scottish Government has been investing to tackle religious intolerance across Scotland, funding the national Scottish Interfaith Council to promote inter faith dialogue and specific communities, such as the Scottish Council of Jewish Communities, to address the specific needs of these communities.” SCoJeC is continuing to work with the Scottish Government and other bodies to raise awareness of the experience of Jewish people in Scotland, and of what can be done to ensure that Scotland remains, in the words of another participant in Being Jewish in Scotland, “a darn fine place to be a Jew”. Survey: antisemitism rises 30 per cent worldwide By Zoe Winograd, April 8, 2013 Follow The JC on Twitter A survey has shown a 30 per cent increase in global acts of antisemitism. The survey, carried out by the Kantor Centre at Tel Aviv University, highlighted Hungary as experiencing the most worrying examples of antisemitism in Europe. The report noted Hungary’s “escalation of antisemitic incitement” and a “correlation observed between the political strengthening of extreme-right parties and the high level of antisemitic manifestations including incidents of violence and vandalism.” European Jewish Congress President Moshe Kantor said: “In Hungary, barely a week passes without an attack on minorities or outrageous comments from far-right politicians.” “Unfortunately, red lines keep being crossed and there needs to be an extremely strong reaction, both from the Hungarian government and the European Union, to push back against these phenomena.” At a press conference today, Dr Kantor expressed his concerns about increasing antisemitism in Greece, Ukraine and France. According to a report by French-Jewish security unit SPCJ earlier this year, there has been a 58 per cent rise in antisemitic incidents in France since 2011. “It appears that rather than the Toulouse attacks being a shock to the system, they had the opposite effect and perhaps allowed terrorist groups in Europe to become more emboldened,” Dr Kantor said.