Fire Her!

18/4/2014

It has been a tragic week for the Jewish community worldwide. An off duty police officer in Israel was shot and killed near Hebron by a terrorist hell-bent on wiping out his entire family. Over on the other side of the world, a supremacist fired at Jewish centres in Kansas killing three. The mayor of Missouri suggested he agreed somewhat with the killer while members of a nearby Baptist Church said they would be picketing the funerals. A little closer to home a teacher at North London Collegiate School reprimanded a young girl for skipping the lunch queue telling her that she would send her back to the gas chambers.

Often many a North American comments to me about the shocking Anti Semitic trend in London that they read about in the press. It does tend to be exaggerated and frankly if recent events are anything to go by they ought to be looking a little more closely into their own back garden.

But what of the teacher at one of Londons premier schools? How are we to equate her remarks with the other tragedies? Granted she didnt shoot anyone, but do her remarks reflect a malevolent heart on par with her murderous peers? All weve been told is that the school sought legal advice and that appropriate action was taken. We havent been told who the teacher is or what sort of discipline, if truly any, was taken.

When footballer Nicolas Anelka made his quenelle gesture he was severely reprimanded with a hefty penalty imposed. Personally I think what this teacher did is far worse. I get that some might argue it was just a stupid remark, but there are a lot of stupid things one can say to a misbehaving school child. One wonders what this woman thinks or believes about Jews or the sort of conversations she might have about the Holocaust in order to come out with a statement like that. For all the whitewashing it surely constitutes racial abuse. She should be fired her job. Bearing in mind that the remark was made in the presence of many other students it is morally imperative they learn that such behaviour is never tolerated. Had the reverse happened in a multi cultural Jewish school one could be certain thats the sort of action that would be taken.

What is perhaps even more disturbing however is the apparent deafening silence the many Jewish parents who send their children to the school. Are they more concerned with not rocking the boat and possibly jeopardising their childs place or standing within the school than what they could do for their childrens sense of Jewish self-esteem.? There ought to be a robust response with a threat of a boycott.

This is an opportune moment to teach those children that you need to respect yourself if you want others to respect you. Thats a more valuable lesson than anything else they could teach in that school.

© Copyright 2014 Rabbi YY Schochet - All Rights Reserved