Orthodox school rubbishes claims it taught kids that non-Jews are “evil”

A Stamford Hill school has rejected “mischievous” claims that it teaches pupils non-Jews are evil.

An anonymous source told the The Independent that the Yiddish translation of a test by the Satmar school Beis Rochel referred to non-Jews as “evil goyim”. One section asks: “What have the evil goyim done with shuls and cheders?” The answer reads: “Burned them.” Another asks: “What did goyim want to do with Jews?” The answer was: “Kill them.”

The school said in a statement: “The newspaper failed to understand the context and mischievously suggested that children were being taught that goyim rather than Nazis were evil. It falsley accused the school of fearmongering, encouraging pupils to belive all non-Jews were evil. This is not the case, but to avoid any confusion the school will explicitly refer to ‘Nazis’ next year.”

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Emily Green, a former Beis Rochel student who now helps ultra-Orthodox Jews who want to leave the community, said: “It’s not uncommon to be taught non-Jewish people are evil in ultra-Orthodox Jewish schools. It is part of the prayers, teaching, the whole ethos.”

She added:  “Psychologically, you become so afraid of the world out there after being taught how dangerous and bad and evil non-Jews are, that it makes it harder to leave.”