Pupils asked 'why do some people hate Jews?' in GCSE exam

Ministers have criticised Britain’s biggest exam board after pupils were asked to explain “why some people are prejudiced against Jews” as part of a GCSE.

By Graeme Paton, Education Editor

More than 1,000 teenagers are believed to have sat the religious studies test paper which challenged pupils to assess the reasons behind anti-Semitism.

The Assessment and Qualifications Alliance, which set the exam, said the question acknowledged that “some people hold prejudices” – and did not attempt to justify them.

But the move has prompted criticism from the Government and religious leaders.

Michael Gove, the Education Secretary, branded the move “insensitive”.

He told The Jewish Chronicle: “To suggest that anti-Semitism can ever be explained, rather than condemned, is insensitive and, frankly, bizarre. AQA needs to explain how and why this question was included in an exam paper.”

Mr Gove added that it was “the duty of politicians to fight prejudice, and with anti-Semitism on the rise we need to be especially vigilant”.

Jon Benjamin, chief executive of the Board of Deputies of British Jews, said: “Clearly this is unacceptable and has nothing whatsoever to do with Jews or Judaism.”

Pupils across Britain sat the GCSE exam in religious studies last week. It contained the question: “Explain, briefly, why some people are prejudiced against Jews.”

A spokeswoman for AQA told The Jewish Chronicle that the question “acknowledges that some people hold prejudices; it does not imply in any way that prejudice is justified”.

The exam board insisted that the question was part of a paper focusing on Judaism and the “relevant part of the syllabus covers prejudice and discrimination with reference to race, religion and the Jewish experience of persecution”.

“We would expect [students to refer] to the Holocaust to illustrate prejudice based on irrational fear, ignorance and scapegoating,” she said.

She added: “The board is obviously concerned that this question may have caused offence, as this was absolutely not our intention”.

Ofqual, the official exams regular, said that it was in discussion with AQA, adding: “We will take appropriate follow-up action if necessary.”

Rabbi David Meyer, the executive head of Hasmonean High School, whose pupils did not sit the AQA test, told the paper that the question had “no place” in an exam.

“The role of education is to remove prejudices and not to justify them,” he said.

But Clive Lawton, formerly an A-level chief examiner for religious studies, said: “I do understand why people might react negatively to the question, but it is a legitimate one.

“Part of the syllabus is that children must study the causes and origins of prejudice against Jews.”

The Telegraph

Emanuela Orlandi 'was kidnapped for sex parties for Vatican police'

A teenage girl whose disappearance in Rome has remained a mystery for 30 years was kidnapped for sex parties by a gang involving Vatican police and foreign diplomats, the Roman Catholic Church's leading exorcist has claimed.

By Nick Squires, Rome

Father Gabriele Amorth, who was appointed by the late John Paul II as the Vatican's chief exorcist and claims to have performed thousands of exorcisms, said Emanuela Orlandi was later murdered and her body disposed of.

In the latest twist in one of the Holy See's most enduring mysteries, he said the 15-year-old schoolgirl was snatched from the streets of central Rome in the summer of 1983 and forced to take part in sex parties.

"This was a crime with a sexual motive. Parties were organised, with a Vatican gendarme acting as the 'recruiter' of the girls.

"The network involved diplomatic personnel from a foreign embassy to the Holy See. I believe Emanuela ended up a victim of this circle," Father Amorth, the honorary president of the International Association of Exorcists, told La Stampa newspaper.

The debate over who kidnapped Emanuela and what became of her has raged in Italy for three decades.

It has been suggested that she was taken by the leader of a notorious gang of criminals, who wanted to put pressure on Vatican officials to recover money that he had allegedly lent them

Another theory is that she was abducted to be used as a bargaining chip for the release from prison of Mehmet Ali Agca, the Turkish gunman who tried to kill John Paul II in St Peter's Square in 1981, reportedly on the orders of the KGB.

But Father Amorth, 85, dismissed the "international dimension", saying that a Vatican archivist had also come to the conclusion that Emanuela was abducted for sexual exploitation.

A controversial and outspoken priest, Father Amorth has claimed that yoga is Satanic because it leads to a worship of Hinduism and that the Harry Potter books are dangerous because they encourage children to believe in black magic and wizardry.

Earlier this month investigators opened the tomb of Enrico "Renatino" De Pedis, the gang leader, in order to check long-standing claims that the remains of the teenager were buried alongside him.

They found his remains inside the tomb in the Sant' Apollinare basilica in Rome and also, intriguingly, other bones in a crypt nearby.

Investigators said the unidentified bones probably dated from the early 19th century, but they are being analysed by forensic experts to see if any of them might belong to Emanuela.

In 2005, an anonymous caller to a crime programme on Italian TV claimed that the key to the schoolgirl's kidnap lay in the tomb of the mobster, who was gunned down by rival gangsters in 1990.

Emanuela Orlandi, who was 15 at the time of her disappearance, was the daughter of a Vatican employee Photo: Rex

The Telegraph

Bring Nazi to school day? SS lesson at Latvian nursery sparks controversy

Recently released video of two men in Waffen SS uniform conducting a lesson at a Latvian kindergarten has brought on a wave of anger and debate in Latvia and abroad.

­The two men from the Latvian Soldier group came to Riga’s Pucite [Owlet] kindergarten to give what they called a “patriotic upbringing” lesson.

The footage shows the men telling children about the heroic role of Waffen SS soldiers in the Second World War.

The two, however, did not limit themselves to stories only, but brought handouts for the little listeners.

The video shows the three- and four-year-olds playing with pistols, machine-guns and grenades from the WWII era.

Latvia`s Minister of Education Rober Kilis has condemned the incident, urging an investigation into the circumstances of the lesson, Latvian media report.

“Weapons, people in military uniform and such activity in a kindergarten are absolutely unacceptable – this is my personal point of view,” he was quoted by Delfi.lv website.

The lesson is believed to have happened on March 16 – a day of commemoration of Latvian troops that joined Waffen SS forces in the fight against the Soviet Union.

On that day, hundreds of Latvian Waffen SS veterans marched through the capital Riga. Moscow has repeatedly expressed outrage over such ceremonies celebrating the Nazi past. The EU has also expressed concern.

The Waffen SS was a multi-ethnic and multinational military force of the Third Reich.

Around 150,000 Latvians served in the Waffen SS, the Nazis' non-German regiments, during World War II.

Museo del Holocausto en EE.UU. recibió testimonios de judíos que emigraron a Chile

El Museo del Holocausto de Washington, en Estados Unidos, recibió de la Fundación Memoria Viva el testimonio oral de un centenar de supervivientes del genocidio nazi que emigraron a Chile desde finales de la década de los años 30.

En el acto de entrega participaron el embajador de Chile en Washington, Felipe Bulnes, y el secretario general de la Organización de los Estados Americanos (OEA), José Miguel Insulza, según informó ese organismo hemisférico en un comunicado.

"Estoy muy orgulloso por este trabajo, porque se trata de las memorias de una generación que se está yendo", dijo Insulza en el acto, en alusión a los supervivientes.

El titular de la OEA destacó que Chile es el primer país de Latinoamérica que entrega este tipo de material al Museo del Holocausto, y manifestó su deseo de que "otros países de la región sigan este ejemplo".

Chile comprometido con la diversidad

Felipe Bulnes aseguró que Chile está "totalmente comprometido en promover la tolerancia y educar a nuestros niños en una cultura del respeto a la diversidad".

Los testimonios de sobrevivientes que emigraron a Chile entre 1938 y 1956 pasarán a formar parte de la Colección de Historia Oral del museo, que ya cuenta con más de 12.500 entrevistas de sobrevivientes del Holocausto y víctimas de la persecución nazi.

El director de colecciones del museo, Michael W. Grunberger, agradeció la entrega y aseguró que la alianza con la Fundación Memoria Viva "se fortalecerá con el tiempo".

De manera oficial, los gobiernos latinoamericanos sólo permitieron la inmigración de unos 84.000 refugiados judíos desde 1933 hasta 1945, menos de la mitad de los admitidos en los 15 años anteriores. Sin embargo, muchos más emigraron a América Latina a través de canales ilegales.

EFE