The New South Wales Jewish Board of Deputies has asked its local school district to remove a textbook that contains anti-Semitism from school curriculum, the Sydney Morning Herald reports.
Chief Executive Vic Alhadeff told the Australian daily that his organization had learned of the text from a Jewish school that had used it in a class.
The offensive passages appear in the 2009 edition of Cambridge Studies of Religion Stage 6 by Christopher Hartney and Jonathan Noble. One notable passage says, “Much modern conflict in the world is related to the reactions of other groups to the Jewish people.”
Mr. Alhadeff said that the statement “directly blames Jews for the existence of much of the conflict in the world.”
In a separate passage, the book characterizes the Passover holiday as including “slaughtering lambs, smearing the lintel on the front door with blood and eating unleavened breads for seven days.” While this may have correct in Biblical times, it is no longer a customary practice.
Moreover, another passage says that polygamy is common across Israel. This is despite the fact that polygamy is outlawed in Israel for Jewish citizens.
“We have requested Cambridge University Press to withdraw the book immediately, given that every additional copy that is distributed means more teachers and more students are using it,” Alhadeff told reporters.
Cambridge University Press has since said it would “review” Alhadeff’s complaints while the NSW Board of Studies said it could only endorse materials that they had personally developed.
