Private School Students Tried To Force-Feed Ham Pizza To Jewish Classmate
(JTA) — A teenage student at a prestigious British private school was suspended for trying to force-feed a slice of ham pizza to a Jewish student while others watched.
The incident at Clifton College in Bristol, in southwest England, occurred in December but was first reported by the local media on Wednesday.
The Jewish student, 15, “suffered psychologically” from the incident, according to the Bristol Post. He continues to attend the school, as do the teens that attempted to force him to eat the ham-topped slice. The newspaper reported it was a short suspension but did not say how long.
Eating pork products is forbidden in Jewish kosher law.
“While the pupil concerned felt that this was not an anti-Semitic act, the school considered the incident to be completely unacceptable, falling far short of the high standards we expect from our pupils,” a school spokesman told the local media. He said the school, which has students from preschool to high school, conducted a “thorough investigation” and that “proportionate and appropriate sanctions were put in place.”
The Christian school was founded in 1862 and opened a boarding house for Jewish students called Polack’s House in 1878, which closed in 2005. The Polack Center, which contains a synagogue, remains at the school, and offers Jewish studies, Hebrew teaching, and bar and bat mitzvah preparation.
A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse..
Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO