NAOMI LEVIN
Another book has been found to contain errors about Jewish beliefs and practices.
IT was discovered this week that the author of a studies of religion textbook, which was withdrawn from sale amid concerns about the chapter on Judaism, has made blunders before.
Dr Christopher Hartney, an academic in the Department of Studies in Religion at The University of Sydney, had previously authored a short book on Judaism. Like the studies of religion textbook, it too contained a number of inaccurate statements about Jewish beliefs and practices.
The book, which is non-fiction and according to the National Library of Australia is targeted at children, declared, among other things, that young Jewish boys and girls go to synagogue for the first time when they are 13 years old; that “the Jews followed Moses for 40 years looking for a place to live”; and that “Hitler was a very bad man. He believed that people with white skin were better than the Jewish people - he was ‘racist’.”
This book, called Livewire Investigates Judaism, is also published by Cambridge University Press Australia and New Zealand, the publisher of the controversial textbook Cambridge Studies of Religion Stage 6.
Representatives of the NSW Jewish Board of Deputies (JBD) were scheduled to meet with the publisher on Thursday.
“When we meet with the executive director and publishing director of Cambridge University Press to discuss their studies of religion textbook, we will also point out the issues with the Livewire book and will offer our assistance with all future publications that include sections on Judaism,” JBD CEO Vic Alhadeff said.
Meanwhile, the high school textbook, which was also being sold in the United Kingdom, has been pulled from bookshop shelves.
Cambridge University Press in the United Kingdom said the book had been withdrawn pending investigation, while prestigious booksellers WHSmith and Borders have removed the book from sale.
