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Roald Dahl Assures Kids
He's Not Anti-Semitic
JEREMY GORDIN
Special to The Jewish News
B
est- selling children's
author Roald Dahl
has assured a group of
children at a San Francisco
Jewish day school that he's
not anti-Semitic.
The author of Charlie and
the Chocolate Factory (later
made into the popular Willy
Wonka movie) and James
and the Giant Peach made
the statement in a letter to
Dinah Stroe's second
graders in the Brandeis-
Hillel Day School.
Dahl's response was to
letters from the children
sent him at his Buck-
inghamshire, England,
home.
In those letters, Stroe and
the youngsters expressed
dismay at the contents of a
March 30 Jewish Bulletin
article based on an earlier
report in the London Jewish
Chronicle.
In the original story, Dahl
admitted to being anti-Israel
and, as a result, anti-
Semitic.
That article, Stroe said,
"stopped me in my tracks. It
stunned me personally, and
raised the issue of hating the
human being from his crea-
tion — that issue of Wagner
vs. his music, Ezra Pound vs.
his poetry, etcetera."
"But, more importantly,
the class was busy reading
Danny the Champion of the
World and were loving it."
After discussing the arti-
cle, Stroe's students voted to
suspend reading the Dahl
book and to write the author
asking if the report was true.
In his reply, dated April
23, Dahl insisted: "I am not
anti-Semitic. I am simply
anti the present Israeli
government and anyone who
supports it."
The author sent his letter
to students Ari Baruth,
Michael Block, Aliza Cohen,
David Edwards, Hanan
Katz-Lewis, Zack Mabel and
Tamara Mittman — all 7
and 8 years old — and to
Stroe, their general studies
teacher.
"The trouble with many
Jewish people in other coun-
tries is that they refuse to
look at both sides of the
coin," Dahl wrote, "and
anyone, like me for instance,
who dares to raise a voice
against Israel is immedi-
ately labeled an anti-
Semite."
Included in the packet of
children's letters to Dahl
was Stroe's own, which said
in part: "When I read the ar-
ticle in the Bulletin, I felt
hurt beyond words. Have
you really jumped from a po-
litical sentiment to a racist
position of being a self- iden-
tified anti-Semite? I find this
abhorrent and frankly
unbelievable. From your
writings I had judged you to
be a fair and loving man.
Could I possibly be wrong?"
Ari Baruth and Zack
Mabel wrote together: "Is
this really true that you
don't like Jews? We really
like your books. We felt dis-
appointed because you don't
like Jews. Why don't you
like some Jews? Just be-
cause you don't like Israel
doesn't mean you don't have
to like Jews in America."
And from Aliza Cohen and
Tamara Mittman came the
message: "We love your
books, but we have a prob-
lem: we are Jews!! You don't
like us because we are Jews.
That offends us."
Dahl, for his part, included
a few terse words about the
current situation in Israel's
territories. "I do hope you
[Stroe] will have a discussion
about all this with your
schoolchildren," he wrote,
"and you might ask them
how they would feel if they
were Palestinian children
forced to live in appalling
squalor in the those ghastly
camps on the Gaza Strip."
In the end, with Dahl's
reply in hand, the class
decided to continue reading
his books.
"I felt a little better," said
Rebecca Reiner.
Said Tiffany Hahn: "I felt
more relaxed when he wrote
because I thought we
wouldn't be able to read his
books again, but now we
can."
All in all, according to
Stroe, "the kids were very
satisfied and proud that
Dahl took the trouble to an-
swer, and I was, too. We put
about 15 to 20 class hours
into understanding and
dealing with the issue, and
the children seem happy
with Dahl's reaction.
"They felt he had satisfac-
torily explained himself. It
seemed clear to them that
Dahl had a political point of
view, to which he is entitled,
and that he is not anti-
Semitic."
But, says Stroe, citing
Dahl's anti-Israel passion,
"personally, I am not so
sure." 0
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