Teacher blames Jews for Oct. 7; boy, 9, leaves London school

A nine-year-old Jewish boy has been withdrawn from a state primary school in north London after his teacher told him that Jews were to blame for the October 7 massacre carried out by Hamas, the Jewish Chronicle reported.

The boy's family asked the school to provide anti-Semitism training for staff. The response was stark: the school said it could not force teachers to engage with politics.

The incident took place earlier this year. The father, who asked to remain anonymous, had spoken with his son about the Hamas attack on the Nova music festival. The next day, the boy mentioned the conversation to his teacher. Her reply, he said, was chilling: "Actually, it's the other way around."

The father explained how his son understood it: "His understanding was that she was saying the Jews were the ones who attacked the Palestinians, while denying the criminality and brutality of what Hamas did that day. She was essentially saying they had it coming because they are 'freedom fighters.'"

As soon as he heard what had happened, the father arranged an urgent meeting with the deputy head. During the meeting, the deputy took notes and promised the matter would be dealt with. But since that meeting, the father said, there has been no contact from the school, despite repeated attempts by phone and email to get an update.

The father suggested to the deputy head that the teacher visit the Nova exhibition, which was on display in London at the time, so she could understand what actually happened on October 7. He was told the school could not force staff to get involved in political matters. "I told her this isn't politics," the father recalled. "This is an event now etched in history, in which innocent people were murdered."

As a last resort, the father approached the headteacher on the final day of the school year, but was turned away with the claim that the head had "nothing to do with it" and that the deputy would get back to him.

According to the Jewish Chronicle, this was not the first time the boy had experienced anti-Semitic incidents at the school. A year earlier, when he was eight, he praised the Israeli singer who performed at Eurovision. In response, one classmate shouted curses against Israel at him, while two others began chanting "Free Palestine."

After the repeated incidents, the family felt they had no choice but to remove the boy from the school. Ahead of the new school year, he was placed in a Jewish school, and within weeks there was a visible improvement. The father said the past year had taken a severe emotional toll on his son, but the new setting was giving him the environment he needed to rebuild his confidence and trust. "I will never send him to a non-Jewish school again. It's over. I've lost all my trust," the father said.

The father, who was born in France, shared his painful feelings and drew a comparison to his family's history: "In 1940, my grandfather took my mother out of school because of anti-Semitism under the Vichy regime. I can't shake the feeling that I'm in the same place now with my nine-year-old son, forced to take him out of a school in England because of anti-Semitism in 2026. It has deteriorated to the point where we are experiencing anti-Semitism even in a primary school."

Jewish organizations in Britain responded strongly to the report. A spokesman for the Board of Deputies said incidents like this underline the urgent need for the publication of findings by Sir David Bell, who was appointed last year by the Department for Education to examine anti-Semitism in schools and colleges.

The Community Security Trust (CST) said: "Schools should be places where children can learn, thrive and feel safe, without any fear of bullying, harassment or political intimidation. It is deeply concerning that Jewish pupils are encountering hostility because of their identity or religion. Teachers are to be trusted to educate children, not to introduce extreme ideas into the classroom. We call on any family that has experienced anti-Semitic behavior in a school setting to report it to the school, to the police and to CST."