The New York City Board of Education will face a legal suit next week unless Charles Dickens’ novel, “Oliver Twist,” and Shake spear’s play, “The Merchant of Venice,” are eliminated from local school curricula, Joseph Goldstein, former city magistrate, said today. He has petitioned the Board to remove the volumes on the grounds that they are anti-Semitic and “cause irreparable damage” to school children.
A spokesman for the Board voiced doubts that the body would take any action on Goldstein’s demand that the books be banned. “Oliver Twist” is used in school libraries, but is not required textbook while “The Merchant of Venice’ is listed as a textbook, but is used at the discretion of the individual school principal, the spokesman added.
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