Jewish, Atheist Students Attended Hogwarts: 'Harry Potter' Author JK Rowling Confirms Diversity

[rug]

By Julia Glum on December 17 2014 11:06 AM

On the second day of Hanukkah, "Harry Potter" mastermind JK Rowling gave fans a magical gift: She confirmed that there were Jewish students at the Hogwarts School for Witchcraft and Wizardry. And atheists. And people from almost every belief system -- except for Wiccans.

Rowling tweeted Wednesday morning on Twitter that not only did Jewish students at Hogwarts exist, but also that one such example was included in the series' original characters. Rowling created Jewish wizard and Ravenclaw member Anthony Goldstein as one the 40 named students in Harry's class his first year at the wizarding school.

This opened the door for hundreds of responses asking whether students from specific religious backgrounds were enrolled at Hogwarts. The answer to most questions was "yes."

The "Harry Potter" books have long been lauded for their diversity. In 2005, TIME Magazine wrote about Rowling's progressive values, saying "Her Hogwarts is secular and sexual and multicultural and multiracial and even sort of multimedia, with all those talking ghosts." Two years later, Rowling revealed the school's famous headmaster, Albus Dumbledore, was gay.

http://www.ibtimes.com/jewish-atheist-students-attended-hogwarts-harry-potter-author-jk-rowling-confirms-1761408

[MisterP]

1. presumably everyone's taught gematria and ascent through the sefirot, then

[rug]

2. NumerOsa, not numeroSA!

Hermione is lucky she survived.

[MisterP]

3. it's a whole magical system based on bad puns: no wonder they're always tripping over each other

[AtheistCrusader]

4. And with that, the Festival of Lights became a lot less miraculous.

Out of oil? Lumos!

[Prophet 451]

5. I'm surprised Rowling felt the need to mention this

Certainly, I'd always assumed that Hogwarts was multi-ethnic and multi-religious. And asking friends on FB, most of them seemed to have made the same assumption.