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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Entertainment
Marta Bausells

JK Rowling confirms that there were Jewish wizards at Hogwarts

JK rowling
JK Rowling, author of the Harry Potter series of books. Photograph: Carlo Allegri/Reuters

These are happy days for Harry Potter fans. Not only are they getting daily snippets of a new Harry Potter “ghost plot” that JK Rowling is unveiling for Advent on her website Pottermore, but the author - always very active on Twitter - has also taken to the social network to confirm that Hogwarts was, or is, a diverse school.

In response to inquiries from her Jewish fans, Rowling clarified last night that there were Jewish students at the wizardry school and revealed the name of one of them, Anthony Goldstein, who was among the original 40 students she created for the first book in the series, Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone. She also assured fans there would be LGBT students in the school, as well as anyone from any “religion/belief/non-belief system” – except for Wiccans (a reference perhaps to the longrunning debate among American fundamentalists as to whether the saga promoted witchcraft).

Asked whether there were any Jewish characters at Hogwarts by a fan, the author responded:

Later, she would clarify:

Rowling made the case for diversity in Hogwarts with these tweets:

... which some fans picked up on:

Without specifying any characters, she also assured another fan that Hogwarts would be a safe school for LGBT students:

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