In Brooklyn, a taxpayer's suit had asked that Oliver Twist and The Merchant of Venice be banned from New York City public schools on the ground that Fagin and Shylock were "antiSemitic and anti-religious." Last week, State Supreme Court Justice Anthony J. DiGiovanna said no. He held that the test was whether either book had been "maliciously written" to rouse prejudice, ruled both Dickens and Shakespeare in the clear.
Added Justice DiGiovanna: "Public interest in a free and democratic society does not warrant or encourage the suppression of any book at the whim...
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