J.K. Rowling Opens Hogwarts Up To Jewish Wizards

Jewish wizards were indeed accepted at Hogwarts, in case you were wondering. J.K. Rowling had Twitter buzzing last night night, when she revealed to her followers and fans of the famous Harry Potter book series that the fictional wizard school, Hogwarts, was, in fact, open to Jewish wizards.

Her statement was made in response to a tweet made by a Jewish follower. Rowling hosted a Twitter question and answer session on Tuesday, in which the question of Jewish wizards was presented by one fan, Ben Roffman, Time reported. After learning that the fan’s wife had taunted him about the absence of Jewish wizards at Hogwarts, Rowling responded with the name Anthony Goldstein, Ravenclaw, Jewish wizard. Fans latched on to the issue, speculating upon the possibility of Jewish wizards within the Harry Potter realm, asking whether there were any other Jewish students at Hogwarts.

J.K. Rowling later expanded on the issue.

“To everyone asking whether their religion/belief/non-belief system is represented at Hogwarts: the only people I never imagined there are Wiccans… OK, let me clarify that! Anthony isn’t the first Jewish student, nor is he the only one. I just have reasons for knowing most about him!”

The author revealed that the name, not the only one of Jewish heritage, had been on a list of 40 characters included in Harry Potter’s first year at the wizardry school. Later, Goldstein had gone on to fight in Dumbledore’s Army.

The news was not well received by all of Rowling’s followers, with one fan in particular criticizing the author’s choice of Jewish names for her fictional wizard.

“If you thought @jk_rowling couldn’t get more tokenistic, she revealed that she made a Jewish wizard called Anthony Goldstein. GOLDSTEIN FFS.”

Rowling was quick to respond, explaining that her choice in the names of many of her characters, including that of Goldstein, were taken from the names of her own personal friends, according to an article posted by Us Magazine.

The Q&A progressed to cover other topics as well, until it eventually settled on the rumors that the Warner Brothers trilogy, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, had fallen through and was no longer being produced. Rowling denied the rumors in her response, confirming that she had already completed the script for the first film. The first installment of the Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them trilogy, which is based on J.K. Rowling’s book of the same name, has been confirmed to hit theaters on November 16, 2016.

The topic of Jewish wizards was brought up amidst a series of new Harry Potter short stories, penned by the author herself.