In July, a report by the Henry Jackson Society (HJS) revealed a 173 per cent rise in reported antisemitic incidents of “pupil misconduct, bullying or harassment” in more than 1,300 schools in England over the last five years. Incidents rose by over 29 per cent between 2021 and 2022.
Since 2017, Stand Up! Education Against Discrimination has been engaging with schools, gaining first-hand experience of the phenomenon of antisemitism in Britain. Led by Maccabi GB and CST, Stand Up! is an interfaith project which provides specialist training for teaching staff and interactive workshops for students focusing on antisemitism and anti-Muslim hate.
According to HJS, 58 per cent of incidents reported were “Holocaust or Nazi related”, whereas only 1.5 per cent were “Israel/Palestine related” and 1.5 per cent “referred to Jewish conspiracy theories”.
Our experience of “the month of hate” in May to June 2021 was very different; Stand Up! received dozens of referrals from CST and delivered interventions in schools where antisemitism was a prevailing issue among students and teachers, overwhelmingly focusing on the heightened violence between Israel and the Palestinian people at that time.
Incidents included Jewish teachers being targeted on student WhatsApp groups in Birmingham and school-wide protests in Barnet. Stand Up! sessions included whole- school assemblies, class workshops as well as “restorative justice” interventions with selected students.
The workshops included examples of hate crimes committed against the Jewish community and detailed the antisemitic historical tropes used during pro-Palestinian protests. They clarified that while the Palestinian flag is not, in itself, antisemitic, using it to deliberately target Jewish individuals definitely is antisemitic.
They provided schools with clear tools and guidelines to safely examine the Israel-Palestine conflict without steering into antisemitism and anti-Muslim hate. Schools are usually quick to identify Holocaust related antisemitism and know how to deal with it; Israel-related antisemitism on the other hand may be dismissed due to fear of public opinion and a lack of understanding on how to address it.
The geographical location and demographics of the school influences the response to manifestations of antisemitism. In rural, monocultural areas, young people might have never met a Jewish person before, but they are nevertheless aware of the age-old antisemitic stereotypes; here the focus is mainly answering questions about the Jewish community, their practices and traditions, highlighting the irrational nature of these stereotypes.
In diverse, multicultural settings, students are equipped with a universal understanding of equality and respect for all. Holocaust education includes the familiar examples of Jewish people represented as inferior, subhuman, compared to vermin, pests and diseases; Nazi ideology is clear-cut and relatively easy to break down in class.
But when Jews are depicted as a rich, controlling élite, however, young people struggle to understand why they should not be criticised. Here it is essential to highlight historical stereotypes and the irrational hatred that has spurred antisemites throughout history.
All too often far-right ideologies and conspiracy theories are spouted in the classroom by young people oblivious to their meaning. “All I want in this country is white, normal, British people” is a phrase which hides pervasive and entrenched conspiracy theories that frequently possess antisemitic components.
Jews being the root of all evil, facilitating wars, creating viruses, and controlling the media and the banks are stereotypes which require a sensitive and expert approach in the classroom. On rare occasions, young people can cross the line into more inflammatory behaviour, such as a student performing a Nazi salute while the Jewish facilitator was presenting on antisemitism.
When young people’s knowledge is limited to 30-second social media video, it is essential to offer a humanising experience, meeting representatives of the Jewish community — often with their own lived experiences of discrimination — and providing factual examples and statistics. In the Nazi salute incident, the Muslim facilitator stepped in immediately to support their colleague; community cohesion is a powerful message, alongside explaining the outcomes of committing hate crimes.
Creating opportunities for young people to meet and share cultural and religious identities is essential to tackle misconceptions. Stand Up!’s Alan Senitt Upstanders Leadership Programme brings together Jewish, Muslim, Sikh, Catholic and non-faith students from 10 schools to create anti-discrimination projects in their local communities. The long-term impact is invaluable: 93 per cent of 750 Stand Up! students surveyed expressed a desire to prevent antisemitism.
Our work aims to give school communities a better understanding of the breadth of antisemitism in our society, empowering young people to tackle and report it and all other forms of discrimination.
Nathan Servi is head of operations at Maccabi GB. To find out more, see standupeducation.org
Read more: Hate soars in UK schools
