OPINION: Teachers must be given confidence to recognise and stamp out antisemitism

Lord Mann’s fearless work to call-out antisemitism is well-known.

His outspoken, no-nonsense and steadfast approach has earned him considerable respect from those who have experienced antisemitic attacks and those who share his drive to stem this irrational and grotesque hatred.

That is why his position as the Independent Advisor to the Government on
Antisemitism, together with the work of the Antisemitism Policy Trust and
Community Security Trust, is critical, especially as incidents of antisemitism in its various forms increase at a seemingly alarming rate.

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Lord Mann’s latest report Anti-Jewish Hatred launched earlier this week is a call to action to the UK government, setting out a range of recommendations necessary to ‘ ..tackle gaps and weaknesses in how we challenge anti-Jewish hated in our country’.

Data from CST and others that Lord Mann cites has demonstrated an increase in the number of schools and school pupils reporting incidents.

As such, his report correctly calls for secondary schools across the UK to teach contemporary antisemitism, in addition to Holocaust education, in order to curb its rise.

It also calls for dedicated training for teachers.

We, at the UCL Centre for Holocaust Education, are currently working with
Lord Mann’s office on a small-scale pilot initiative to see how this might work in practice.

Early findings of baseline research conducted with teachers from
one academy trust suggest that whilst the vast majority (97.3%) think it is the responsibility of schools to address contemporary antisemitism, a significant number feel a lack of confidence in their knowledge and skill to fully recognise and deal with situations when they arise.

In fact, 84.8% of the 634 respondents had never received specialist training in confronting antisemitism.

Whilst the number of antisemitic incidents teachers report encountering
appear relatively low, it is possible that the number could well be higher if
teachers were more confident in their knowledge and ability to recognise it
when they see it.

This isn’t surprising: the fast-changing nature of antisemitic
rhetoric and conspiracy, the insidious nature of antisemitic language, the
spaces it can lurk and the speed at which it is spreads via social media and the gaming world, makes it all deeply challenging.

Interestingly, UCL’s 2019/20 study with teachers due to be published early
next year, also indicates that incidents being reported by teachers such as Holocaust denial and distortion are far from universal but that many
students are at risk of exposure to it outside school, often through the
Internet.

Teachers who were part of the study also warned their students
believing information they found on the internet regardless of the source
or accuracy of the information.

This only goes to show the profound importance of ensuring teachers and
their students have sound knowledge and understanding of the
Holocaust, are alert to what contemporary forms of antisemitism can look
like, the abuse it poses to Jewish people and the society at large, to have
greater awareness of the threat that exists on websites and social media
and the wherewithal to call it out.

Ruth-Anne Lenga Associate Professor (Teaching), and Programme Director, UCL Centre for Holocaust Education.