The Bell Review shows the importance of speaking out about Jew-hate

Antisemitism in schools is a major problem the Jewish community understands all too well.  But now, thanks to the Bell review, so does the rest of the country. Sir David Bell found that Jewish schoolchildren experience shocking levels of abuse and harassment that too many schools are blind to. 

The government has now agreed to help teachers and students recognise and tackle antisemitism, and to improve teaching about the Holocaust so a new generation learns about the horrors that make protecting the Jewish community so important for us all. Teachers will be trained in antisemitism awareness and schools will receive stronger guidance on political impartiality so teachers don’t impose their views on students. Schools are also asked to consider the ‘appropriateness’ of wearing political badges in the classroom.

Jewish News played a role in getting this review started.  At the Jewish Labour Movement conference last year, Jewish News co-publisher Justin Cohen interviewed me, as Communities secretary at the time, about antisemitism in schools. I shared the shocking news that a fellow Labour MP who is Jewish, Damien Egan, had been prevented from visiting a school in his constituency because of threatened protests by the Palestine Solidarity Campaign and members of a teaching union outside the school gate. It was the school where he had been a student himself.

Get The Jewish News Daily Edition by email and never miss our top stories Free Sign Up

I shared a story from two Jewish parents in my South London constituency. A campaign group had persuaded their children’s primary school to let them run a Palestinian Cultural Day at which activists indoctrinated young children that Israel has no right to exist. The headteacher had no idea who the group was or what they were really doing.

And I shared my own experience of a group of hard-left pro-Palestine activists, led by a teacher trainer, who staged a hugely intimidating demonstration outside my house, terrifying my family and my neighbours, with no reaction from the Police.  They even bought two young children with them to learn how to frighten people in their own home.

More by Steve Reed MP

March 24, 2026

Golders Green arson is a test of Britain’s resolve to defend its values

By Steve Reed MP

Oct. 8, 2025

OPINION: Islamist terror attack was damning indictment of UK’s failure to stop upsurge in Jew hate

By Steve Reed MP

March 10, 2021

OPINION: Bristol University’s inertia is inexplicable

By Steve Reed

Jewish News covered the story prominently, from where it was picked up by the national media. The huge furore that followed led then-Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson to commission the Bell review that her successor Lucy Powell has now accepted.

The Bell Review is welcome good news for the Jewish community at what’s been a very difficult time in so many other ways.  It stands alongside the social cohesion action plan, Protecting What Matters, that increased security funding for the Jewish community, and Lord Mann’s review into antisemitism in the NHS that banned staff from wearing political badges or symbols and introduced mandatory antisemitism training.

There’s more to do, including tackling the hatred of Jews that has become a feature of pro-Palestinian marches, and the vile anti-Jewish content still circulating on social media. But the Bell Review shows the importance of speaking out about anti-Jewish hatred wherever it’s found, and the power of a plucky community newspaper like Jewish News in making sure the rest of the world listens and acts.

Steve Reed MP is the former Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government