Education Strategies to Combat Antisemitism: Global Perspective

Following the October 7th attack on southern Israel, there has been an extreme surge in antisemitism worldwide: France experienced a rise of 1000% in antisemitic incidents, while the United States, Germany, and several other nations observed increases of approximately 400%. Jewish communities across the globe have articulated a heightened sense of fear and insecurity within their neighborhoods, workplaces, and educational institutions. This escalation in antisemitic sentiments underscores the imperative need to reassess the role of education in its mitigation. In response to this urgent concern, we explored, in an online event, the potential of educational initiatives to combat antisemitism effectively. This discussion featured insights from:

• Ludovic Hood, Senior Advisor for the Office of the U.S. Special Envoy To Monitor and Combat Antisemitism, U.S. Department of State,
• Heather Mann, Associate Project Officer, Section for Global Citizenship and Peace Education, Education Sector, UNESCO,
• Mathias Dreyfuss, Deputy Delegate of the French intergovernmental Delegation Against Racism, Antisemitism and LGBTI-hate (DILCRAH).

The event was moderated by the Senior Research Fellow and Head of the Antisemitism Research Initiative, Omar Mohammed.

On June 12, George Washington University’s Program on Extremism (PoE) held a virtual event delving into a global perspective of education strategies to combat antisemitism. This event was conducted by Senior Research Fellow and Head of the Antisemitism Research Initiative, Omar Mohammed, who moderated a discussion among Heather Mann, Mathias Dreyfuss, and Ludovic Hood. Heather Mann coordinates UNESCO’s program on combating antisemitism as Associate Project Officer at the Section for Global Citizenship and Peace Education within its Education Sector. Mathias Dreyfuss is the Deputy Delegate of the French intergovernmental Delegation Against Racism, Antisemitism and LGBTI-hate (DILCRAH) in addition to being the Former Head of Education at the Jewish Museum of Paris and the National Museum of the History of Immigration. Ludovic Hood is a career foreign service officer and diplomat currently serving the US Department of State as its Senior Advisor for the Office of the U.S. Special Envoy To Monitor and Combat Antisemitism. The following is a summary of their remarks:

Heather Mann

As the current rise of antisemitism predates October 7th, business as usual cannot continue [as] it is not yet satisfactory stated Dr. Mann. This is an urgent time to strengthen research on the representation of Jews, Judaism, and antisemitism in school textbooks and online spaces to educate the youth on identifying stereotypes and tropes. The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization’s (UNESCO) program on combating antisemitism provides three perspectives to address antisemitism globally.

The first perspective pertains to providing a safe and informative learning environment where critical thinking and democratic engagement can be cultivated among the youth without exacerbating the issue at hand. Addressing antisemitism needs to be viewed as a human rights project, as it is a risk to democracy and its broader values. Especially in the modern online world, we need to teach young people to identify antisemitism and address conspiratorial thinking through education. Unfortunately, teachers lack the resources and materials to inform students to intervene in conspiratorial thinking. Thus, requiring the need to have learning materials about antisemitic tropes and rhetoric that will not aggravate hate.

The second perspective of UNESCO’s program is to provide education on the specific social and political functions of antisemitism without spreading it further. To combat contemporary antisemitism, education initiatives need to be separate from Holocaust remembrance and genocide prevention. Encouraging young people to develop skills to identify, resist, and counteract antisemitism requires comprehensive learning activities that involve deconstructing biases, stereotypes, and conspiracy theories. While still informing the students of the Holocaust and Nazi crimes, there needs to be a general review of textbooks so they can reflect human rights principles in a comprehensive and balanced way.

However, education alone is not sufficient in combating antisemitism. This introduces UNESCO’s third perspective, which is utilizing pedagogies, procedures, and partnerships to implement programs pertaining to antisemitism legitimately. UNESCO partnered with the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe and the University College of London to create four training curricula for teachers in primary, secondary, and vocational education. These scenario-based curriculums boost skills and confidence for acting decisively and effectively. In addition to partnering with schools, UNESCO works directly with ministries of education to procedurally legitimize the need for peaceful and respectful dialogue. Antisemitism does not only harm Jews and Jewish communities, but it also harms the anti-semite themself. Creating education initiatives addressing antisemitism is crucial in the effort to disrupt how culturally embedded this issue is within modern language and literature.

Mathias Dreyfuss

In France, the rise and revival of antisemitism began in 2014. Six months before October 7th, the 60-page National Action Plan on the Fight Against Racism and Antisemitism was rewritten by the French intergovernmental Delegation Against Racism, Antisemitism and LGBTI-hate (DILCRAH) to establish clear guidelines on how to report antisemitic and racist incidents in the French educational system. This document possesses reporting procedures for educators to report antisemitic and racist acts to the Ministry of Education, in addition to how the ministry will respond. Under the action plan, France obligates students to visit remembrance sites associated with racism or antisemitism to reinforce the contextualization of history through narratives and physical spaces. Although results may not always be successful, obligating site visits must be inscribed in educational initiatives throughout the school year to ensure comprehensive guidance. Although the National Action Plan has been in place since the beginning of 2023, it requires increased implementation in local-level schools and communities.

There is a pattern in the French educational system where teachers neglect the Jewish history that is embedded in the narrative of French and European history. When mentioned in French textbooks, Jews are primarily presented as victims rather than a dynamic minority involved in the complete history of France. Therefore, we must analyze the history of the French Jewish community, or we will continue to recycle the internal prejudices of the Jew as a stranger to society or as a stubborn colonist willing to exterminate indigenous people.

As antisemitism is shifting into a different dimension, there is an exponential trend of antisemitic acts beginning in 2024, with 1,600 acts taking place on French soil since October 7th. This requires us to focus on how contemporary antisemitism is constructed and how it spreads in spaces like social media and citizenship education. To address this issue, President Emmanuel Macron and the French Parliament endorsed the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s (IHRA) definition of antisemitism throughout all administrative documents. This definition of antisemitism, which includes the distortion of the Holocaust, dissemination of conspiracy theories, and the hatred of Israel, is necessary to aid in making the public aware of the definition of antisemitism and its prominence throughout society.

The French education system must reevaluate its sense of history to better understand the Jewish community. Antisemitism and other forms of hate are not meant to be seen as a way to classify different groups as “good” and “evil.” To connect multiple groups' histories with the history of France, people well versed in these topics must run memorials and museums to improve current education strategies and contribute to the efforts in combating antisemitism.

Ludovic Hood

Antisemitism is a multi-tiered threat to national and international security. There are malignant actors in the international system who view antisemitism as a useful wedge issue or a convenient way of sewing doubt, dissent, and distrust in democracy. Governments and civil society actors who believe antisemitism is a niche form of hate need to be educated to diplomatically sound the alarm that antisemitism is more than just a threat to Jews. When this multi-tiered threat is mainstreamed, the basic pillars of governance and democracy erode. Therefore, education geared towards combating antisemitism is highly relevant and effective in not only educating students, but also law enforcement on issues such as hate crimes. Yet, some forms of holocaust education can be counterproductive as education on antisemitism is not solely about the atrocities committed against the Jewish people.

Education programs meant to combat antisemitism must possess a multifaceted approach that includes the roles of Nazis, racial antisemitism, understanding long-standing European antisemitism, conspiracy theories, and the propaganda that led up to planning the final solution. It needs to include contemporary Jewish culture and contributions to society to demystify Jews and Judaism, normalizing the heritage as a whole. Broadening the appreciation of Jewish heritage and fostering Jewish life will display the importance of Jewish-American history and the valuable role Jews play in society. Utilizing educational tactics is meant to “enable young people to understand what could happen in a democratic society when hatred goes unchecked…when people are silent as their neighbors are marginalized and murdered” (Hood, 2024). When conducted effectively, these initiatives provide enduring lessons for all communities to ponder on their own roles and responsibilities in standing against hate.

Although the US State Department’s Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat Antisemitism prioritizes its duties overseas, the presidential administration introduced the National Strategy to Counter Antisemitism about six months before October 7th. The National Strategy is not just an explanation of what is needed but gives action items and relevance to federal, state, and local government entities to contribute to the whole-of-society approach in combating antisemitism. Additionally, it states that education is the most important pillar in combating antisemitism. Encouraging education on Jewish-American history at the local level is essential in the fight against antisemitism.