The proportion of antisemitic incidents involving young people has risen for the third year in a row, and schools are seeing a rise in anti-Jewish hate involving pupils and staff, according to a new new report.
Of a total of 415 incidents recorded in the first half of this year where the offender’s age was given,103 (25 per cent) involved under-18s, the Community Security Trust (CST) report says. This compares with 15 per cent in 2021 and 22 per cent in 2022.
The volume of anti-Jewish hate reported in or around schools has also risen in the past year, the document reveals.
Of the 415 cases analysed by the CST, 67 took place in or around schools. This was a rise of 29 per cent from the 52 such incidents reported in the first half of 2022.
The latest figures included 16 incidents at Jewish schools and a further 30 incidents involving Jewish schoolchildren outside school, often on their way to or from home, who were “visibly Jewish by virtue of their uniform”, the report says.
Twenty-one of the incidents involved Jewish schoolchildren or staff at non-faith schools.
Anti-Jewish hate incidents around schools
The UK-wide report highlights an incident in April when two girls were leaving a gym in Barnet, North London, and were accosted by girls from another school.
The report says: “When one of the offenders caught sight of one of the victim’s Star of David necklace, they began to verbally abuse them, shouting, ‘Jews have such big noses.’ The perpetrators proceeded to throw rocks at the victims, continuing to shout and swear at them as they fled the scene.”
The authors of the report say that while in previous years incidents tended to be related to current events such as the Israel-Palestine conflict, abuse now more commonly refers to “Hitler, the Nazis, the Holocaust or used discourse and imagery associated with that period in history”.
Last year a report by the Henry Jackson Society revealed that antisemitic incidents at secondary schools had almost trebled in the past five years. More than 1,000 incidents between 2017 and 2022 were uncovered by a large-scale investigation using freedom of information requests.
Ruth-Anne Lenga, programme director of the UCL Centre for Holocaust Education, said that teaching about contemporary antisemitism, in addition to high-quality and meaningful Holocaust education, is needed to address the growing problem of “Holocaust distortion, trivialisation and denial”.
“We are all at risk when antisemitism is not properly addressed and rooted out, but schools need support in that complex process...teachers and heads come to us asking for help, support and training. They are not always confident when coming into contact with antisemitism,” she said.
Geoff Barton, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, said the report was “deeply concerning”, appearing to provide further evidence that social media is exposing young people to hatred and extremist material.
Mr Barton said schools worked to combat myths spread on social media, and highlighted the damage caused by stereotypes.
He called for the government to introduce the long-awaited Online Safety Bill as a priority because “the harmful narratives that are so easily spread online are having severe real-world consequences”.
In its inspections, Ofsted does not assess individual incidents of racial hatred but schools are expected to provide records and analysis of “bullying, discriminatory and prejudiced behaviour, either directly or indirectly, including racist…bullying, use of derogatory language and racist incidents”. Schools are not, however, legally required to record such incidents.
The Department for Education has been approached for comment.
