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Antisemitism in schools and colleges is often described as “the longest hatred” in a new disguise. It has not stayed outside education: it surfaces in jokes and throwaway remarks, in memes shared in class or on WhatsApp, in graffiti, in classroom debates about history or the Middle East, and sometimes even in staffroom conversations. At times it is explicit; more often it is coded in stereotypes, conspiracy theories or casual comments that “everyone” claims not to mean seriously.
If antisemitism in schools is treated only as a disciplinary issue, institutions will always be reacting too late. The UNESCO–OSCE/ODIHR four-volume series Addressing Anti-Semitism in Schools: Training Curricula, developed in 2020, offers a more strategic route: build the capacity of teachers at all levels and of school leaders, and integrate work on antisemitism into the everyday life of schools and vocational colleges.
Addressing Anti-Semitism in Schools Training Curricula – what they are and who they are for
The set Addressing Anti-Semitism in Schools: Training Curricula (UNESCO & OSCE/ODIHR, 2020) is a direct response to the growing visibility of antisemitism in schools and colleges. It consists of four separate but closely aligned volumes: one each for primary school teachers, secondary school teachers, vocational education teachers and school directors. The series sits within the broader “Words into Action” programme on antisemitism through education and builds on earlier policy guidelines aimed at education ministries and systems.
All four volumes adopt the IHRA working definition of antisemitism and propose a practical working description that focuses on antisemitism as a negative perception of Jewish people, leading to biased or hateful actions and the ideologies that sustain them. They argue that antisemitism in schools has specific historical roots and contemporary forms, but must also be understood within a wider human-rights and equality framework that includes other kinds of prejudice.
The primary and secondary school curricula are aimed at those who train classroom teachers and at those who design initial teacher education and in-service professional development. The vocational curriculum is tailored to teachers working with apprentices and students who are preparing for specific occupational fields, from hospitality to health care and public services, where prejudice and inclusion issues appear in real-world interactions. The school directors’ curriculum targets heads and principals and discusses what it means to lead a school or college that takes antisemitism in schools seriously.
These materials are particularly useful as they are both research-informed and deliberately practical. The documents are detailed and yet adaptable: they expect different countries and institutions to have different structures, laws and cultures, and they invite local ownership rather than suggesting a single, rigid programme for tackling antisemitism in schools.
Three domains of teacher learning
The primary, secondary and vocational curricula all start from the same idea: to address antisemitism in schools, teachers need more than a list of facts or a set of ready-made lesson plans. They have to grow in three interlocking domains: self-knowledge, content knowledge and pedagogic knowledge.
Self-knowledge is about who the teacher is as a person and as a professional. The curricula ask teachers to look honestly at their own values, beliefs and emotional responses, and to recognise that everyone has biases and stereotypes, whether he is aware of them or not. This does not mean shaming individuals; it means understanding that cognitive shortcuts and social habits can turn into prejudice if they are never examined. Teachers who are unsettled by antisemitism in schools need space to ask themselves what they stand for and how far their own assumptions might shape their responses to pupils or apprentices.
Content knowledge covers what teachers need to know in order to work credibly on antisemitism in schools. That includes an understanding of how antisemitism has developed over time, the different forms it has taken and the consequences it has had. It also includes knowledge of Judaism and Jewish life today, with an emphasis on diversity rather than a single “Jewish experience”, and an awareness of how Jewish identity, religion and links with Israel are understood in different communities.
The Holocaust is treated as a central, non-negotiable part of this content, but the documents warn explicitly against introducing Judaism only through the Holocaust; instead, they suggest exploring Jewish life and culture first, and then situating the genocide within that longer history. Without secure content knowledge, attempts to address antisemitism in schools risk being shallow or easily derailed.
Pedagogic knowledge is the bridge between conviction and practice. It concerns what teachers actually do: how they plan age-appropriate work on antisemitism and other prejudices, how they respond when a pupil makes a hurtful remark, how they handle a “critical incident” when an antisemitic meme is circulated in class or a controversial political topic is raised, and how they help learners build critical media literacy and resilience to hate speech and conspiracy theories. It also includes knowing when an issue can be handled within a lesson and when it needs to be referred to safeguarding or leadership. This is the level at which antisemitism in schools is either challenged or silently normalised.
Secondary and vocational teachers have an extra dimension to consider: their subject or sector specialism. In secondary schools, history, literature, religious education, languages, ICT and citizenship all approach antisemitism, prejudice and human rights in different ways. In vocational education, teachers work across occupational fields where diversity and discrimination appear in concrete customer interactions, workplace cultures and professional codes. The question here is: what can my subject or sector uniquely contribute to helping learners recognise and challenge antisemitism in schools and other forms of bias?
The curricula structure these three domains into twelve “topic questions” that trainers can turn into modules or CPD strands. Some of these focus on self-awareness and responsibility, others on understanding antisemitism, Jewish life, the Holocaust and prejudice, and others again on curriculum planning, incident response, resilience building and collaboration. Together, they offer a map for engaging with antisemitism in schools in a systematic way rather than as a series of isolated reactions.
School leaders and the leadership domain
For school directors, the architecture is slightly different. The leadership curriculum still insists on self-knowledge and content knowledge: heads and principals need to examine their own assumptions and understand antisemitism and prejudice well enough to make informed decisions. The third domain, however, is not pedagogy, but leadership.
Leadership knowledge is about how to create a whole-school or whole-college ethos in which antisemitism in schools and other forms of hate are clearly rejected, and in which equality and human rights are understood as part of the institution’s core mission. It is about aligning policies, safeguarding practices, crisis-management procedures and communication strategies with that ethos. It also includes knowing how to support staff training and curriculum development, how to handle incidents involving antisemitism or other forms of hate, how to engage parents, employers and community organisations, and how to monitor and evaluate the impact of the school or college’s efforts over time.
In the leadership curriculum, the twelve topic questions therefore turn towards issues such as building a shared vision, designing pre-emptive measures and professional responses to antisemitic trends and incidents, communicating with staff, learners and parents when conflict arises, and auditing and improving the institution’s work in this area. The message is clear: teachers can do a great deal in their classrooms, but their work on antisemitism in schools will be fragile unless leadership creates and protects the conditions in which it can flourish.
How to work with the curricula in practice
The four documents do not simply list content on antisemitism in schools; they also propose a way of organising professional learning. One key recommendation is to start with the self, then move to knowledge, and only then focus on practice. In other words, instead of beginning with lesson ideas or policies, training should open up space for teachers and leaders to reflect on their values, biases and sense of mission. Only afterwards does it make sense to deepen content knowledge and, finally, to turn to pedagogy or leadership.
The curricula describe two coherent routes for sequencing content. A deductive route begins with general concepts such as prejudice, discrimination and intolerance and then examines antisemitism as a specific, particularly dangerous form of those. An inductive route starts from antisemitism itself as a concrete, historically anchored case and then uses it to illuminate wider mechanisms of prejudice and exclusion. Both paths are legitimate; what matters is that the choice is intentional and that learning builds cumulatively instead of jumping randomly between abstract principles and specific examples.
Another central feature is the use of scenarios and critical incidents. Rather than talking about antisemitism in schools in the abstract, the documents encourage trainers to work with short cases taken from real school and college life: a joke in a history lesson, antisemitic graffiti outside a local synagogue, a parent complaining about “too much focus on Jewish history”, a WhatsApp screenshot circulating among apprentices, or a colleague making a comment in the staffroom. Analysing and role-playing responses to such incidents allows participants to integrate self-knowledge, content knowledge and practice. It also helps them think beyond punishment and consider restorative and educational responses, while still recognising when more formal sanctions or reporting are necessary.
The curricula insist that gender and intersectionality should not be an afterthought. Antisemitism in schools interacts with gender, class, ethnicity, religion and other axes of inequality, and the experience of a Jewish girl may differ significantly from that of a Jewish boy, or from that of a non-Jewish pupil targeted for associating with Jewish friends. One simple training technique is to change the gender of key figures in a scenario after an initial discussion and see whether this alters how participants read the situation. This kind of “defamiliarisation” can reveal assumptions that otherwise remain invisible.
Finally, the documents recommend portfolio-based assessment. Instead of evaluating learning through one-off tests, they suggest asking teachers and leaders to gather evidence over time: reflective pieces on bias and professional identity, short assignments on forms of antisemitism and the Holocaust, lesson or unit plans, policy drafts, incident-response plans, and records of actual decisions or classroom interventions. This kind of portfolio not only captures growth across the three domains, it also reinforces the idea that addressing antisemitism in schools is an ongoing professional responsibility rather than a topic for a single inset day.
Concrete action points for schools and colleges
At school or college level, the curricula can be translated into a small number of clear priorities. For leadership teams that want to move beyond statements and take antisemitism in schools seriously in practice, the most critical steps can be framed as a short checklist:
- Make a public, written commitment to tackling antisemitism in schools, explicitly naming it in anti-bullying, safeguarding and equality policies.
- Map where you are now: how Jewish life, the Holocaust and issues of prejudice are currently taught, how incidents are recorded, and how confident staff feel.
- Create a cross-phase team that brings together leadership, safeguarding, curriculum leads, pastoral staff and (in vocational settings) programme heads and employer-liaison staff.
- Build a one- or two-year CPD plan around the twelve topic questions instead of relying on isolated training days.
- Align systems with values: ensure that procedures for recording, responding to and learning from antisemitic incidents are clear, consistent and understood by everyone.
Teacher trainers and CPD leads can use a similar checklist to design their programmes:
- Structure modules explicitly around the three domains of self-knowledge, content knowledge and pedagogy or leadership, always with antisemitism in schools as a through-line.
- Use a blend of inputs, scenario work, discussion, reflective writing and micro-teaching or planning tasks.
- Ask participants to build portfolios that document how their thinking and practice change over time.
- Where possible, bring classroom teachers, vocational instructors and leaders into shared sessions so that incidents are examined from multiple perspectives.
Individual teachers, whether in primary, secondary or vocational settings, can take first steps even before a full programme is in place. They can begin to normalise Jewish presence and life in the curriculum by including contemporary Jewish voices, stories and examples rather than mentioning Jews only in connection with the Holocaust. They can pay closer attention to their own language and assumptions and notice when jokes or expressions rely on stereotypes. They can practise challenging generalisations in calm, non-humiliating ways, by asking pupils or apprentices to clarify whom they are talking about and how they know what they claim to know.
They can set aside time to examine memes, videos or posts that recycle classic antisemitic tropes and to discuss why such content spreads and what functions conspiracy theories serve. And they can make a habit of logging incidents of antisemitism in schools and sharing them with colleagues and leadership instead of carrying those situations alone.
Q&A: common concerns about antisemitism in schools
“Aren’t primary pupils too young for this?”
The primary curriculum takes the view that children are already exposed to references to the Holocaust and to antisemitic stereotypes, whether through family conversations, media or online content. The question for schools is therefore not whether these topics appear, but whether adults help pupils to process them safely and thoughtfully. The materials propose age-appropriate approaches that focus on fairness, name-calling, exclusion and simple historical narratives, without graphic detail or sensationalism, and in this way they help schools begin addressing antisemitism in schools from an early age.
“We do not have any Jewish pupils. Is antisemitism really our issue?”
All four curricula treat antisemitism in schools as a global human-rights problem that can exist even where Jewish communities are small or not publicly visible. Antisemitic ideas often play wider social and political roles; they can shape how learners think about power, conspiracy, difference and belonging even when no Jew is physically present. Challenging those ideas strengthens democratic culture and critical thinking for everyone in the institution.
“Is this not just another name for general anti-bullying work?”
Work on antisemitism in schools should be integrated into broader strategies on bullying, racism and discrimination, but it cannot be reduced to them. Antisemitism has specific histories, myths and modern forms, including Holocaust denial and conspiracy theories that cast Jews as an all-powerful hidden force. The curricula therefore devote dedicated space to antisemitism alongside more general work on prejudice and intolerance, and they argue that taking its specific features seriously actually improves, rather than fragments, whole-school equality work.
“Our teachers feel unsure about Judaism, Israel or the Holocaust. Can they cope with this?”
The materials are written for exactly this situation. They provide structured content, clear definitions, suggested sources and practical guidance. Teachers are not expected to become historians or theologians; they are expected to work with research-informed resources, to be honest about what they do not yet know, and to model learning in front of their pupils. The same applies to leaders: the point is not perfection, but a serious, sustained commitment to improving how the institution deals with antisemitism in schools.
“Is this really relevant in vocational education?”
The vocational curriculum answers this question directly. Future mechanics, nurses, police officers, hospitality workers, receptionists, business managers and technicians all work in environments where diversity, discrimination and equality play out in everyday interactions. Antisemitism and other prejudices influence who is hired or promoted, how customers and colleagues are treated, and how institutions understand their legal and ethical duties. Preparing apprentices to recognise and challenge antisemitism in schools and colleges is therefore part of preparing them to be competent, responsible professionals.
“How do we stop the Holocaust becoming the only thing learners associate with Jews?”
All four volumes warn against defining Jewish identity through the Holocaust alone. They suggest that learners should first encounter Jewish life, diversity and belief as they exist across time and place, and only then study the Holocaust as a catastrophic event within a much longer and still continuing history. When teaching about the genocide, professional educators are encouraged to keep the focus on real individuals and communities and to connect this history to wider questions about human rights and democratic responsibility.
“How will we know whether our work is making a difference?”
There is no single metric, but several indicators can be tracked over time: staff and leader self-assessments of confidence and knowledge; evidence of curriculum change in schemes of work, lesson plans or vocational modules; the quality and consistency of incident recording and follow-up; the portfolios emerging from teacher and leadership training; and feedback from pupils, apprentices, parents, employers and community partners. Over time, institutions should expect not only fewer unchallenged stereotypes, but also richer, more thoughtful classroom and workshop discussions and a clearer shared understanding of what antisemitism in schools looks like and why it matters.
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