Disturbing Phenomenon of Antisemitism Amongst Children

Image: Ben Wicks

The Australian Jewish press recently reported disturbing incidents of antisemitic bullying of school children from as young as five years old, in both public and private schools in Victoria and New South Wales. 

The abuse included: 

• taunting with names like, “Jewboy”, “the Jew”, “You cooked-up Jew”, “worthless Jewish rodent”

• being told to “get in my oven” 

• drawings of swastikas and Nazi flags being displayed or thrown at students 

• students performing Nazi salutes 

• the drawing of Nazi doctor Josef Mengele and talk of “dissecting Jews” 

• classmates throwing coins on the ground, and saying, “Look, the Jew will pick it up” 

• a Kippah being ripped from a boy’s head, thrown around “like a frisbee” and stomped on the ground 

• dirt thrown at a boy accompanied by the taunt, “Look, I found your ancestors. I found your grandma” 

• physical abuse 

• bullies following a boy into the bathrooms and commenting on his genitalia 

• a teacher comparing Palestinian terrorism to Jewish resistance during the Holocaust 

• a teacher delegitimising the children’s Israeli identity by instead labelling the boys as “Palestinian”

• cyberbullying and threats of stalking

Incidents of antisemitic hatred amongst such young children surely raise serious questions. Where do young people get such toxic ideas about a tragic event that occurred 75 years ago? 

The social media platform Tik Tok, which particularly targets youngsters, was recently exposed for promoting antisemitic videos. The combined ‘memes’ featured on Tik Tok gained over 6.5 million views. This might go some way to explaining antisemitism amongst children and young people.

More shocking, however,  is the behaviour of the teachers, who one would expect to know better. Teachers at the centre of the school dispute not only minimized the experiences of the students, one teacher erased the identity of the student by referring to him as a Palestinian. The imposition of the Israeli/Palestinian conflict onto individual Jews is one reason why the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance has formulated a definition of antisemitism which highlights the connection between anti-Israel sentiment and antisemitism. 

The IRHA definition affirms the idea that criticism of Israel can be legitimate, just as it is for any other state, however, when it crosses certain boundaries, it becomes antisemitic. 

The IHRA definition states that when criticism of Israel:

• is couched in terms which employ or appeal to negative stereotypes of Jewish people generally;

• or denies the Jewish people their right to self-determination;

• or applies double standards by requiring of Israel standards of behaviour not expected or demanded of any other democratic nation;

• or holds Jews collectively responsible for actions of the State of Israel;

then the line has been crossed. It’s antisemitism.

Indeed, Dane Giraud has argued regarding the IHRA definition, that:

…as an educational tool, it could be an effective map to reorientate people after an onslaught in recent years that’s normalized anti-Jewish tropes to the point some just cannot tell what is and what isn’t antisemitic anymore. Creating a standard to raise awareness as to what the tropes certain groups are using truly represent is a positive if you, like me, view education as being a far better solution to racism than outright banning speech.

It is difficult to know how widespread antisemitic bullying is in New Zealand schools. Anecdotal evidence suggests that similar types of bullying occurs, but it tends not to be publicised. Indeed, HAFANZ was invited to a school last year, to teach on the Holocaust, directly in response to an antisemitic incident. The school, to its credit, acted upon the complaint by organising lessons on the Holocaust. 

This suggests that antisemitism may not be such a problem in New Zealand, however recent history shows that our country is not immune from this global trend in antisemitism; from the proliferation of antisemitic tropes on social media to mail-box drops, periodic bouts of antisemitic graffiti, anti-Israel rhetoric from some politicians, anti-Jewish speeches from certain Muslim groups and individuals to the fact that New Zealand’s only Jewish school requires security guards.

The recently launched ‘Shifting Jewry 2019 (Gen19) survey’ found a significant increase in the number of Jewish New Zealanders concerned about antisemitism. Whereas in the previous such survey in 2008, 84% thought that antisemitism was not a serious issue in New Zealand, the most recent survey showed that 44% of respondents viewed antisemitism as either a “very big” or a “fairly big” problem.

While the global community has in recent times been preoccupied by questions over racism, equal concern over Jew hatred has seldom been evident. Rather, BLM protests have often been accompanied by the destruction of Jewish shops and vandalising of synagogues, along with placards reading “Israel, laboratory of police violence”, “Who is the terrorist?” and mass chants of “Dirty Jews”.

From BLM protests to Australian schools, we see and hear the same messages and tropes, underlining the need for ongoing education. 

Peter Wertheim of The Executive Council of Australian Jewry in addressing the Inquiry into Anti-Vilification Protections conducted by The Legal And Social Issues Committee of the Legislative Assembly Of Victoria pointed to the need for education, and specifically education on antisemitism.

It seems that generic education against racism will not address this problem, because many younger people fail to see antisemitism as a form of racism. They see Jews as part of the privileged, white elite who are immune from racism, a misperception which provides a disturbing insight into the appalling ignorance of history of many younger people.

Wertheim is correct to identify the need for specific education for young people on antisemitism, however, the problem is widespread and affects adults as well.

In October 2019, UN Special Rapporteur on freedom of religion or belief Ahmed Shaheed, also affirmed the need for education and the importance of engaging the younger generation. ‘An increase in antisemitic incidents is being reported internationally - including violence, discrimination and expressions of hostility - and the problem is being boosted by the internet, with online antisemitism hate speech prevalent,’ he said. ‘Antisemitism is the canary in the coalmine of global hatred’.