Addressing Anti-Semitism through Education: Teaching Aids

Abstract

In recent years, violent and deadly anti-Semitic attacks have spread fear throughout Jewish communities in the OSCE region. All too often, Jewish people are forced to contend with physical assaults, the destruction or vandalism of Jewish cemeteries, synagogues and community buildings and online or offline anti-Semitic hate speech and harassment. While the need for international efforts to combat anti-Semitism is increasingly urgent, it is educators who have the power to address this pressing social challenge by instilling the values of mutual respect and equality in their students. Based on research by the University of Derby into the most prevalent challenges teachers face in educating about anti-Semitism in the OSCE region, ODIHR, within its multi-year German funded project “Turning Words into Action to Address Anti-Semitism”, has produced ten specialized teaching aids to support teachers to address anti-Semitism.

They offer guidance for responding effectively to challenging questions or behaviour from students,provide brief but essential background information on contemporary manifestations, and signpost other useful resources for further reading. The overall learning approach focuses on promoting human rights, tolerance and critical thinking. This set of teaching aids complements other resources produced by ODIHR such as the Addressing Anti-Semitism through Education: Guidelines for Policymakers, Addressing Anti-Semitism inSchools: Training Curricula and Addressing Anti-Semitism in Schools: Educational Videos.ODIHR would like to acknowledge the work of the organization CEJI – A Jewish Contribution to an Inclusive Europe, who has supported the development and drafting of these teaching aids.