anti-Semitism
Jew hatred in schools: “We must not accept that”
According to the Federal Government’s Anti-Semitism Commissioner, hatred of Jews is also widespread in schools. photo
© David Indian song / dpa
The government commissioner Felix Klein calls for improvements in teacher training on the subject of anti-Semitism. He also wants compulsory reporting of anti-Semitic incidents in schools.
Federal Education Minister Bettina Stark-Watzinger and the Federal Government’s Anti-Semitism Commissioner, Felix Klein, warn of hatred of Jews in German schools. “Unfortunately, just like in our society, anti-Semitism is also increasingly found in our schools,” said the FDP politician to the newspapers of the Funke media group (Online). “We can’t accept that.”
Stark-Watzinger sees the teachers as particularly responsible. They play “a central role in decisively opposing every form of anti-Semitism and in educating schoolchildren well”.
Klein pointed out that anti-Semitism is also spread in schools. “It does not only come from the students, but also from the teachers. There are sometimes terrible comments – everywhere in the classroom,” he also told the newspapers of the Funke media group. You have to act urgently.
Klein called for a nationwide obligation to report anti-Semitic incidents in schools and improvements in teacher training. Dealing with anti-Semitism and racism must become a mandatory, exam-relevant part of teacher training throughout Germany. And thirdly, you have to take a close look at how schoolbooks explain Judaism.
In some school books, Jewish life is described “as it was 2,000 years ago: boys read the Torah and girls grind grain,” Klein criticized. “There are also devastating pictorial representations, for example in religious books: Jews listening to Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount are portrayed somberly.” This often happens unconsciously, but it shouldn’t get stuck in the children. “Textbooks must make it clear that Jews belong to Germany.”