Jewish student bullied at school urges Starmer to introduce lessons to combat antisemitism

A 16-year-old Jewish student has called on the government to make anti-semitism classes compulsory after being bullied and harassed at school, including threats to “destroy my house with swastikas”.

Jonathan Frisher, 16, from Cheshire, said education against antisemitism was “needed more than ever” amid an “antisemitism crisis” with a series of attacks against the Jewish community and the stabbing of two British Jews in Golders Green last month.

The teenager’s campaign comes after he encountered antisemitism at his school three years ago.

“There were people hissing at me as if imitating the gas chambers,” he said. Independent, he later added: “I was also threatened with vandalizing my house with swastikas.”

After initial shock from the antisemitic behavior of his fellow students, he asked his school to offer a course on contemporary antisemitism to challenge their ignorance.

“It was a simple lecture focusing specifically on Nazi-based ideologies. How these continue today, how this antisemitism is emerging in the world today, in Britain, how it’s changing,” he said. “I definitely had input into what I thought should be included.

“My school really listened to me,” Mr. Frisher added.

“I found that a lot of this came from ignorance because they didn’t really understand the consequences of it,” he said of his fellow students. “But training really changed that at my school. People apologized to me.”

After seeing how this lesson helped him in school, started a petition Making the courses compulsory throughout the country.

The petition managed to collect 6,000 signatures in three years, but has since skyrocketed to 33,000 with tens of thousands of signatures last week.

The spike follows the attack in Golders Green last month. Esse Suleiman is charged with three counts of attempted murder and one count of possession of a sharp instrument in a public place in connection with the incident.

He allegedly attempted to kill his own friend before trying to kill two Jewish men on the street.

The incident was not far from where four Hatzola ambulances were set on fire in an arson attack in March.

Latest survey conducted by Jewish News It showed that three in five believe schoolchildren should be taught about antisemitism as part of the national curriculum. The government has already made the Holocaust a compulsory subject in the third phase.

Mr. Frisher envisions lessons similar to those he experienced at his school, but added that more could be done to discuss how antisemitism exists outside the context of the Holocaust, its impact on the Jewish community, and the contributions of Jews to society.

“I really saw the power of education in changing people’s anti-Semitic attitudes, which often stem from ignorance,” he said.

Sir Keir Starmer said antisemitism was “a crisis for us all” and “a test of our values” and pledged an extra £1 million in government funding for community safety work and projects aimed at countering antisemitic narratives.

Speaking about the government’s work, Mr Frisher said: “The Prime Minister has literally called this a crisis.

“This is a crisis of antisemitism and even three years ago it was clear that education was needed, it is clear that it is needed now more than ever,” he said. “It’s good that the government is announcing more safety measures and measures to deal with symptoms, but the root causes and wider societal attitudes really need to be questioned because they shouldn’t be normalised.”

He added: “In the long run, if education is not implemented, much of the younger generation will not be able to fully understand antisemitism, and education can really help me and all the Jews I know feel safe and welcome in this country in the future.”

A Department for Education spokesman said: “Antisemitism has no place in our society or schools; every student and every staff member deserves to feel safe, respected and included.

“That’s why he asked the Education Secretary, Sir David Bell, to conduct an independent review into antisemitism in schools and colleges, as well as invest £7 million to tackle antisemitism in education as part of this government’s commitment to promoting social cohesion and eliminating hate in education.

“As part of our broader work to combat extremism and prejudice, we are making Holocaust education a mandatory subject for all students and providing high-quality resources to schools through our Educate Against Hate website, while revitalizing the curriculum to ensure every child learns to identify falsehood and disinformation.”