A little while back I asked if people would be interested in a post about antisemitism in the EduTwitter community, and people said yes, so here it is: This has been an issue for a while, and has bubbled over recently and sadly made it into the Jewish press. I want to first frame the discussion in the lived experience of 21st century Jews, and then get into specific things that should or should not be said. Jews in this country are programmed to be worried about antisemitism. We've all experienced it personally (I have had people say antisemitic things to me directly and in person twice in the last three weeks) and, based on our history, feel like we are entitled to worry about it. Most people know something about the Holocaust, but might know less about how the Holocaust was not an isolated event, but the culmination of 1500 years of anti-Jewish hatred and prejudice (which today is called antisemitism). Name a country in the West or the Middle East, and I will tell you which year Jews there experienced pogroms, forced conversions, generalised state-sponsored and informal persecution, expulsions and more. It’s not been pretty, and whilst the Holocaust was worse than any one of those events, it should be seen as a link in a chain. Not the end of a chain, a link in a chain. Antisemitism hasn’t always been obvious. Whilst there are common themes, it takes different guises in different places and at different times. All of these guises are dangerous, and all have resulted in catastrophic persecutions in the past. We are therefore trained to be on high alert, and to work on an assumption that A. if someone says they hate you, assume they mean it, B. if someone says they hate you, assume they also want to kill you, C. if someone wants to kill you, assume that they would kill you given the chance and D. that things can seem fine one day and nobody wants to kill you, and then suddenly become very not fine indeed. So yes, we are sensitive about antisemitism. And we have good reason to be so. In light of the above, let’s look at some things that you should not say. All of the items below are things that (prominent) educators have said within the last four weeks. 1. Comparisons with the Holocaust/Naziism: the Holocaust is a tremendously distinctive historical event. Whilst making historical comparisons is an important part of academic historical discourse, comparing events with the holocaust should be approached with extreme care, and a better knowledge of the specific events than most seem to have. Unfortunately, the term “Nazi” has come to mean “bad person” and Holocaust “evil event,” but whilst the Nazis were bad people and the Holocaust was an evil event, not all bad people come anywhere close to being as bad as the Nazis, and not all evil events come anywhere close to being as evil as the Holocaust. The Holocaust wasn't so long ago, and most Jews in the UK will have grandparents, greatgrandparents or other family members who were touched by it. It is an important part of our identities. I would suggest, as a general rule, don't compare things to the Holocaust. If you think some kind of contemporary event or school policy or whatever is similar to the Holocaust or Naziism, it probably isn't. This doesn't mean that you can't say if you think a thing is bad or evil. But because it is possible to express your worry about things without invoking the Holocaust, this is the route you should take. Broadly, the reasoning here is twofold: A. Objectively, most normal people look at the systematic organised enslavement and murder of six million people and think, "yeah, there's nothing else going on right now that's even close to that." B. Since the Holocaust, antisemites have been denying or downplaying the Holocaust, as part of an explicitly racist agenda that would repeat its events if it could. Therefore, it's best to just not do this. If you think something is really bad and awful, go right ahead and say so, but don't use the Holocaust or Nazis as an analogy. 2. Jews owning the media: this feeds into classic antisemitic tropes about some kind of global agenda of Jews to control the world. The most famous expression of this is The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, a fictitious text designed to demonise Jews, and to whip up hatred. As above, you should not do this because: A. Objectively, it is inaccurate at every level. B. It has been used for centuries, and continues to be used today, to drive real hatred and persecution of random Jewish people, who are normally surprised when they are told that they are extremely powerful people, especially given that we can't even get good quality kosher cheese or people to agree on whether the synagogue should have pews or tables, let alone control the media. Talking about Jews owning the media is a racist trope, and there is no excuse for any educated person to be using it. 3. That calling out antisemitism of types 1 or 2 above, but not simultaneously criticising Israel, is hypocritical: this isn't quite logical (not everybody has to care about everything equally for their opinions to be valid), but it also falls into the most common contemporary trap of letting your dislike of Israel spill over into criticising random Jews. Israel is a country Over There. We UK Jews live in a country Over Here. Please let us talk about domestic antisemitism without also expecting us to talk about Israel. Don't expect us to have an opinion, don't expect us to say anything at all. Because if you do, it's like you're tying us together, which is A. inaccurate and B. prejudicial. After 9/11 and 7/7 a terrible element of discourse generated around expecting British Muslims, who live Over Here, to condemn some event that has nothing to do with them and happened/was planned Over There. This was racist and Islamophobic, so please let's not repeat that. Criticise Israel all you like - fine by me - but unless you're replying directly to something I've said on the topic, leave me out of it. 4. Supporting terrorist groups: this is a pretty easy one. There are terrorist groups. There is a list of them here: gov.uk/government/publicatio…… It is illegal to support them. These are not nice people. They are responsible for death and destruction across the world. Some of them have nothing to do with Jews, some of them want Jews dead. Do not support these groups. Do not show ambiguity about whether or not you support these groups. Ok, that’s four good things to avoid. Finally, some things to expect: If you say that Jews control the media or you downplay the Holocaust, expect to be called out on it, without a huge amount of politeness. If you conflate Israel with Jews in this country, expect to be politely challenged on it. Personally, I have time for “things an educated person could slip up on”, and like to think I would be polite, patient and explanatory in a circumstance like this. If you support a terrorist group, expect to be called out on it, without a huge amount of politeness. We have therefore seen: Antisemitism is real and scary for Jews Comparing events to the holocaust is not wise Never talk about Jews owning or controlling the media Disentangle Jews Over Here from Israel Over There Terrorist groups are not our friends Don’t expect people to be ok with you saying antisemitic things A final point is that I think the above should be pretty clear cut and obvious to people. If you have any questions, provided they are asked in a charitable and open spirit, I'd be happy to answer. DMs open.