Brussels, September 9-11, 2024 — Representatives from five ENCATE member organizations—CEJI, KIgA, Anne Frank Zentrum, Solutions not Sides, and Haver Hungary—met in Brussels as a working group focusing on antisemitism and intersectionality. We have previously conducted online meetings, exploring the interconnectedness of antisemitism with other forms of discrimination. Together, we aim to produce a position paper and guidelines for the network on implementing intersectional theory and principles in our practice of countering antisemitism.

We are grateful to CEJI, our partner in the ongoing Dare Together project, for arranging the insightful study visit and their continuous efforts in developing the position paper and the guidelines.

Understanding Intersectionality and Antisemitism

Intersectionality is the recognition that people experience discrimination in ways shaped by multiple aspects of their identity, such as race, religion, gender, and more. While many organizations fighting discrimination have adopted the intersectionality framework, its application in antisemitism prevention remains largely overlooked. With this in mind, we aim to bridge this gap by developing a pragmatic approach that incorporates the principles of intersectionality for cases of antisemitism.

Conversations with EU Policy Officers

During our study visit, we met with Tanja Florath, Policy Officer from the EU’s Coordination Office on Anti-Racism, and Wester Meijdam, Policy Officer in the Office of the European Commission Coordinator on Combating Antisemitism and Fostering Jewish Life. Our discussions highlighted the nuanced ways the EU addresses different forms of discrimination. While racism, antisemitism, and Islamophobia are all considered significant, the varied terminology and framing—such as referring to Islamophobia as “anti-Muslim hatred”—can lead to feelings among minority groups that their experiences are not equally acknowledged or addressed.

These distinctions may exacerbate tensions and contribute to the perception of unequal treatment, sometimes described as a “victimhood Olympics.” While the EU emphasizes solidarity and intersectionality in its policies, there remains a gap in effectively integrating these principles into both policy frameworks and practical implementation. It is an ongoing process, with much still to be learned to ensure that all forms of discrimination are treated with equal attention and seriousness.

Acknowledging Diversity Within Jewish Communities

What does it mean to counter antisemitism while embracing the diversity within Jewish communities? Jewish identity is not monolithic; it spans different ethnic backgrounds, including Ashkenazi, Sephardi, Mizrahi, Jews of Color, and Black Jews, each with distinct historical experiences. Other identity factors—such as gender, disability, sexual orientation, and socio-economic status—further contribute to this diversity.

Recognizing this complexity is crucial because reductive generalizations are inherently discriminatory and dehumanizing. Treating communities as homogenous erases individuals’ unique experiences and perpetuates stereotypes. Emphasizing diversity within minority groups is not just an acknowledgment of difference; it’s a core strategy in fighting discrimination. By understanding the varied layers of identity, we can create more inclusive approaches that address the full range of experiences within any minority, ensuring that counter-discrimination efforts are relevant and effective for all.

Allyship and Intersectionality

Supporting marginalized communities and vocally advocating for their rights, we highlighted the importance of allyship and raised some questions surrounding it. For instance, what does it take for minorities to support each other when their struggles overlap in complex ways? Does allyship require complete agreement about all of the relevant issues?

Though we don´t have a definitive answer to all of our questions, we concluded that effective allyship requires a shared commitment to human rights, not a perfect agreement. It involves confronting antisemitism while also addressing other forms of discrimination, even amidst tense relations between the Jewish minority and other minorities. True allyship means actively supporting people’s intersectional struggles and untangling how discrimination forms may exacerbate each other.

Moving Forward: Developing Guidelines

So, where do we go from here? The insights we gained during our study visit will be used to create a position paper and practical guidelines for ENCATE members. These will help apply an intersectional approach to tackling antisemitism, ensuring that diversity within Jewish communities is acknowledged and that a broader understanding of interconnected struggles informs efforts to counter antisemitism.

This study visit reinforced the importance of viewing antisemitism within the broader context of discrimination and power dynamics, ensuring a holistic approach to building a more inclusive and just society. We are excited to continue developing these resources and to support our members in this crucial work.

Munich, June 7, 2024 — ENCATE brought together museum workers, educators, researchers, and civil society actors at the Munich Documentation Center for the History of National Socialism to explore Muslim belonging and German remembrance practices. Participants discussed the integration and exploration of the insights from Prof. Esra Özyürek’s book “Subcontractors of Guilt: Holocaust Memory and Muslim Belonging in Postwar Germany” into their educational, scholarly, and advocacy work.

As a part of the workshop, Aya Zarfati from the House of the Wannsee Conference gave input about Holocaust education for diverse groups at the museum. She pointed out that appreciation of diversity through various means, such as language, allows for more inclusion and stronger multiperspectivity. Together with the insights from Özyürek’s book, the participants reflected on how Holocaust remembrance should look in order to be as inclusive as possible. The participants also pointed out that Holocaust remembrance in today’s (post-migration) society is strongly connected to questions of identity and should tackle questions such as the following:

• Who remembers?
• Which groups are addressed in Holocaust remembrance and education?
• And how are these groups addressed?

Even though some educators may believe that Holocaust education and memory site visits can somehow fight antisemitism, particularly the perceived unique form of antisemitism among young Muslims, the answer is not always straightforward. Isolating one specific group is not useful at all. Creating educational and remembrance programs for a specific audience, such as Muslims, can often be reductive and perpetuate stereotypes.

In today’s post-migrant society, remembering and teaching about the Holocaust is relevant for everyone, regardless of their background or family history. It is because it helps us better understand today’s discourses, politics, and society in Germany. At the end of the workshop, it became clear that it is fundamentally essential to have open conversations with each other, rather than talking about each other, to create a future of remembrance for everyone together on an equal footing.

Andrea Schnelzauer, KIgA e.V.

February 23, 2024 — Many controversial and difficult issues have come up in our social discourse in the last few years, from Brexit to identity politics, to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Teachers have a responsibility to provide an impartial and safe space for young people to discuss and learn about such issues and make up their own minds, but this is not an easy task when emotions are running high. The first thing that needs to be acknowledged and addressed before a process of listening and exchanging opinions can be undertaken is the strong negative emotion that impedes this process. 

Various students can be affected by the topic of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict due to a feeling of personal connection in some way. This can include students who are Jewish, Muslim, Christian, politically active (left or right wing), or people from refugee backgrounds, but this list is not exhaustive. Any young person might identify with Palestinians or Israelis (or sometimes both) because of a shared religious identity, a shared sense of experience or suffering, or because Israel-Palestine represents for them something in their wider understanding of the world.

Often, their knowledge and opinions on this issue will be coming from only one perspective, which may be one-dimensional and simplistic. Their main source of information will probably be social media. In order to give them the chance to understand the issue in more breadth and depth and to think for themselves, we educators need to provide them with a values framework and skills such as emotional literacy, active listening, critical thinking, and conflict resolution. There are various tools for teaching these skills available online, and you can find some of them in our, Solution Not Sides’, anti-bullying guide here. The values framework that we use for our discussions at SNS is: “non-violence, equality for all, and the rejection of hatred.”

We also need to build an empathy culture rather than a shame culture in order to counter expressions of hatred between students who hold different views and have different identities. “We care about Palestine-Israel AND each other” is a balance that needs to be embraced by members of the school community, and using process, rather than static language, should be the approach when addressing hate speech. 

We recommend taking each incidence of potential hate speech on a case-by-case basis and applying the three ‘Ds’ -Demonisation, Delegitimisation, and Double- standards. Exploratory conversations to understand what is going on should take into consideration that the content or the attitude could be antisemitic or Islamophobic, or possibly both. Some things are said that are racist in their content, but the attitude behind what was said was not racist. Equally, some things are said that might not be racist when taken at face value, but there is actually an antisemitic or Islamophobic attitude behind what is being said. 

Our Guide to Avoiding Hate Speech can help educators determine on a case-by-case basis whether racism is present, whether intentional or unintentional, so that it can be tackled using an educational and empathetic approach. The Get the Trolls Out website also has some useful tools for recognising racist tropes and stereotypes. Our Anti-Bullying Guide also contains some example scripts for how to intervene sensitively, and our Triggers and Positions Guide can help people to understand why certain phrases and behaviours can be misinterpreted. 

Ultimately, the goal is to create a school culture where people want to avoid hurtful language because they care about one another, rather than avoiding it simply out of fear of punishment, and to ensure that teachers do not promote their political opinions but bring humanisation, diverse narratives, and critical-thinking skills into the classroom so that students can think for themselves. This is the very essence of education.

Sharon Booth