Strategies for the Education Sector: Understanding, Responding to, and Preventing Antisemitism
Antisemitism in educational settings has emerged as a serious concern, with reports of harassment, exclusion, threats, and the targeting of Jewish students and – in university contexts – organizations such as Hillel International and Chabad. According to American Jewish Committee’s State of Antisemitism in America 2025 Report, 34% of American Jewish college students say they have avoided wearing or displaying items that identify them as Jewish due to fears of antisemitism, and 42% report having experienced antisemitism on campus during their time as students. These findings underscore the need for clear policies, consistent action, and sustained institutional commitment to ensuring that all students can learn and participate fully in student life. While much attention has been paid to antisemitism on college campuses, the issue also impacts K-12 institutions.
The education sector is central to confronting antisemitism because school is a near-universal experience, touching every member of our society. When antisemitism is ignored or misunderstood in schools and universities, it not only harms Jewish students—it undermines the core educational mission of fostering critical thinking, intellectual clarity and rigor, and respect for diverse perspectives. Addressing antisemitism therefore requires both responding to incidents and building environments where Jewish life, history, and identity are understood as integral parts of the broader educational experience.
AJC’s Priority Recommendations for the Education Sector Are to Build Educational Environments That Actively Prevent Antisemitism by:
- Incorporating understanding of Jewish identity and history, and recognition of all forms of antisemitism into school programming and policies.
- Embedding and foregrounding educational values of critical thinking, fact-based inquiry, viewpoint diversity, and dialogue across difference.
- Enforcing clear codes of conduct and nondiscrimination requirements protecting everyone in the educational institution, including Jewish students and staff.
In 2024, AJC established the Center for Education Advocacy to guide educational institutions toward strengthening policies and practices related to antisemitism. Greater detail can be found on AJC’s Center for Education Advocacy webpage. The Center’s Action Plans offer tailored recommendations for different types of educational institutions. The recommendations offered below are not exhaustive.
Understanding Antisemitism
Build shared knowledge, clarity, and awareness across the institution.
- Understand the legal framework: Federal law provides a framework to address discrimination in education. The U.S. Department of Education has affirmed that Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 protects students, staff, and faculty from antisemitic discrimination based on actual or perceived shared ancestry or ethnic characteristics, or citizenship or residency in Israel. The U.S. Department of Justice has authority under Title IV of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to respond to certain complaints of religious discrimination in public schools and colleges. Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 requires educational institutions to provide a workplace free from discrimination based on religion, race, color, or national origin.
- Assess the school’s climate regularly: Conduct school-wide climate surveys to better understand the experiences of all students, including Jewish students, and identify patterns of discrimination, exclusion, and antisemitism.
Best Practice: Re-examine Methods for Research on Campus Climate
The Brandeis Cohen Center for Modern Jewish Studies Antisemitism Research Program applies rigorous, peer-reviewed social science research to understand Jewish student experiences and campus climate at a national scale. Rather than relying on anecdotes or reactive responses, the research uses large comparative datasets, student-centered surveys, and nuanced analysis of identity, belonging, and bias to inform policy and programming. This research can be valuable for all educational institutions examining school culture related to Jewish and other minority students to create more effective, proactive, and credible strategies for supporting students across all communities.
- Provide high quality training for educators and staff: Provide faculty, administrators, and staff with regular education on recognizing and responding to antisemitism, including contemporary manifestations and how antisemitism may appear in classrooms, student life, and online spaces.
- Create opportunities for impactful education about Jews, Jewish identity, and antisemitism: Ensure leadership, staff, and faculty have access to education on antisemitism that reflects widely recognized scholarship and includes discussion of contemporary manifestations. Instruction should teach Jewish history and identity in full context—presenting Jews as a living, diverse people with deep historical roots—while explaining the specific origins and evolution of antisemitism. Connect students with Jewish communities through visits, guest lectures, community projects, oral histories, virtual tours, and local memory projects, so Jewish life is understood as tangible rather than abstract. Teaching about Jews and Jewish identity in this way helps students understand the specific harm antisemitism causes and its impact on the Jewish community and beyond.
Best Practice: Utilize Educational Resources and Research in K-12 Spaces
Impactful research, such as RAND’s study on Public School Instruction on the Holocaust and Topics Related to Jewish People, offers critical information about how curriculum about Jews is developed and taught in K-12 spaces. Relying on trusted and responsible curriculum providers that have specific expertise in curriculum about the Jewish people in all its rich diversity and long history, such as Institute for Curriculum Services, ConnectED, Facing History and Ourselves, JIMENA (Jews Indigenous to the Middle East and North Africa), and the Weitzman Museum ensure that education about Jews meets the highest educational standards.
American educators can also utilize resources from abroad. UNESCO—a United Nations agency that promotes international cooperation in education, science, and culture to advance peace and mutual understanding—provides K-12 educators with tools to foster understanding and inclusion. UNESCO’s report: The Representation of Jews, Judaism, and Antisemitism in School Textbooks and Curricula in Europe recommends:
- presenting Jewish history as an integral part of European history
- moving beyond portraying Jewish people only as victims
- incorporating Jewish voices across historical periods
- ensuring visual materials do not reinforce or reproduce antisemitic stereotypes
Surveys like UNESCO’s Addressing Antisemitism Through Education: A Survey of Teachers’ Knowledge and Understanding affirm that well-trained teachers are key to helping students recognize bias, develop critical thinking, and build respect for diverse communities.
- Clarify policies: Ensure clear understanding of institutional rules governing discrimination, harassment, bias, and free speech. In higher education settings, provide clarity around academic freedom and open discussion about how antisemitism fits within those frameworks.
Responding to Antisemitism
Act promptly, consistently, and fairly when antisemitism occurs or risks escalate.
- Take consistent, principled action against antisemitism: Signal clearly and publicly that antisemitism is not tolerated and that when it occurs, it is addressed judiciously under the same policies that apply to all discriminatory speech or conduct violations. Speak out against antisemitic harassment occurring through digital campus communities, anonymous platforms, and student social networks. Incorporate Jewish student perspectives into response planning, and implement measures to restore safety and trust.
Best Practice: Publicly Condemn Antisemitism to Support the Jewish Community
Following heightened tensions after the October 7, 2023 Hamas attacks on Israelis, Washington University in St. Louis publicly condemned antisemitism, reviewed and enforced campus policies on protests, and facilitated transfers to Wash U. for students from other colleges seeking a safer campus environment.
- Prioritize physical security: Anticipate and plan for security needs for Jewish programs and during periods of increased risk—such as elections, Jewish holidays, or conflict in the Middle East—to help ensure the physical safety of Jewish students, faculty, and staff.
- Establish accessible reporting systems: Ensure students, faculty, and staff can report antisemitic incidents through clear, accessible channels, and that institutions track patterns of incidents to inform responses.
- Appoint a Title VI Coordinator: Institutions of higher education and K-12 public schools should appoint a dedicated Title VI coordinator to oversee complaints of discrimination, including antisemitism, ensuring consistent investigation, compliance with federal law, and support for affected students. While K-12 independent schools are not bound by Title VI, they should appoint a designated staff member to oversee these issues.
- Amend nondiscrimination rules: Review and update institutional policies and protocols as needed to ensure they adequately address contemporary forms and manifestations of antisemitism.
Best Practice: Protect Against Antisemitic Harassment
New York University strengthened its non-discrimination policies to clarify protections against antisemitic harassment, created a Title VI coordinator role to oversee complaints related to shared ancestry discrimination, and expanded mandatory antisemitism education and programming. NYU also updated their official guidance on student conduct to include uses of “Zionism,” under certain conditions, as a term of derision subject to disciplinary consequences.
- Provide support: Offer counseling and support services to those impacted by antisemitism.
- Educator training: Provide faculty and staff with training and guidance for addressing antisemitism, including in student speech or digital spaces, so they can respond confidently, consistently, and in ways that support both student safety and academic inquiry.
Preventing Antisemitism
Reduce long-term risk by strengthening institutional culture and systems.
- Build resilient, inclusive academic and student life cultures: Sustained progress requires a long-term commitment to improving both the academic environment and the broader student life experience. This includes fostering a rigorous, pluralistic research-driven intellectual culture and a climate that supports and sustains difference.
- Strengthen safety planning for Jewish life, and ensure institutions are prepared to address evolving risks—including those connected to online environments and transnational threats targeting Jewish and Israeli communities.
- Enhance transparency of foreign funding: Transparency around foreign funding helps maintain academic integrity, public trust, and national security. Clear disclosure of the sources and conditions of international contributions helps prevent conflicts of interest, undue influence, and potential misuse of sensitive knowledge. Clarity and transparency help institutions safeguard their independence while benefiting from global collaboration.
- Foster understanding of Judaism and Jewish culture: Incorporate major Jewish holidays and, where possible, Jewish American Heritage Month into the annual school calendar, and ensure that cultural programming also includes Jewish voices who can speak to the variety and complexity of Jewish life, culture, and experience.
Best Practice: Create and Utilize Advisory Committees
Stanford University addresses antisemitism through a Jewish Advisory Committee and an Antisemitism, Bias, and Communication Subcommittee, which advise on policies, support Jewish students, and guide initiatives like calendar accommodations and kosher dining to foster inclusion and combat bias.
- Embed antisemitism education across disciplines: In the higher education space, antisemitism education should be integrated into the study of technology, security, human rights, and democracy, including its spread online and links to extremism, misinformation, and societal polarization. Universities should support research and teaching on social media ecosystems, AI literacy, and digital hate to help increase understanding of how antisemitic narratives evolve and circulate in contemporary information environments. K-12 schools should include education about Jewish history, Jewish identity, the history and modern manifestations of antisemitism, and the history of Israel and its relationship with the Arab world in developmentally appropriate ways that spiral through the curriculum. They should also teach digital citizenship, including responsible use and critical analysis of social media and AI, incorporating understanding how hate and extremism can be embedded in online ecosystems. Embedding antisemitism education across disciplines ensures students and researchers recognize and understand antisemitism in its broader societal, political, and technological contexts.
Best Practice: Facilitate Civic Discourse
Vanderbilt has expanded efforts to promote civil discourse and respectful dialogue on campus by updating its freedom of expression and use‑of‑space policies to balance open speech with safety and equitable access, and by supporting programs like Dialogue Vanderbilt, which bring students together across differences to discuss contentious issues constructively rather than through conflict.
- Partner with Jewish organizations: Work with Jewish organizational partners such as Hillel, Chabad, Jewish Federations, and AJC’s regional offices to strengthen understanding of and support for Jewish life.
Key Resources
For detailed, institution-specific guidance, see:
- Public K–12 Administrators: Action Plan for Public School Administrators
- Independent/Private Schools: Action Plan for Independent School Administrators
- Higher Education/Universities: Action Plan for University Administrators
For additional resources, see:
- Top Resources for Education Administrators and Faculty and Students and Parents: AJC Campus Hub
- AJC’s Interactive Glossary of Antisemitic Terms and Tropes: Translate Hate
- AJC’s State of Antisemitism in America Reports
- A Short Guide to Jewish Religion, Culture, Holiday Observances and 5-Year Calendar
UNESCO resources (for K-12 schools):
- Strategies to counter antisemitism: a handbook for educators
- The representation of Jews, Judaism, and antisemitism in school textbooks and curricula in Europe
- Addressing antisemitism through education: a survey of teachers’ knowledge and understanding
