The government commissioner Felix Klein calls for improvements in teacher training on the subject of anti-Semitism. He also wants compulsory reporting of antisemitic incidents in schools.
The federal government’s antisemitism commissioner, Felix Klein, has warned against hatred of Jews in German schools and has called for improvements in teacher training. “We find that antisemitism is also spread in schools,” Klein told the newspapers of the Funke media group. “It does not only come from the students, but also from the teachers. Sometimes there are terrible comments, everywhere in the classroom.” You have to act urgently.
The government commissioner called for a nationwide obligation to report antisemitic incidents in schools. Dealing with antisemitism and racism must become a mandatory, exam-relevant component of teacher training throughout Germany become. 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,” he criticized Small. “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.”
