Although some Christians appropriately and explicitly position Jesus as an ancient Jew and underscore that contemporary Jews are not synonymous with the Pharisees from the Gospels, other Christians decenter teaching and learning about such matters. Furthermore, Jewish society has continued to develop in multifaceted directions after Jesus. Diverse groups of Christians would benefit from learning about twenty-first-century Jewish life. Significant antisemitic rhetoric and threats in the United States continue to come from white Christian nationalist quarters.¹¹ Jewish-Christian dialogue remains important, so that religious leaders and practitioners can build relationships and support each other in times of crisis.

Likewise, Muslims can benefit from learning about antisemitism and dialoguing with Jews. Antisemitic tropes have also come from Muslim quarters both within and beyond the United States. Muslim communities can practice awareness of and care for Jews. Research from 2022 speaks to contours of American Muslim attitudes toward Jews, and how issues like “education, being foreign born, and perceiving discrimination against Muslims” influence perceptions.¹²

In the aftermath of October 7, 2023, Zainab Khan of the Muslim American Leadership Alliance stated: “The way Muslims are being represented in the media has drowned out the voices of Muslim Americans who do stand up against extremism,” specifically Hamas. From her vantage point, “speaking out against antisemitism . . . is a sign of moral clarity. And it’s not Islamophobic to stand up against extremism.”¹³ Muslim-Jewish friendships and interfaith dialogues enable humanization of “the other.”¹⁴ We are living through a time in which these kinds of efforts are needed more than ever.¹⁵

Precisely because dialoguing can be emotionally loaded, remaining connected—even when we disagree and our hearts are broken (sometimes by one another)—can be productive. While some denounce dialogue as normalization,¹⁶ I see it instead as setting the groundwork for present and future coexistence. It is valuable to try to stand together against antisemitism, Islamophobia, and other bigotry. In the vein of supporting coexistence on campus, Brown University put forward a practical program to strengthen its community amid conflict in the Middle East.¹⁷

It is important to teach youth about antisemitism. The young tend to have digital fluency but they do not always have historical knowledge. They would especially benefit from learning about the contours of contemporary antisemitism in online and social media contexts, such as TikTok and Instagram. This is all the more the case when misinformation is being propagated online from many quarters, deflecting attention from the most serious manifestations and sources of antisemitism and pitting people who have historically been allies against one another.

Furthermore, young people would benefit from learning about the Holocaust, Jewish marginalization in the Arab world, and other historical experiences of antisemitism. Although history education differs from education about antisemitism, there is value to helping rising generations learn—in safe and brave environments—about how antisemitism has the capacity to endanger Jewish people and cultures. This is all the more necessary in a time in which ignorance of history is rampant among youth and young adults.¹⁸

Last but not least, it is crucial to attempt to teach avowed antisemites about antisemitism in such a way that they might abandon false perceptions and alternative facts. Deborah Lipstadt offers up an account of Holocaust deniers who prefer to believe a made-up version of history rather than contend with what victims say occurred to them and what their persecutors say they did.¹⁹ Life After Hate is but one example of an organization that gives neo-Nazis a lifeline out of their cult-movement.²⁰

Scholars have pointed to “truth decay”²¹ in contemporary American life; the rise in antisemitism may relate to this phenomenon. Models of education that serve to prevent people from becoming antisemitic in the first place and that enable bigots to reexamine and replace their assumptions need to be supported and proliferated. All of these efforts must include an element of “media literacy,” since people of all ages spend an increasing amount of time in online spaces. Everyone needs to learn how to think critically and react skeptically to stories and claims they are being fed about groups deemed “other.”

Educational praxes can be tailored to other affinity groups based on their lineages and needs.²² Teaching about antisemitism can influence diverse audiences to grow more aware of the humanity of their Jewish counterparts, as well as how to practically honor this humanity.

The Second W: WHAT

What is appropriate content in pedagogy about antisemitism? What material ought to be the so-called text to be studied? Should educators teach facts and data from October 7 and its aftermath? Should they utilize historical antisemitic treatises and propaganda? Should educators in given settings look to Holocaust survivors, relatives, Jewish community members, or artifacts to represent perspectives on historical and contemporary occurrences? What is important for specific learners to ultimately know, feel, and do?

Educational curriculum I have prepared emphasizes antisemitism’s historical roots and manifest contemporary forms. These include Holocaust denial, the centrality of antisemitism in white nationalism, antisemitism in the Arab world, antisemitism on the far left, antisemitism on social media, antisemitism in higher education, and more. The broader educational challenge is how to teach broadly and deeply, such that learners achieve understanding, if not mastery, of the phenomenon.

History must be a part of all educational efforts around antisemitism, because threads of past antisemitism inform current antisemitism. For example, students are often taught the important but partial truth of the United States as a haven for immigrants from diverse places. Less often do they learn that there are all too many examples of rejection of entry to Jewish and other “huddled masses yearning to breathe free.”²³ The 1921 and 1924 Immigration Acts sought to severely limit the number of immigrants coming from certain areas. And though Jews have thrived and continue to thrive in many ways in this country, it is important to help students encounter the significant and ongoing challenges Jews face, including the alarming rise of reported antisemitic incidents over the last decade.²⁴

Emphasis on local histories and phenomena can valuably position antisemitism as “close to home,” while stressing antisemitism’s historical and geographical reach in American society can help students understand how extensive and important it is. Facing History & Ourselves is one respected organization that does this, engendering consciousness and moving people beyond indifference and toward courage and practical action.²⁵

Teaching the content of antisemitism is by no means easy within increasingly politicized educational environments and given the charged nature of the material. There is a challenge, for example, in teaching about stereotypes. It seems important to expose people to historical and contemporary stereotypes, propaganda, and conspiracy theories, but it is not obvious how to ensure that the subtle manipulative power of such artifacts does not unduly influence learners. This is relevant for teaching about the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, Mein Kampf, The Eternal Jew, contemporary Jewish World Domination Narratives, and other primary sources.

Likewise, how do we teach history, not to mention more recent events (like the Pittsburgh shooting), in a way that ultimately empowers learners? How do we effectively teach about both the normalness and uniqueness of Jews, their vulnerability and their resilience, to communicate how Jews understand themselves as a specific community, while simultaneously counteracting notions of exceptionalism?²⁶ Is it possible to expose people to historical and current realities, whatever they may be, without triggering or endangering Jews in the process?

Meaningful education is necessarily risky, and educators can never be sure how students will assimilate and respond to their learning experiences. Nonetheless, primary sources can be intentionally positioned by educators to enable students to encounter history and current realities without unwittingly reinforcing harmful stereotypes.

I do not mean to be overly dark here but rather to recognize the ubiquity of antisemitic narrowness throughout the country. Antisemitism is not the problem of those people over there, which might be easier for us to accept. Rather, it is a culture-wide problem. Because it is so widespread, education and truth-telling ought to be widespread as well, occurring at multiple sites and in imaginative ways. If we embrace the fact that education about antisemitism can occur not only in schools but in places of worship, on basketball courts, and in black box theaters, we all can find a place to learn (and some of us, to teach) about the phenomenon.

The Fifth W: WHY

The talmudic text of Kiddushin 40b underscores the power of timely, socially engaged education that motivates action:

Rabbi Tarfon and the Elders were once reclining in the upper story of Nithza’s house, in Lydda, when this question was raised before them: “Is study greater, or practice?” Rabbi Tarfon answered, saying: “Practice is greater.” Rabbi Akiva answered saying: “Study is great, for it leads to practice.” Then they all answered and said: “Study is greater, for it leads to action.”³²

For anyone aware of history, it is self-evident that it is valuable to teach about antisemitism, since making people—and our society at large—more knowledgeable, empathic, and proactive (along the lines of the ABC’s) can help prevent dangerous slides toward violent authoritarianism. In the early years of Hitler’s rise to power in Germany, many of his fellow citizens thought he was a joke and believed he would never get the support of a majority within such a (supposedly) culturally advanced country. As it turns out, the support of the majority is not needed as long as some people are unwilling to stand up to intolerance, cruelty, and violence.

The stakes could not be higher in the United States now. We are at an inflection point where hate crimes have increased and insulting rhetoric toward certain groups has become normalized—including and especially immigrants, foreigners, non-Christians, and LGBTQ folks. This climb in antisemitism and other incidents of hate would not be happening if we had a populace already well-versed in the ways systemic bigotry causes harm.

We cannot treat education about antisemitism as supplemental, something “nice to do,” if we want to have a functioning democracy. According to Eric Ward, engaging with current antisemitism can contribute to the understanding and gradual demise of white supremacy, such that “we are forced to recognize our own ignorance about the country we thought we lived in.”³³ Another reason to teach about antisemitism is to contribute to the toleration of and thriving of Jews in America, a good thing in and of itself. If Jews feel more accepted, they will more readily contribute to the experience of belonging of others.³⁴

Finally, any teaching should stress that multiple forms and manifestations of antisemitism exist. Evidence suggests that outwardly presenting Jews and those who wear distinctively Jewish items are more likely than other self-identified Jews to attest to high levels of antisemitism in the U.S.³⁹ This means that Orthodox Jewish neighborhoods and institutions have a higher likelihood of being attacked and need our solidarity and protection.

Language or actions that discriminate against Israelis or Israeli-Americans represent another manifestation of antisemitism. As but one example, referring to people living in or from Israel as “settlers” can be a rhetorical means to dehumanize and condone violence against them.⁴⁰

Education for Coexistence

In his 1965 Union Theological Seminary lecture “No Religion Is an Island,” Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel, a mid-twentieth-century immigrant to the United States, introduced himself this way: “I am a brand plucked from the fire of an altar of Satan on which millions of human lives were exterminated.”⁴¹ Given his life experience and his choice to care for his own and other people for the remainder of his life, it seems valuable to understand how he understood discrimination. He said, “To think of man in terms of white, black or yellow is more than an error. It is an eye disease, a cancer of the soul.”⁴²

Heschel did not mean that diversity does not matter, but rather that a humanistic mode of interpersonal relation allows us to see other people for who they are rather than to engage in assumptions about them according to which group they (are imagined to) belong. Heschel and Martin Luther King, Jr. both believed humans are created from a common source and therefore constitute a family. As a result, Heschel renders bigotry as “blasphemy.”

The rabbis of the Haggadah position all times as dark, in the sense that, “in every generation, enemies rise up to destroy us,” even though they maintain hope in the care and capacity of the ultimate source of redemption. Pastor Martin Niemöller’s famous lines, from his 1946 lectures in post-war Germany, are relevant for our thinking about the value of education and our aspirations for solidarity.⁴³ These lines should encourage us to find multiple places and spaces in which to teach about antisemitism and other forms of discrimination at all times.

The events of recent years—and even more so the events of recent months—have been difficult and alarming for many communities in the United States. Even though most Americans may not have to worry about being attacked for their religion, race, ethnicity, or sexuality, history reveals that it does not take a majority for a society to slide down a path toward authoritarianism.

In 1967, Heschel reflected on his childhood learning about the biblical binding of Isaac: “An angel cannot come too late . . . but we, made of flesh and blood, we may come too late.”⁴⁴

To expel the threat of antisemitism from our midst, we need to do better in our efforts to educate ourselves and others. In this collective endeavor, may we not come too late.

Joshua Krug (MDiv ’13) is the Sommerfreund Visiting Professor of Jewish Studies at the Hochschule für Jüdische Studien in Heidelberg, Germany. He has facilitated teen and adult learning and meaning-making in the San Francisco Bay Area, Los Angeles, New York, and Jerusalem, and has served as an administrator and teacher at American Jewish high schools. Read more about him and his work at www.joshuaskrug.com.