Published: 14 May 2021
Last updated: 4 March 2024
SUZANNE RUTLAND argues that her research into scripture classes at Australian public schools reveals a different landscape of antisemitism than the findings of Crossroads21
FIRSTLY, I WOULD LIKE to stress that the results of Crossroads21, which demonstrate the very low level of antisemitic sentiments amongst the broad Australian public, are of great value and should be welcomed.
This includes the strong support for banning the swastika, although other scholars and commentators point out the problems in relation to the Hindu use of this symbol, which was appropriated by the Nazis as part of their national, fascist agenda.
At the same time, I don’t think these findings, based on a quantitative survey, tell the whole complex story about antisemitism. The qualitative research into government schools by my Israeli colleague, Professor Zehavit Gross and myself, tells a different story.
From 2009-19, we conducted two qualitative studies in relation to Special Religious Education/Instruction classes in government schools in Sydney and Melbourne, known anecdotally as “scripture”.
In the first of these studies. we were not investigating antisemitism specifically but rather issues relating to Jewish education. We simply asked the students why they wanted to attend scripture classes, which are voluntary. As can sometimes happen with such research, unexpected data emerged, which left us stunned. We thought stereotypical antisemitism was a phenomenon of the past, which the current study also tends to reinforce.
Yet, from primary to high school, the students informed us that they wanted to attend these classes because they were a “safe place”. When we asked for explanations, the students described classical stereotypes being expressed in the playgrounds. They told us:
... they will say: ‘That’s a Jew nose.’ They say something about payot [sidelocks]. Then they have a brit set [circumcision set]. Or they take scissors and go like this [demonstrating scissors cutting with his hands]: ‘do you want another brit? (2009)
…say something racist against Jews, like we killed Jesus (2015)
…I know you’re rich because you’re Jewish (2015)
… Words like a Jew were routinely used as a way of saying you’re stingy. Coins were thrown at Jewish kids, and they were made fun of, and were told to pick up coins (2015)
By far the most common story was the “coin story”. This canard appears to have been passed down in the playground for over 100 years
By far the most common story narrated by the students was the “coin story”. It was told to us by children in both Sydney and Melbourne in all our interviews. As one student commented, “it was just part of our everyday life”. This antisemitic canard appears to have been passed down in the school playground for over 100 years as the accompanying cartoon from The Bulletin, published on December 25, 1897, shows.
One coordinator of the Jewish Student Network in Melbourne noted that in schools that were more multicultural, the antisemitism was “more under the surface”, but it still existed. As a result, she was greeted as a “celebrity” when visiting the schools (2009). Similarly, in 2015 one of our interviewees said:
“I think it’s a lot more prevalent and noticeable when there are less Jews in the public school basically based [on the fact that] that I experienced it very tangibly when I was the only Jewish kid there... And when I was in a school with much more Jews it was a lot more subtle…”
We also found that in high schools anti-Israel attitudes became more common with students being attacked for Israeli policies. One student explained this phenomenon:
“But then also I think as the years went on, it kind of shifted as well. It was less and less about the money… the form of antisemitism changed because it became about Israel and Palestine and Gaza... how we were oppressing Gaza, we all hated Muslims” (2015).
In Crossroads21, the 18-24-year-olds expressed a higher level of sympathy for the Palestinians: 25% compared with 13% of the 45-54 and 17-19% for those aged 55 and older. In comparison, the lowest proportion of this age group indicated agreement with prejudicial statements.
The more recent well-publicised attacks on Jewish children in Melbourne government schools in 2019 and 2020, as well as our study of SRE/RI now published by Springer in our book on Special Religious Education in Australia, have reinforced these earlier findings of religious bullying. We also found that in addition to Jewish students, Muslims, Hindus and even religious Christians do suffer from such bullying.
The claim is consistently made by teachers that bullying attacks were part of normal children’s behaviour, but this is an inadequate response
At the same time, my research in terms of Muslim school children’s attitudes to Jews in government schools found a high level of antisemitic beliefs as well as a veneration of Hitler. Some of the comments were:
… ‘Sir, why do all the teachers hate Hitler. After all, he only killed Jews’.
… In a boy’s school in Western Sydney a teacher told us that their favourite video was: ‘Daniel Pearl’s beheading: I am a Jew, my parents are Jews…’
Evidence also shows that some Jewish parents of the small percentage of Jewish children in government schools with Muslim majorities in Sydney have had to withdraw their children because of antisemitism. Hence, there can be pockets of antisemitism in specific geographical locations.
We found major problems with the issue of antisemitic bullying in the playground. Firstly, students are reluctant to report the incidents for fear of further repercussions. Secondly, there is denial by teachers and principals – which is what happened initially in the Melbourne cases.
It is important to recognise that bullying is first and foremost a violation of human rights.
While there is a general understanding that countering bullying should be an integral part of the school curriculum and teacher education agendas, there is less awareness, and in many cases actual denial or minimization, about the bullying of Jewish children.
The claim is consistently made by principals and teachers that such attacks were just part of normal children’s behaviour in the playground, but this is an inadequate response.
More professional development is required to understand this phenomenon. The Victorian government has also moved to make Holocaust education compulsory. The low level of knowledge of the Holocaust amongst the 18–24-year-olds revealed in the Crossroads21 study demonstrated that this is needed.
Photo: Swastikas daubed on a mural at Bondi Beach in October, 2019 (SBS)
Suzanne Rutland, OAM, is Professor Emeritus in the Department of Hebrew, Biblical & Jewish Studies at the University of Sydney. She is a renowned historian of Australian Jewry and a member of the Australian expert delegation to the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance. Her latest books are Lone Voice: The Wars of Isi Leibler (Hybrid 2021) and Special Religious Education and its Value in Australian to Contemporary Society (Springer 2021), co-authored with Professor Zehavit Gross. In the latter book they include a chapter examining religious bullying in the playground.
