Catholic schools say ‘we won’t be like unis on anti-Semitism’
Catholic schools are vowing not to repeat the mistakes of Australian universities in ‘refusing to confront’ anti-Semitic activity on campuses, amid a renewed focus to ‘quash bigotry through education’.
Catholic schools are vowing not to repeat the mistakes of Australian universities in “refusing to confront” anti-Semitic activity on campus, amid a renewed focus to “quash bigotry through education”.
CEO of Catholic Schools NSW Dallas McInerney said schools had chosen to “walk the other direction” to avoid the “utter failure” seen recently at universities amid an increase in “social-media fuelled” anti-Semitism among school-aged children.
Mr McInerney said Catholic schools had increased the number of shared events and inter-school visits between Jewish schools and Christian and Catholic schools, adding that “education is the best antidote to bigotry”.
“Having connection between the communities, there is an intentional program of work around that where students and staff meet and mingle and get an understanding of each other,” he said.
These opportunities to meet members of the Jewish community extended to parents, who could take part in education programs designed to “address media stereotypes, social media ‘rants’, and subjective coverage of the political situation in Israel”.
Catholic Schools jointly hosted a roundtable this week with the Special Envoy to Combat Anti-Semitism in Australia, Jillian Segal, and representatives from 3000 NSW schools, and the secretary of the Department of Education, Murat Dizdar. It heard that the increased prevalence of anti-Semitic events among school students had largely been fuelled by social media.
With all school sectors present, Mr McInerney said “we wanted to send a powerful message, and by inference, say to the universities, we’re not going to make your mistake”, adding that higher education institutions had been “either incapable of or refusing to confront anti-Semitic activity in their institutions”.
“We just cannot let our schools be the cultural flashpoint that the universities have become,” he said.
Mr McInerney also criticised activist teachers such as those who wore keffiyehs into the classroom, saying “education is not there to indoctrinate, it’s there to enlighten”.
A directive was issued by the Department of Education in early December 2023 directing school leaders to ensure a “neutral position” on the Middle East conflict. The department will reportedly review Mr Dizdar’s directive amid claims it is discriminatory in some schools.
“In the best traditions of intellectual inquiry, that’s how the curriculum should be delivered, how it’s been designed to be delivered. And yes, you can entertain discussions on important issues but it’s not there for indoctrination,” Mr McInerney said.
Last month, the NSW government released its new year 9 and 10 history syllabus, which will contain more explicit content in relation to the Holocaust, including the significance of the Nuremberg trials and the creation of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide in 1948. Students will also study the experiences of Jewish survivors in Australia post-World War II.
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