Jewish Responses to Antisemitism in Educational Institutions
Four sub-projects focus first on Jewish individuals as visible actors, whether as students and educators, who speak out and organize against antisemitism. Two additional sub-projects examine educational institutions: one looks at the institutional practices, bodies of knowledge, and norms that generate and perpetuate antisemitism; the other analyzes the impact of institutional antisemitism as a transgenerational and biographical category of experience in the lives of Jewish individuals. A fourth sub-project investigates higher education institutions to determine how Jewish education and education fighting against antisemitism can be developed and incorporated into university-level teacher training for religion-related subjects. The resulting research findings are intended to inform evidence-based approaches toward inclusive education, teaching methods, and organizational cultures that are critical of antisemitism. These ideas can be implemented within educational institutions, Jewish educational settings, and youth organizations.
The sub-project “REACT– Jewish Stakeholders” examines processes of self-organization and self-expression among Jews within the institutional settings of schools and higher education. It investigates how they, whether as students or educators, assert agency and take a stand against antisemitism both before and after October 7. The project analyzes Jewish individuals, groups, initiatives, and organizations operating at both local and supra-regional levels, focusing on their individual and collective motivations, patterns of action and understanding, processes of group formation and mobilization, as well as their networks and resources. This research addresses the sustained demographic growth of the Jewish minority since the 1990s, driven by migration, and the related religious, cultural, and social diversification. It also explores the tension between particularity, participation, and belonging for Jewish people in contemporary Germany.
The sub-project “Institutional Antisemitism” takes a praxeological approach – studying human action – to examine how antisemitism is addressed within organizations in early childhood education, the school system, and higher education. The research focuses on institutional practices for dealing with antisemitism, considering Jewish and non-Jewish individuals in their roles as participants, staff members, and professionals or administrators within public educational institutions. The project aims to gain insight into institution-specific procedures, practices, bodies of knowledge, narratives, and dynamics involved in negotiating antisemitism. The sub-project analyzes how antisemitic bodies of knowledge are enacted through institutional practices and identifies the understandings and interpretations of antisemitism that guide interventions in institutional educational settings. Methodologically, the project involves conducting case studies from multiple perspectives in selected daycare centers, schools, and higher education institutions. In addition to generating empirical findings, the sub-project aims to theorize the analytical category of institutional antisemitism.
Sub-project 3, “Antisemitism as Lived Experience,” investigates experiences of antisemitism throughout individuals’ lives within institutional contexts and the effects of these experiences on individuals’ life choices and future prospects. Complementing sub-project 2 (“Institutional Antisemitism”), this project examines antisemitic experiences within Jewish life stories and explores the effects of institutional antisemitism from both biographical and transgenerational perspectives. The goal is to collect and analyze data using qualitative methods and to develop frameworks that facilitate Jewish participation in educational institutions and support those institutions in strengthening protections against discrimination.
Sub-project 4, “Combatting Antisemitism in Higher Education,” examines how education on Jewish life and on fighting antisemitism can be incorporated into university-level teacher training for subjects engaging with religion. This sub-project builds on a significant finding from grade schools: that teachers sometimes overlook, downplay, or even (re)produce antisemitic stereotypes, prejudices, or resentments. This initiative thus investigates how teachers are trained in degree programs in religion-related fields at a group of universities. The project conducts a comparative analysis to determine the extent to which Judaism, contemporary Jewish life, and antisemitism are (or are not) addressed in curricula and teaching practices within the context of legal and educational policy frameworks (needs assessment). This study examines existing and potential approaches through action-oriented and transferable knowledge that – while incorporating Jewish perspectives – aim to strengthen teacher training on how knowledge is disseminated about historical and contemporary forms of antisemitism and how to address the issue.
- Dr. Karen Körber (Institut für die Geschichte der deutschen Juden)
- Susanna Kunze, M.A. (Institut für die Geschichte der deutschen Juden)
- Dr. Anna Körs (Universität Hamburg, Akademie der Weltreligionen)
- Dr. Christine Chiriac (Universität Hamburg, Akademie der Weltreligionen)
- Prof. Dr. Friederike Lorenz-Sinai (Universität Tübingen, Institut für Rechtsextremismusforschung)
- Dr. Hanne Balzer (Universität Tübingen, Institut für Rechtsextremismusforschung)
- Dipl.-Psych. Marina Chernivsky (Kompetenzzentrum antisemitismuskritische Bildung und Forschung)
- Sophia Hoppe, M.A. (Kompetenzzentrum antisemitismuskritische Bildung und Forschung)
Kontakt
Dr. Karen Körber
Institut für die Geschichte der deutschen Juden
Prof. Dr. Friederike Lorenz-Sinai
Universität Tübingen, Institut für Rechtsextremismusforschung
Dipl.-Psych. Marina Chernivsky
Kompetenzzentrum antisemitismuskritische Bildung und Forschung (KOAS)
Dr. Anna Körs
Universität Hamburg, Akademie der Weltreligionen
