The National Education Union (NEU) has sent out a survey looking at Jew-hatred in schools to 10,000 teachers across the country in order to “inform [its] response” to public policy analyst Sir David Bell’s inquiry into antisemitism.
The inquiry, which was launched in April, is calling for students, parents, teachers and others who may have experienced or witnessed antisemitism in education to come forward and share their experience.
It follows the release of CST data showed a rise in antisemitism in education, with the charity recording 204 school-related antisemitic incidents last year, double the levels typically seen before 2023.
An NEU spokesperson told the JC: “The NEU carried out a survey during May to inform our response to Sir David Bell’s inquiry into antisemitism in schools and colleges.
“To put these questions to members, we used our regular survey panel, which contains 10,000 teachers and leaders working in state schools in England.
“The members on the NEU research panel receive short surveys on a monthly basis, and the panel contains a representative range of NEU members.
“We draw on the members’ panel to develop our policy recommendations to the government and the Department of Education on workplace and education policy issues.
“Once responses are collected, we re-weight them in line with the characteristics of teachers and leaders in English state schools as reported in the [department’s] School Workforce survey.”
They continued: “The NEU has met with Sir David Bell as part of his current inquiry and made recommendations about what support would help schools address the concerning rise in levels of antisemitism. Antisemitism and all forms of racism have no place in our society or our schools.”
The survey asked five questions calling for witness accounts of antisemitic incidents and details on how schools dealt with them, as well as what training is in place for staff.
However, one Jewish NEU member of ten years, speaking to the JC on condition of anonymity, said: “In the union, there is always the quite tongue-in-cheek ‘we stand against antisemitism’, but when members approach them and say, ‘this is antisemtic’, they walk themselves back a bit.
“For that reason, I am not even sure how they are going to use this data.”
“I am an optimist, however, and I would like to think they are sending this in response to the ‘parents against antisemitism’ report that came out earlier this week, as well as the recent attacks on the Jewish community.
“But I am a bit cynical, and I do know that the government is trying to collect data on antisemitism, and can’t help but think the NEU is simply trying to cover their backs and say, ‘look - we do ask about it’.
"Whatever the reason, I do hope it opens their eyes a little bit more because there aren’t many Jews who are willing to speak up at union events because of lack of support due to our small numbers.
“I hope it will make the NEU hear things that it wouldn't otherwise hear, and I hope that it listens.”
Another long-term NEU member, who works at a school in South London and who has opted out of the union’s text surveys, said she doubted the validity of the results.
“The problem is that the kind of members who will be opted in to the weekly surveys are the people who are mega-politically unionised - the people who love all that political organisation drama.
“Collecting opinions in this manner means the NEU is far more likely to hit the far-left because most of the moderate members unsubscribe from that. After all, who wants another text survey to deal with every week?
“The survey is going straight to the left-wing radicals and obviously they are going to say that antisemitism isn’t a problem in schools because it fits their anti-Israel agenda.”
She continued: “The union always wants to be seen as active in things, but I think the union has not helped the amount of antisemitism in schools because they have been infiltrating schools with the new form of antisemitism.
“The NEU is into combatting antisemitism if it is Second World War antisemitism, the old someone calling you a k*** or something - they are happy to deal with that. They are not good - in fact, the opposite – they cause the new antisemitism, which is related to the hatred of the Jewish state.”
The JC also spoke to a Jewish teacher who has left the NEU altogether because of its pro-Palestinian stance, but wanted to express her concerns on the survey.
She said: “When your NEU rep says to you she has been told by the NEU that Israel doesn't exist, and when she says she was shown a map by other members which did not have the country on, and when members tell you that Israel is occupied Palestinian land, then it is part of the problem of antisemitism.
“Sending a survey out won’t help anything when the NEU is part of what is causing the antisemitism that Jewish teachers are facing in schools.”
Recounting the moment she decided it was time to leave the union, she said: “I was on the plane coming back from Israel around the time of October 7, and I saw that the NEU was giving money to Palestine.
"I didn’t want my membership fees to go there when I didn’t know where the money was going to end up.”
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