Two six-year-old Jewish students were subjected to verbal abuse after singing songs in Hebrew during a cultural day in the Church of England state primary school in London, UK, The Telegraph reported as part of an investigation published on Saturday, diving into Britain’s growing antisemitism.
The children were called “baby killers” by their classmates after they decided to sing an Israeli song in Hebrew, with the school telling the parents of the children who said the insults that the behavior was unacceptable.
“I can only assume the children who shouted out ‘baby killers’, who were slightly older, picked up their attitude in the home or wider community. They are only children themselves,” said the mother of the girl, who is now eight, to The Telegraph.
According to the report, since the Hamas October 7 attack in 2023, there has been an important increase in antisemitism in Britain, with record numbers recorded in 2023, with 4,298 incidents reported.
In 2024, the total reported amount of antisemitic incidents was 3,556, while in 2025, there was a 4% increase with 3,700 incidents in a year.
Antisemitic crisis in UK’s education system
The report also highlighted incidents in Norwich, Devon, Epping, and Leeds, with all of them centering around Jewish students being attacked by peers and, in some situations, even by teachers.
The main incidents regarding teachers happen when they decide to attend class with pro-Hamas and pro-Palestinian symbols, with parents worried that these actions might create “a hostile atmosphere for Jewish students.”
“These distressing reports should worry us all. Our education system should be a safe space for all our children, irrespective of their faith. As a society, we must not accept any instance of racism, and our Jewish children must be allowed to go to school free from anti-Semitism,” Saqib Bhatti MP, the shadow education minister of the United Kingdom, said about the report.
“I fear this is just the tip of the iceberg. antsemitism has spread throughout our education system at an alarming rate. We must not allow Jewish children to be targeted for such horrendous abuse. The Education Secretary should make clear to all headteachers that enough is enough,” he added.
Another incident highlighted by the report said that a 13-year-old girl who was traveling from Hebrew school in north-west London was targeted by a group of 11-year-olds who were banging on the bus and shouting “f**k Israel.”
In Norwich, students faced antisemitic insults during a soccer match against another school, both from the players and the people attending the game, with a mix-race students being called “N-word Jew,” according to his parents.
“The abuse was horrible. My son is still very upset and scared about what happened,” the mother of that student told the report. “Schools need to take this issue seriously. They need to tackle it through education,” she added.
In Devon, a student reportedly performed a Nazi salute and said, “Jews shouldn’t have the same rights as others”.
In the school where that event took place, parents were worried that the content being viewed in class could “promote a hostile environment against Israel, and easily translate into violence against Jewish people”.
One example cited by the parents said that a teacher called a group of Palestinians throwing rocks against Israeli soldiers “fighting against an army committing genocide”.
In Epping, one parent claimed a teacher imposed unfair punishments against her daughter after being called out for using pro-Palestinian symbols in class, with the teacher giving the Jewish student detention during her birthday.
And in Leeds, Jewish students said that many textbooks were erasing the connection between Jews and the land of Israel, with the content of one class claiming that “Jesus was born in Palestine.”
“Describing the land as ‘Palestine’ prior to the Bar Kokhba revolt is not only historically inaccurate but has the compounding effect of suppressing Jewish national identity long before the Romans officially imposed this name on the province of Judea,” UK Lawyers for Israel (UKLFI), a legal lobby group, told The Telegraph in response to the incident.
Bridget Phillipson, the UK Education Secretary, launched a review of antisemitism in schools and colleges after the reports, stating that “the figures are stark and clear. Too many Jewish teachers who raised concerns felt that nothing was done. That is not acceptable.”