P F ap re er e o We f th ek e ly Y ea r
Herts felt cry 1,000 stand in solidarity with the hostages p4
Get in Purim s the pir with ou it r festive wh guide P isky 38
Seeing past Israel’s pain John Ware on the Jewish response to starvation in Gaza p27
PROUD VOICE OF OUR COMMUNITY 21 March 2024 • 11 Adar Sheni 5784 • Issue No.1359 •
@JewishNewsUK
Shoah education boosts Muslim attitude to Jews 65% of pupils ‘more positive’ after learning about Holocaust horrors, timely report finds
More than 65 percent of young Muslims feel more positively about Jewish people after taking part in Anne Frank Trust programmes, according to new research published this week, writes Michelle Rosenberg. The ‘Educating Against Prejudice’ report by social psychologists at the University of Kent presents data on nearly 3,000 school pupils – before starting the Anne Frank Trust (AFT) programme, after completing it, and again one year later. The organisation, founded in 1991, empowers nine-to-15-year-olds to challenge all forms of prejudice through the diary of Anne Frank. Its schools programme offers educational outreach in primaries and secondaries across the country. The new research, covering pupils from schools across areas including London, Leeds, Manchester, Cumbria, Birmingham, Newcastle, York, Reading and Dundee, found that the greatest progress against prejudice is towards Jewish people, with 59.8 percent of the young people becoming more positive. Among Muslim young people, the proportion making pro-Jewish progress is even higher – at 65.7 percent. In July 2022, The Anne Frank Trust (AFT) faced criticism for hiring an activist to lead a youth workshop who had called for the death of “Zionist scum”. The anti-prejudice charity said it got it wrong when appointing poet Nasima Begum to facilitate an hourlong storytelling workshop for young AFT ambassadors and launched an investigation. The charity
Pupils at Bradford Girls’ School study Anne Frank
issued a formal acknowledgement of its mistake, introduced a due diligence process for vetting anyone they would work with in the future, formally adopted the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance definition of antisemitism and launched a Restoring Trust plan approved by its Board. The report highlights that 83.8 percent of the young people benefit in their knowledge of prejudice, leading to a “significant improvement” in their social attitudes. In addition, 87.6 percent of programme participants become more positive towards people from at least one of 12 social groups – Black, Christian, disabled, female, Gypsy Roma Traveller, Jewish, LGBTQ, male, Muslim, old, refugee and white. Continued on page 9
BADGE OF DISHONOUR
Members of Britain’s strictly-Orthodox community wore yellow stars at a protest in Westminster against plans to regulate yeshivas. They were criticised for adopting the symbol Jews in occupied Europe were forced to wear by the Nazis. Full story, page 4
JN NOW LEADING JEWISH DIASPORA SOCIAL MEDIA BRAND
A Jewish News TikTok video
Jewish News has more social media followers than any other Jewish news outlet in the Diaspora. More than 302,000 people now follow or subscribe to our channels on Instagram, Tik Tok, Twitter, Facebook and YouTube to get the latest news, videos and opinion from across the UK Jewish community and beyond. While America is home to more than seven million Jews compared to 270,000
in the UK, leading outlets like Tablet magazine (with 276,000 followers, The Forward (202,000) and New York Jewish Week are trailing behind. While here the UK, the Jewish Chronicle has a combined following of 175,000. The biggest difference is on Instagram where Jewish News has grown fourfold over the last six months to 42,000 followers and Tik Tok, where we now have 130,000 followers. This is higher than
any other Jewish media outlet – way ahead of Israel’s YNet in English with its 98,000 followers. It is also higher than Israel-based media giants Times of Israel and Jerusalem Post. Jewish News co-publishers Richard Ferrer and Justin Cohen said: “We’re delighted to be working with the brilliant team at social media agency 8original as our exclusive partners as we continue to build this platform for
future success. The growth of our social media has coincided with a growing awareness about the centrality of social media in reaching young audiences.” Josh Gaventa, content manager at 8original, said: “We are proud to be working with Jewish News to share our community with the world. We have big future plans, including more partnerships to broaden our content and our influence globally. Stay tuned!”