Missing the point on fighting antisemitism: Swedish edition ~ Elder Of Ziyon

Friday, May 16, 2025

Missing the point on fighting antisemitism: Swedish edition

The [Swedish] Government is launching a national strategy for the first time to combat anti-Semitism and strengthen Jewish life.

"To be able to live an open and free Jewish life in Sweden should be a matter of course, but many Jews describe anti-Semitism today as the single largest obstacle," says Minister of Culture Parisa Liljestrand (M) at a press conference.

Since Hamas' large-scale terrorist attack on Israel and Israel's subsequent war, anti-Semitism has flared up in Sweden.

Jakob Forssmed calls the development unacceptable.

"We have not succeeded well enough," he says.

"More efforts are needed for Jews to feel safe and be open about their identity without being exposed to hate, threats, and violence."

The ten-year strategy includes three central parts: more knowledge and education about Jewish life, an investment in cultural heritage, and efforts to increase security.

I have no problem with increasing security and investing in cultural heritage, but the plan itself does not seem to address the roots of the problem.

It wants to add lessons about antisemitism and the Holocaust in schools. And it mentions that there is left-wing, right-wing and Islamist antisemitism. But it seems to treat the education of all of them the same.

Right-wing antisemites learn about the Holocaust and think , great job, Hitler! Islamists learn about the Holocaust and say, this is nothing compared to what Palestinians go through. Left wing antisemites learn about the Holocaust and say, see? Israel has become the new Nazis and it is even more important to destroy Israel!

Fighting antisemitism with education is a multi-faceted issue where the target is at least as important as the information. Some of what they plan to do in laying the groundwork is important - research and surveys to define the problem better, which hopefully will inform the specific methods.

This is not only a Swedish issue. I have yet to see ideas to combat antisemitism that have been shown to be effective over the long term, although some initiatives seem to have made short term positive effects (and a UNESCO anti-bias program found that the programs actually increased, in some countries, the students' stereotyping of Jews!.)

Everyone agrees that antisemitism is a problem, but there is surprisingly little research on what methods can combat it. Just throwing the word "education" and "Holocaust education" at the issue seems to be a default knee-jerk response but not too many people seem to be willing to go through the effort to find out what works.