More than three quarters of surveyed teachers in the European Union (EU) have encountered antisemitic incidents in their classroom, according to a report published by UNESCO with the support of the European Commission on the occasion of Holocaust Remembrance Day. The survey also shows alarmingly high levels of Holocaust denial and physical violence against Jewish students
By Creatives Unite NewsroomA UNESCO survey highlights an alarming presence of antisemitism in European classrooms, with 78% of teachers reporting at least one incident among students. Drawing from 2,030 teachers from 23 European Union countries, UNESCO’s new report, “Addressing antisemitism through education: a survey of teachers' knowledge and understanding”, provides the first European study of trends in teachers’ perceptions and experiences of antisemitism in the classroom. The data shows that more than three-quarters of surveyed teachers have encountered at least one antisemitic incident between students, while over a quarter of them (27%) had witnessed nine or more such incidents. The study was released on January 27, 2026, International Holocaust Remembrance Day.
61% of surveyed teachers reported encountering Holocaust denial and distortion among their students, with 1 in 10 (11%) encountering this frequently. 1 in 10 reported witnessing physical attacks on Jewish students at least once, while almost half of them (44%) encountered students doing Nazi gestures or drawing or wearing Nazi symbols. A majority of surveyed teachers (61%) reported that they were unable to answer students’ questions about antisemitism at least once or twice. And 42% of them reported having encountered other teachers being antisemitic. Furthermore, 27.4% of teachers witnessed nine or more such incidents. On average, teachers encountered 5 to 6 antisemitic incidents between students at their school
Despite this situation, 70% of teachers reported that they had received no professional training on how to recognise and address contemporary antisemitism, and less than a third had participated in training courses about antisemitism offered by specialist organisations from outside their school. Shockingly, only 15.4% of teachers correctly identified all presented examples of antisemitic actions or attitudes as being antisemitic.
The survey was developed by the UCL Centre for Holocaust Education and conducted between August 2024 and May 2025. It was disseminated by Public First, with the support of European ministries of education. UNESCO, partnering with the European Commission and OSCE, has trained over 1,300 educators since 2023 and expanded programs to all EU states in 2025, including handbooks, online courses, and resources on AI-related challenges.
Here is a list of UNESCO resources to counter antisemitism in the classroom
