As per other post-genocide projects to address the embedded ideologies that dehumanise and legitimise mass murder and wide spread atrocities, societies must in the current moment look to the de-Zionisation of their institutions.  David Miller discussed why this is needed and how it might look in British schools.

There is a Jewish school in Birmingham, where it seems that less than 20% of the pupils are Jewish.  It was reported some years ago that 80% of the pupils are Muslim. At this school the pupils sing Hatikvah and celebrate the anniversary of the creation of the Zionist entity each year with blue and white bunting. It is reported that “Students learn Hebrew and recite Jewish prayers every morning. They celebrate Jewish festivals, sing Jewish songs, and eat meals cooked in a kosher kitchen.” The school also celebrates both Jewish and “Israeli” festivals.  There are reportedly also “annual visits of groups of former Israeli soldiers on Yom HaZikaron”.   Yom HaZikaron or Memorial day commemorates “fallen” members of the occupation forces.

Here is a description from the Zionist press of the celebration at the school of the establishment of the settler colony from 2018.

On Israel’s Independence Day, which this year fell on April 19, Esther Cohen, King David’s head of religious education, kicked off the ceremony in the school gym with the Modeh Ani morning prayer in Hebrew followed by the Shema Yisrael prayer.

The student body, hand-drawn Israeli flags at their feet, dutifully recited the words. Then they closed their eyes for what Cohen called “tefillah to Hashem,” Hebrew for “prayer to God.” Most of the boys were wearing some sort of head cover — some kippahs and others the larger Muslim skullcap called taqiyah. Many girls also wore hijabs, the Muslim head cover for females.

Cohen showed the students two videos celebrating Israeli innovation and invited them to another tefillah, this time to “thank Hashem that he gave us Israel.” She asked the students to stand up to sing “Hatikvah,” which speaks of “being a free People in Zion, Jerusalem” — almost all of them sang the Hebrew-language anthem by heart.

Finally, the students were given permission to wave the flags after having been told not to fidget with them for the ceremony’s duration.

It was reported in the Zionist press in July this year that only 18 of the pupils are Jewish. According to the Department for Education that is out of a total of 204 pupils in total (data last confirmed 14 August 2024).  Shockingly, that suggests that only 8.8% of the pupils of this ”Jewish” school are Jewish. It’s not surprising that the most recent Ofsted inspection noticed that some of the Muslim parents objected to the propagation of the racist ideology of Zionism in the middle of a genocide. Even the headteacher Steve Langford admitted that while parents were “very supportive” of the school and respected its Jewish ethos “at all times,” some “have struggled with Israel’s special place in Judaism, as the biblical homeland of the Jewish people. Our Yom Ha’atzmaut celebrations took place, although scaled down due to the security situation and the absence of a key staff member.”

There are other areas of declining Jewish population in the UK where the remaining Jewish schools have significant numbers of Protestant, Catholic or Muslim pupils. This is the case at Calderwood School in Glasgow, and at the King David School in Liverpool. At these schools too there is a Zionist ethos – as opposed to a simply Jewish faith ethos.

Calderwood is the only Jewish school in Scotland. It was first set up in 1962 by the Zionist Federation, a strong clue to its orientation. In 1998 it was reported that, “Israel’s 50th anniversary has provided an extra celebration [at the school]. In addition to activities on the day itself, P7 pupils have done a project and prepared a database about Glasgow people, particularly those with associations with Calderwood Lodge, who have gone to live in Israel. The school has put on a special celebratory end-of-term production, which included a traditional Israeli line dance. A “Happy Birthday Israel” banner in Hebrew takes pride of place in the school hall.” In 1998 it was reported that not all students were Jewish: “approximately 10 per cent come from other faiths including Catholic, Protestant and Muslim”.  In 2012 it was reported that “up to two thirds” of the pupils were Jewish. By 2017 the Times of Israel was reporting a further sharp decline in the proportion of Jewish students to 52%.

In Liverpool’s King David High School as of January 2023, it was reported by the Board of Deputies that,  “There are 752 pupils on roll, of whom 11% are Jewish, whilst the majority are Roman Catholic (30%), Church of England (25%) [or] other Christian denominations (18%)”. Five percent of the pupils are Muslim. And yet the school insists in ramming the racist ideology of Zionism down the throats of all the pupils, Jewish and non-Jewish alike. This school has been Zionist since the beginning.  It was here in 1972 that Tony Greenstein made his first steps towards anti-Zionism when he was expelled from the school.  He reports that the school was steeped in the Zionist ethos: “we never even heard the word Palestinian”, he said. Today the ethos of the school encourages “positive identification as being part of the Jewish family, Israel etc.” Students study “Israel in Geography” have “the opportunity for Year 9 pupils to experience living at Kibbutz Lavi, as well as prospective annual trips to Israel”.  There is an Israel club and tutor groups are named after “four regions of Israel”. The school marks “Israel Independence Day” and involves “an Israeli-style breakfast” and “some sort of celebration”.

So, it appears there are Zionist schools in the UK.  Who knew?

Until the genocide in Gaza hardly anyone even noticed that this was the case, never mind said that it was a problem.  But the cruel and unrelenting nature of the genocide has sparked a new and more critical interest in the role of Zionism in the UK.  As a result it has become more widely known that there are hundreds of Zionist organisations in the UK – perhaps as many as 2,000.  As part of this growing interest, it has been observed that some Jewish faith schools are ideologically committed to Zionism as opposed to simply providing a faith environment for pupils. This revelation has been quite shocking and has sparked interest in the pro-Palestine movement.  But how widespread is the problem of Zionist ideology in schools and what can we do about it?

Jewish schools in Britain

There are more than 135 Jewish Schools in the UK.  They represent all strands of Judaism from Reform and modern orthodox through to those associated with one or more of the many variations of “strictly” orthodox Hasidic or other Haredi sects as they are described by the Institute for Jewish Policy Research (IJPR).

Like Calderwood in Glasgow the Zionist Federation was involved in founding a number of Jewish schools including three Primary schools with the Scopus Jewish Education Trust as their foundation body (a subsidiary of the ZF). These include  Mathilda-Marks-Kennedy School in Mill Hill, Rosh Pinah Jewish Primary School in Edgware and Simon Marks Jewish Primary School in Stoke Newington. Today these schools are all under the authority of the United Synagogue along with another 15 primary and six secondary schools including the King David (primary and secondary) in Liverpool  and the King David Schools (primary and secondary) in Manchester. These are all “mainstream” Jewish schools and are all effectively Zionist since – in case you did not know this – the United Synagogue, the largest Synagogue movement in the country, is, likewise, a “Zionist Organisation” as it said on its website up until December 2023 (after which the page was removed).

How does this Zionism manifest itself? The King David Primary in Manchester says explicitly it is a “Zionist school”.

The Simon Marks Primary – named for the Zionist luminary who co-founded and ran Marks and Spencer for many years is too. It is “proud” to celebrate the genocidal ethnic cleansing of the Nakba that led to “Israel’s independence”, stating on their site:  “As we are a Zionist school which supports the state of Israel and are proud to celebrate Israel’s independence. Modern Hebrew is taught all children as a modern foreign language.”

Another United synagogue school is Yavneh College in Borehamwood, which is described by the Board of Deputies of British Jews as having “Zionist aims”. The school advertised itself, as recently as 2021, as ‘a religious Zionist school’ under the heading ‘Me and My Land’. But British children have no right to the so-called ‘land of “Israel”’ and it is racist and genocidal to imagine that they do.

The school boasts of inviting speakers from extremist Zionist groups in year 12 (16-17 years old) to indoctrinate the pupils including a “special programme run in partnership with Mizrachi UK” where they are taught “how to be a positive advocate” for “Israel”. Mizrachi is a religious Zionist group, formally signed up to the Zionist movement. The course leads to an “Israel” “advocacy speaking competition”. In Year 13 (17-18 years old) “students are able to take part in an “Israel” course that focuses specifically on “Israel” on campus.” This involves hearing “campus focused speakers including representatives from UJS and StandWithUs” on “how to be positive advocates for Israel in the next stage of their life”. UJS is, formally, a Zionist organisation for UK students, while StandWithUs in the UK is a subsidiary of StandWithUs in the US, its parent organisation, which historically has provided  most of its funding. StandWithUs in the US is, in turn, a direct asset of the Zionist regime. According to the former Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister, Danny Ayalon, StandWithUs is used to ‘amplify our power’ and ‘for leverage’.

Yet another United Synagogue School is JFS in Kenton. The school says it too is “proud” of its “long standing and deep connections to the State of Israel. For over 40 years the school has offered a bespoke residential programme in Israel to provide an opportunity for students to immerse themselves in life in Israel, improve their Hebrew and enhance their knowledge of Jewish studies, culture and history beyond what is taught at school. … The JFS programme [in Israel] promotes the values and ethos of JFS including the ideals of Zionist Modern Orthodoxy.”  The school names its houses after racist settler colonial ideologues such as Chaim Weizmann, Israel Zangwill and Selig Brodetsky.

The school commemorates Israel “Independence Day” and has an Israel club which has also  invited speakers from Zionist regime asset Stand With Us who “focused on enabling students to distinguish differences between anti-Semitism and valid criticism of the state of Israel.”

Many more examples could be given.

Unsurprisingly students from such schools often emerge as extremist supporters of Zionism, and play leadership roles in the Zionist movement.  Here are two examples from the schools we have mentioned;

Judith Flacks-Leigh is a former pupil of JFS.  She has worked with a dizzying collection of Zionist organisations, including being Head of Communications and Campaigns at the JLC (April 2016–July 2019) and a trustee of the Union of Jewish Students (since August 2020). Between December 2014 and January 2016, Flacks-Leigh served as Communications Officer at the UK’s main pro-Israel lobby group, the Britain Israel Communications and Research Centre (BICOM). Immediately afterwards, she was employed as parliamentary assistant to John Spellar MP, a vice chair of Labour Friends of Israel with strong connections to BICOM. Flacks-Leigh sat on the defence division of the Board of Deputies of British Jews (2018–2021), was on the National Executive Committee of the Jewish Labour Movement (July 2017–Oct 2018) and a volunteer with the pro-Israel American Jewish Committee (2014). She was also Trustee and Director (January 2017–December 2020) at Nisa-Nashim the women’s interfaith initiative aiming to normalise Zionism in the UK Muslim community.

A second example is the 2021-22 head of the Union of Jewish Students, Nina Freedman, attended Yavneh College, was a member of the Federation of Zionist Youth, then the president of the Bristol Jewish Society for a year (2019-20) before becoming president of the National Union of Jewish Students the umbrella body for all university Jewish Societies.  It is, as is now widely recognised, a formally Zionist group affiliated to the World Zionist Organisation. She spent the summer of 2019 running propaganda tours to “Israel” for 13-14-year-old Yavneh College pupils, where she was ‘expected to educate the pupils on a variety of topics, including Judaism, “Israeli” culture and politics and secular and Jewish history.’ After all this she was appointed as a Trustee of the Jewish Leadership Council in October 2024, putting her amongst the leading figures in the British Zionist movement.

The range of Jewish schools

More than 40 (roughly 30%) of Jewish schools in the UK are categorised by the Institute for Jewish Policy Research  as “Mainstream” while the rest are ”strictly orthodox”. According to the IJPR in 2021:

60% of Jewish pupils in Jewish schools are in strictly Orthodox schools; 40% are in non-strictly Orthodox or ‘mainstream’ Jewish schools. This is a … significant shift since the mid-1990s, when the ratio was 55% mainstream to 45% strictly Orthodox.

It is not known how many of the schools are actually professedly Zionist. It appears that all or almost all of the “mainstream” Jewish schools are Zionist.  But what of the “strictly” orthodox schools?

“Strictly orthodox” schools

Of the schools run by specific Hasidic sects there is very little information available about their relationship with Zionism, largely because some eschew the internet for religious reasons and thus few have websites.  We do know, however, that the anti-Zionism which was almost universally shared by Hasidic groups in 1947 has been subject to considerable dilution and indeed reversals.  Some groups like the Bobov (at least four schools), maintain a refusal to serve in the IDF and appear to have been more militant in this than the other large Hasidic sects.

On the other hand, the three largest Hasidic courts: Ger, Belz, and Viznitz, have, in July this year “instructed their members to continue”  to “report at the enlistment centers after receiving pre-draft evaluation orders.” Ger (1), Viznitz (4), and Belz (10) run at least 15 schools between them in the UK. All four of these sects have adherents who live in illegal settlements.  There is even a Bobov cluster in the illegal settlement of Beitar Illit, and the Bobov Rebbe has recently made a “triumphant visit to Israel”.

In addition Ger, Belz and Viznitz are closely associated with two Hasidic parties the Agudat Yisrael, which is half of a coalition known as United Torah Judaism, which is, in turn, part of the current Netanyahu regime. We can safely conclude that all of these schools are influenced by Zionism.

Meanwhile one of the largest groups known as Chabad, has shifted from an anti-Zionist position in the 1920s to become an ultra-Zionist sect which has enthusiastically taken part in the genocide in Gaza.  This sect, which has over 5,000 branches worldwide, more than 150 outposts in the UK and operates around twelve schools in Salford, Bury, Leeds and London.  It is a mark of how well disguised the genocidal ideology of Zionism is that there is so far no outrage over the existence of such schools.

Anti-Zionist schools?

We do know that there are a handful of Satmar Hasidic schools (at least seven).  Satmar is the largest Hasidic sect that still professes to be anti-Zionist. However, after the launch of Al Aqsa Flood one of the leaders of Satmar condemned the participation of the anti-Zionist group Neturei Karta in demonstrations in solidarity with the Palestinians. Neturei Karta appears to take some inspiration from the previous Satmar Rebbe, but there are apparently some contradictions within the Satmar camp. Among the rebukes from Rabbi Yekusiel Yehuda Teitelbaum, one of two Satmar Rebbes, based in Williamsburg, New York,  was: “Unfortunately, we see how far they have strayed from the path… They are walking around the world together with the Arabs, with those who shout without any shame and support the murders, they walk with them in broad daylight with the Shtreimel and the gown and shout together with the haters of Israel and murderers of souls. This is a terrible desecration of the name of heaven, to strengthen murderers in the name of the Holy Torah and in the name of heaven.”  Obviously, the anti-Zionism of this strand of Satmar at least does not extend to supporting the liberation of Palestine or support for Palestinian resistance. So, whether there are any Jewish schools in the UK which are meaningfully anti-Zionist is an open question.

Zionist infiltration in schools more generally

The indoctrination, radicalisation and grooming of Jewish kids at Jewish schools is not the limit of Zionist ambition.  Zionist groups are attempting to infiltrate and co-opt all British schools.  In 2021 the Secretary of State for Education, Right Honourable Gavin Williamson, sent headteachers a letter that schools should not ‘present materials in a politically biased or one-sided way’. Yet he promotes pro-Israel organisations such as Solutions Not Sides, the Community Security Trust (CST) and Forum for Discussion of Israel & Palestine (FODIP) which he claimed are ‘balanced. Each is influenced by Zionism and seeks to normalise Israel and its crimes.

Jewish Activities in Mainstream Schools

There is also something called Jewish Activities in Mainstream Schools, a programme run by the largest Zionist fundraising charity in the UK, the United Jewish Israel Appeal.  According to the UJIA it is run in around 35 English and Scottish schools, mainly in Glasgow, Manchester and London. According to the UJIA they create “JSocs” at these schools (see some of those schools involved on page 6 of the UJIA JAMS brochure). They use these as a vehicle for the radicalisation and indoctrinating of Jewish pupils into the Zionist movement.  They do this by presenting them with opportunities to recruit students into the Zionist movement which are presented as if they are just “Jewish” activities. Among the largest JSocs according to the UJIA are those at Haberdashers’ School (formerly known as Haberdashers’ Aske’s).  As I have previously noted, this school provides a hothouse environment for recruiting lifelong Zionist activists, particularly into the racist Zionist Youth group Habonim Dror.  Amongst alumni were: Matt Lucas, Ashley Blaker (Little Britain), Robert Popper, (commissioned Bo’Selecta and produced two series of Peep Show). David Baddiel and Sacha Baron-Cohen (Ali G, Borat, spokesperson for the ADL).

One can book a session through JAMS via the UJIA website. This takes you to a booking link with various categories of activity including the following with sessions bookable from the organisation indicated

• Israel: Noam, Yachad, Stand With Us UK
• Contemporary Issues: Tribe, Camp Simcha, KeshetUK, Stand With Us UK, JAMI, Habonim Dror, Campaign Against Antisemitism (CAA), LJY Netzer
• Jewish Thought: Kisharon, LJY-Netzer
• Jewish Culture: Kisharon, LJY-Netzer, Habonim Dror, Noam

All of these groups are of course hardline Zionist operations and not simply “Jewish”. The inclusion of Zionist regime assets like Stand With Us and the absurd CAA, is an indication of the political orientation. Groups like Camp Simcha and Kisharon present as serving the Jewish community but are, signed up to the Zionist Jewish Leadership Council. The involvement of Zionist youth groups like Tribe, Noam, LJY-Netzer and Habonim Dror, is a clear signal of the attempt to recruit vulnerable young students to the racist Zionist movement. It is apparent that there are absolutely no non or anti-Zionist Jewish groups being platformed and certainly not a single pro-Palestinian group will get anywhere near these schools. It is an urgent matter to ensure that is done immediately.

This kind of radicalisation activity must be urgently stopped.

DeZionisation

DeZionisation of British schools (whether Jewish Schools or mainstream schools in which there is significant Zionist indoctrination happening) is an urgent priority. We can’t set out a full programme of such activities here for reasons of space and because there has been no full assessment of how bad things are in schools up and down the country.  However, we can point to a few necessary initial steps.

1. “Mainstream” Jewish schools (some 30% of existing Jewish Schools) can and should be invited by Ofsted to propose their own plans for de-Zionising their curriculum.  If those in charge of the schools (the head teacher and the Directors/Trustees of the company/charity the school) are unwilling to undertake this in good faith, then there will have to be wholesale reform of the governance structure of such schools.
2. Jewish Activities in Mainstream Schools.  Obviously the UJIA should be removed from its position of organising Zionist indoctrination sessions in non Jewish schools.  There should be an open invitation to non and anti-Zionist groups to oversee “Jewish Activities”.
3. Close schools run by genocidal sects. All schools run by Chabad (and Bobov, Ger, Belz and Viznitz) should be urgently investigated with a view to proposing measures to ensure that the pupils are no longer radicalised and programmed to support genocide.
4. Carefully assess which of the strictly orthodox schools have the potential to be de-Zionised. The most obvious place to start would be with Satmar schools, but it is by no means certain that the sect would be able to comply with such measures.
5. There must be a wider review of the funding arrangements of Jewish schools.  This would need to include reviews of the charitable purposes of those charities in charge of the schools. The activities of those Zionist family foundations (and others involved) which have been bankrolling both mainstream and strictly orthodox schools and their role in indoctrination into genocide need to be closely examined.

Professor David Miller is a non-resident Senior Research Fellow at the Center for Islam and Global Affairs at Istanbul Zaim University, Turkey. He is a former Professor of Political Sociology at the University of Bristol. He is a broadcaster, writer and investigative researcher; the producer of the weekly show Palestine Declassified on PressTV; and the co-director of Public Interest Investigations, of which spinwatch.org and powerbase.info are projects.

He is on X, Instagram TikTok and Telegram as @Tracking_Power.