Two six-year-old Jewish students were subjected to verbal abuse after singing Hebrew songs during a cultural day at London’s Church of England state primary school. The incident, which occurred two years ago, was cited in The Telegraph as part of an investigation published on Saturday, spotlighting the dramatic increase in antisemitic incidents in Britain.
The children were called “baby killers” by their classmates after they sang an Israeli song. School authorities reprimanded the parents of the offending children, saying that such behavior was unacceptable.
“I can only assume the children who shouted ‘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 Hamas’s October 7, 2023 invasion and mega-attack on Israel, there has been a noticeable increase in antisemitic incidents throughout Britain, with a record number of 4,298 incidents reported in 2023.
In 2024, there were 3,556 antisemitic incidents reported, while in 2025, there was a 4% increase, with 3,700 incidents reported.
Antisemitic crisis in UK’s education system
The report also highlighted incidents in Norwich, Devon, Epping, and Leeds. Most incidents involved Jewish students being attacked by peers, though in some situations, the students were even attacked by teachers.
The main incidents involving teachers occurred when Jewish students attended classes with pro-Hamas and pro-Palestinian symbols. Parents worried that these symbols 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 antisemitism,” MP Saqib Bhatti, the shadow education minister of the United Kingdom, said about the report.
“I fear this is just the tip of the iceberg. Antisemitism 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 noted that a 13-year-old girl traveling from Hebrew school in northwest 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 mixed-race students being called “N-word Jew,” according to their parents.
“The abuse was horrible. My son is still very upset and scared about what happened,” the student’s mother said. “Schools need to take this issue seriously. They need to tackle it through education.”
In Devon, a student reportedly gave a Nazi salute while saying: “Jews shouldn’t have the same rights as others.” Parents from that school also said that they were worried that the content being viewed in class could “promote a hostile environment against Israel, and easily translate into violence against Jewish people.”
Parents cited an instance in which a teacher said that Palestinians throwing rocks against Israeli soldiers were “fighting against an army committing genocide.”
In Epping, one Jewish parent relayed that a teacher unfairly gave her daughter detention – on her birthday – after the youngster objected to the use of pro-Palestinian symbols in class.
In Leeds, Jewish students said that many textbooks were erasing the connection between Jews and the Land of Israel; in one class, the textbook claimed that “Jesus was born in Palestine.”
“Describing the land as ‘Palestine’ prior to the Bar Kochba 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, 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. “The figures are stark and clear,” she said. “Too many Jewish teachers who raised concerns felt that nothing was done. That is not acceptable.”