To stop my son from presenting as Jewish at school

[Wonderberry]

I really wish this wasn't the case.

My son wants to wear his kippah (skullcap) at school. This is entirely his choice, and something that he has chosen to start wearing recently. He just wants to express his religious and cultural background.

Unfortunately, I don't feel like he would be safe to do so. I hate that this is where we are at currently in the UK, but I know it is the reality. He goes to a community school in London, and doesn't understand why he cannot wear his kippah at school. On cultural days, he also cannot share his culture either.

This makes me so sad. I feel very protective of our Jewish community locally.

I wish UK banned displays of all religious symbols in public non religious schools, same as France did.

Unfortunately, that hasn't stopped hatred. There has also been an increase in antisemitism there.

Do you think that is in any way the responsibility of this boy? I suspect that he does know what's going on, unless he lives under a rock.

Should he feel fearful lest his heritage becomes known?

It’s a horrible situation for a child to be in.
Unfortunately, there is division and hatred everywhere.
There are also Jewish people at the Palestinian rallies in London. It seems to be understood that Jewish people are not to blame for what s going on so it’s unfair to tarnish them with anti semitism.

She's mentioned the school so probably doesn't want to state his age too.

If you were in Scotland, no one would care about your DS wearing his kippah OP.

Antisemitism predates 7/10 so you're not making yourself look any less ignorant.

The thing that baffles me is that in the minds of some complete idiots who are hard of thinking that they are blaming all Jewish people for the actions of the current Israeli government. Even if they are British Jews or Australian Jews or have no relationship with Israel at all- or agree with it.

Britain does not have a particularly edifying history - past and recent- of behaving terribly well towards other peoples and cultures. We understand that FFS and would be horrified if where-ever we lived we had to have security around our schools and public spaces purely because we are British. If we had to hide our identity due to fear. So yes- it's pure anti-semitism. No matter how these people try and dress it up.

One of the 'funniest' things I have seen was a bunch of white Australian university students protesting the war in Gaza with signs calling Israel 'colonisers'. I have dual citizenship with the UK and Australia incidentally before anyone comes at me for being Anti-Australian.

But, as this thread is supposed to be about a Jewish boy wishing to wear a kippah- I think in the current climate it is too too risky and it would put him in danger. And that is a disgusting state of affairs in this supposedly tolerant and civilised society.

But don’t wave a Union Jack at a Celtic match.
We are soo inclusive here …..for some.

😅😂

My kids and I are Jewish. We are in Scotland and they are both the only Jewish kids in their schools. They’ve both done presentations in class and at school assemblies at primary school but my daughter won’t talk about it at all now she’s at high school as we had two horrifying, scary incidents and she’s scared.

I would never ever send my child alone on the streets in anything outing them as Jewish. And I’d be super cautious about my daughter being open about it regularly. Everyone knows she’s Jewish as she never hid it in primary school but that was a different time and it’s quite different when the children are taller than you are.

my son’s school friend won’t come to his birthday party as he’s Jewish and his family is Muslim. And we aren’t hosting it at home so it’s not a dietary thing - I was clear i would only have halal food (just doing snacks).

My workplace has weekly demonstrations and they yell terrible things so I work from home on Fridays now as I got caught up in it coming home one day. You shouldn’t know I’m Jewish just to look at me but I’ve never hid it so plenty of people I work with know - just one wrong comment and it could get quite scary quickly.

short answer - absolutely not and I’d explain that his first and foremost responsibility as a Jewish person is to survive. And that means being careful.

Hi OP. As someone whose deslt with alot of islamaphobia over the years I actually get this. Unfortunately you will always get comments made by others, so it's best to adapt this based on how old your ds is. If you walk him to school for example you can easily mitigate any fear as you'll be there, but let him know beforehand in an age appropriate way not everybody is tolerate of different faiths, but that's on them not us. If he's a teenager then different again- he'll be aware of anti semitic comments already and can ignore/ report or educate on why he wears it. We had to do alot of ignore or educate.

But here's a big but - just like a muslim girl wearing a headscarf is an easy target for racists, if she was questioned on it at school by peers she would hopefully be able to explain how she wears it for god alone. We get many comments of ou must be supporting isis, taliban lover etc but you need to differentiate the religion from the wars/ country acting in said religions name for the aggressors to get it. If however you dc has controversial views I.e. support Israel at all costs- then this is where it would get abit trickey for him to distinguish/ explain to peers ( depending on what is said) that their comments are misplaced towards a religion rather than a specific situation, which he doesn't condone etc.

The thread turned into antisemitism. What a surprise (not). Those mentioning Israel and Gaza - what’s that to do with British Jews? When people talk about Islamophobia do you ask them their views on atrocities committed by Muslims in other countries? Do you you blame anti-Irish sentiment on pedophile priests? Why is this even being mentioned?

And BTW antisemitism dates back millennia and it was less than 100 years ago when they world swallowed lies and propaganda and stood by and did fuck all whole 6 million Jews were murdered because <insert some antisemitic BS they swallowed>. It was only a matter of time before the Jews got the blame for everything again, and now a little boy is scared to express his Jewishness and the conversation turns to “But Israel”

Same goes for everything though in any country. There are a small minority to spoil it for others.

Your workplace has weekly demonstrations? Are they aware they are contravening the Equality Act?

@PurpleThistle7 reading your post has made me sad, but also angry. You are fearful and your children are fearful. This has escalated and is a huge concern. How anyone can think it's ok to target others and compromise their freedom and safety is beyond my ken, although some posts on this thread do explain it.

Hmm...deliberately so in some cases.....

I'm sorry OP it's a sad situation that we're still in this place in 2025

A rise in antisemitism in France, you say? It's baffling

Also Zionism is the belief Jewish people should have their own state. Christina’s and Muslims have doesn’t of states and have bottled our WAY more people than Jewish people ever did. So why is that ok but Jews can’t have one state to themselves?

And actually Zionist predates Israel by some margin. People use it as a replacement word for “Jew” these days. But we know they mean “Jew”.

To claim Jewish people are secretly plotting murders and takeovers in the name of their religion is a tactic used in Nazi Germany. And in every exile of Jews before that. Have a think about that.

It's terrifying for Jewish French people.

i work at a university and the student groups have weekly demonstrations. There used to be an encampment when that was a thing but now it’s just a march or standing protest. With chanting.

So perfectly put 👏