To ask you to help with a cover story for my Jewish child

[Aislyn]

My eldest is at secondary school and has suffered horrific racist bullying due to being identifiably Jewish. She never told anyone, but they guessed due to her appearance, and her saying Eastern European countries when asked 'where are you from?'

Unfortunately the school has been completely unhelpful, and refused to tackle this.

My second child is starting at second and has sen. They are at even higher risk of bullying. They have an appearance that would mean that they could be identified as Jewish, especially when citing Eastern European countries in response to the above question. Can anyone think of a cover story for my child?

(Yes, I have tried to get them a place at a Jewish school, but there is none available)

Christ alive! If the best you can come back with is some misguided comments which might or might not have been said by a child 50 years ago, you’ve already lost the argument really,

Just get them to say that they are a little bit of a few places. Pick countries like Spain, Poland, Greece, Italy. Just get them to say their grandparents and great grandparents are international. 😂

I am so said it resorted to this. It has not been like this in any school I’ve ever worked in.

Tbf, there's rising anti Semitism on the US right wing due partly to weird conspiracies that Netanyahu killed Charlie Kirk and who knows what else. Tied heavily to Nick Fuentes. Some of this has spread to Gen Z UK right wingers via SM. Thus article explains it well :

https://thecritic.co.uk/the-british-right-must-resist-americanisation/

And this one:

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-interactive/2025/nov/20/nick-fuentes-tucker-carlson

It's not racism to say that British Muslims are on average more likely to hold anti Semitic attitudes. Thus does NOT mean most are anti Semitic, I am not claiming that.

I think this thought is logical but untimately misguided. These aren’t historians flexing their knowledge. These are anti semites brought up in anti semetic families and communities and likely consuming anti semetic social media. That’s where they’re getting this “polish jew” identify from, not from knowledge.

as I have said quite a few times my friends children have had the same situation - polish Jewish and look Jewish- being polish confirmed to the bullies their background. That identifier didn’t come from the 13 year olds, it came from their family and the anti semetic media they consume.

there is a whole world of this stuff. It’s an anti semetic playbook, not a history lesson.

No I am not suggesting a disgusting motive. What I am getting at is that for you to be able to state that antisemitism is not such a huge problem - as you did earlier - you will therefore surely know of all the antisemitic activity and attacks and conspiracy theories - to enable you to make such a sweeping statement. If you don't know about these then how can you make an assessment of the extent that jewish people face discrimination and bigotry? That's what I am getting at.

But report away when someone is making a counter argument about the levels of bigotry experienced by Jewish people.

Excuse typos.

No I am not suggesting a disgusting motive. What I am getting at is that for you to be able to state that antisemitism is not such a huge problem - as you did earlier - you will therefore surely know of all the antisemitic activity and attacks and conspiracy theories - to enable you to make such a sweeping statement. If you don't know about these then how can you make an assessment of the extent that jewish people face discrimination and bigotry? That's what I am getting at.

But report away when someone is making a counter argument about the levels of bigotry experienced by Jewish people.

Excuse typos.

That's terrible OP, your poor children (and you) having to deal with that. Could they say they are from Cyprus or Malta originally but moved to London at a very young age so therefore don't know much about the country.
The children/bullies might recognise them as tourist destinations and may therefore be less likely to bully them. Both countries are predominantly Catholic.

Thank you. I understand what you mean.. I remember now I have read of some anti Semites in Arab & Muslim countries using 'go back to Poland' as a slur for Israelis, so if some pupils bullying are from those kinds of backgrounds I suppose they could be using that playbook.

I'm really sorry that happened to your child, 💐, thus needs to be stamped out

Thank you- I should say it was a friends child, he’s now at uni, but the complaints, police involvement and fighting back as suggested on this thread didn’t work. All that worked was leaving.

The hate marches at the university I work at have signs and a manifesto telling Jews to 'go back' to Poland. The misapprehension that Jews all came from one place goes straight up through the generations. It's a really odd version of hate.

Agree.

OP, I’m so sorry. I’ve donated to the CST since feeling bitterly disappointed with my perception of media/public response to Oct 7th. I look ethnically English and my husband and kids look Irish/Welsh, people notice, I believe you.

I always think the choice of censorship implies a lack of decent argument

That's truly horrible.

Has the university not punished people with those kinds of signs & manifesto? How can they allow that?

The school are failing and it's unacceptable. Have you talked to the governors? Local councillors? MP?
And I'd talk to the police too. Tell the school you're doing so.

That's horrible it couldn't be stifled. I'm glad he's out of that situation but it's very worrying that schools are condoning this...

How did the school react? Did they ignore? Condone? Deal with it ineffectively?

So your argument is kids said another kid said something 50 years ago!

so moving on from your distraction, how do you think the OP should fight the antisemitism her kids are facing, what do you have to say about anti semitism in the UK?

I have no advice at all, I just wanted to say that I am desperately sorry that this has to be a consideration for you.
I'm sad that young children are still having to think about the answers before replying to a question.
I am sending you love and strength and thinking of your children ♥

This is it. The 'Pro-Palestinian' crowd have 'go back to Poland' as one of their slogans. It's all over social media, which these school children are on. They don't know much about history, but Poland=Jewish for them.

(And don't get me started on how racist 'Go back to Poland is'. The majority of Israelis are not of Polish descent, and there are only approximately 20,000 Polish speakers in Israel)

Not read whole thread, But I think it's a mistake to lie. Lies are always discovered.

Maybe DC needs to blind them with Science, well in this case, Geography.
The reply is "London, but my roots used to be Russia, then USSR, then Belorussia, then Russia, currently Ukraine, but soon to be Russia again...

(Sorry sure if this actually correct, but you get the gist)

I think you are maybe overthinking this. What has happened to your oldest is horrible but it seems like really bad luck they must have encountered some determinedly antisemitic kids. Also awful the school hasn't don't anything about it.

I'm Jewish and my kids go up non Jewish secondaries where they are upfront about being Jewish (my oldest even wears a kippah) but they haven't experienced anything like that, I think it's unusual a) for it to be that bad and b) for kids to dig so hard at someone's origins (certainly if you're in a large city, I haven't caught where you are)

Farage was at Dulwich College and was barred from running for a prefect due to expressing Nazi rhetoric and using this to bully students in the school. In fact, he was almost expelled for his views.

And your response is anti-Semitic, in your denial of an actual Jewish person's actual experience.

Which uni is this? It needs to be outed, and the manifesto and signs scrutinised as criminal.
Is this in the UK?
I know some US colleges have had problems, but didn’t know universities here were tolerating stuff like this. 😡