In response to a spike in anti-Semitic behaviour, a pilot program has seen high school students form enduring friendships with Jewish teenagers through a mix of religious and cultural activities. Now, there is a push to expand the initiative.
A pilot program to combat the rise of anti-Semitism has seen Catholic high school students form enduring friendships with Jewish teenagers through religious and cultural activities.
Now, a peak Australian Jewish advocacy group has called for the initiative to be rolled out nationally.
Year 10 students from Catholic schools in Sydney’s eastern suburbs, St Ursula’s and Marcellin, attended a religious assembly at Emanuel Jewish School at Randwick before all students took part in creative workshops exploring religious rituals and examined the similarities between Judaism and Christianity.
The 18-month trial, involving the Executive Council of Australian Jewry (ECAJ) and Sydney Catholic Schools, also saw students who visited the Jewish school develop presentations on their experience, with Catholic school educators taught about historical and contemporary anti-Semitism.
ECAJ co-chief executive Alex Ryvchin has called for an expansion of the program to all schools across the country, in light of recent reported spikes in anti-Semitic behaviour and the need to “reduce the appeal of online extremism”.
Mr Ryvchin, speaking at launch of his book The Seven Deadly Myths – Anti Semitism from the Time of Christ to Kanye West, said the initiative would work with state governments, schools and Jewish museums and be separate from existing Holocaust education.