Yoav Picherski
Education Secretary Nadhim Zahawi declared that “education should be the vaccine against Antisemitism”, speaking to the Tel Aviv University Trust at Google’s offices in London this week. Mr Zahawi shared his thoughts and experiences about the pre and post-Covid educational world alongside Tel Aviv University President Professor Ariel Porat.
The event was held at Google’s headquarters in London and was moderated by broadcaster and journalist Samantha Simmonds. Speaking about his recent visit to Auschwitz, the Education Secretary said: “I do think everyone must visit Auschwitz. It was life-changing for me. The Holocaust Education Trust set up part of my visit. The real, hard-to-describe part is Auschwitz 2, where Hitler decided to scale up, industrialise the extermination of the Jewish people. It’s beyond belief. No film reel will ever do it justice”.
On combating Antisemitism, Mr Zahawi underlined the importance of all universities adopting the IHRA definition: “I am really pleased that the IHRA definition of antisemitism has been adopted by so many universities — but I want them all to adopt it. It’s not just a document that you hang on a wall in a university president’s office. They have to think about how they deal with it, and how they make sure that university campuses are safe places for Jewish students, for Jewish lecturers, for the whole of the community. Education, in my view, is the vaccine against Antisemitism, which is why I make it my mission to deal with this scourge, that I think is truly evil”.
