The Government is to provide £144,000 in new funding to combat antisemitism on UK university campuses, Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, Rt. Hon. Sajid Javid MP announced this week.
Speaking at an Holocaust Educational Trust (HET) event in Parliament, Mr Javid said he was “proud” that the Government was funding the new initiative to “tackle prejudice and intolerance on university campuses”.
The new programme, which will be delivered by HET and the Union of Jewish Students, will enable 200 students and university leaders from across the UK to visit Auschwitz-Birkenau.
Students and leaders who visit Auschwitz will also take part in a seminar which will help them to identify and take action against antisemitism.
At the HET reception on Tuesday, Mr Javid said: “We all have a duty to speak out in the memory of those who were murdered during the Holocaust and all those, today, who are the subject of hatred and antisemitism”.
He emphasised: “Holocaust education remains one of the most powerful tools we have to fight bigotry”.
Click here to read the Housing Secretary’s speech in full.
In the House of Lords, in response to a question from CFI Honorary President Lord Polak CBE, Foreign Office Minister Lord Ahmad condemned antisemitism as a “scourge that we all despise”.
Reflecting on his own visit to Auschwitz, Lord Ahmad said: “As anyone who has been there knows, while we have heard about it and may have seen films about it, the first experience you have is chilling, and then you reflect on the importance of what is in front of you… It ensures that your mind becomes focused, that never means never, and that we never allow such a genocide to take place again”.
Click here to read the exchange.
