Secondary school teachers are more often confronted with anti-Semitism in the classroom than they were 10 years ago, according to a report for the Anne Frank Foundation in Amsterdam.

Most of the incidents involved swearing and abusive language – often football related – that was not directed at specific individuals, the foundation said. At the same time, teachers were more likely to be confronted with anti-Islam comments (65%) and comments about sexual minorities (82%), the survey, which did not go into these issues in detail, showed.

Market research bureau Panteia sent questionnaires to 1828 teachers, primarily history, social science and religious education teachers, and received 432 completed surveys back. This was enough to derive representative results, the bureau said.

Some 42% of participants said they had been confronted with anti-Semitism or comments which trivialised the Holocaust (14%). That is a rise from the previous survey 10 years ago (35%), but down from the 50% reported in 2004.

Youngsters with a ‘western’ background were responsible for 80% of the incidents, particularly in relation to football, which accounted for 40% of the total. The supporters of Amsterdam club Ajax are known as ‘Jews’, despite the club’s efforts to eradicate the nickname.

Tensions in the Middle East are also import breeding ground for anti-Semitic comments, particularly by youngsters with Moroccan roots, the survey found. In total, 20% of the incidents had a link to the conflict there.

The researchers said the survey results did not necessarily mean anti-Semitism is more common than it was. ‘It could be that teachers recognize it better or are quicker to register it,’ the researchers said.

Difficult problem

The Anne Frank Foundation said in a reaction that anti-Semitism still appeared to be a difficult problem to deal with in secondary schools, as it is in society in general.

‘The results of the survey show that countering anti-Semitism in secondary education is still badly needed,’ said foundation director Ronald Leopold. ‘Successful approaches – such as education on the Holocaust and on the prejudices underlying anti-Semitism and other forms of discrimination – should be continued and extended.’

The foundation’ survey comes just two weeks after an American study reported that some 6% of the under 40s in the Netherlands believe the Holocaust was a myth and 17% that the death toll was exaggerated.