Educational Seminar: Understanding Antisemitism. Series of Three Online Workshops

Antisemitism rarely announces itself. It hides in a meme, a joke, a passing stereotype, an assumption no one thinks to question. This series of three online workshops, developed for museum educators working in AEJM member institutions, approaches the problem from three different angles — cultural, empirical and practical — and can be followed individually or as a whole.

The series opens on Tuesday, September 8 with Dagmara Mańka-Wizor (POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews), who has spent over a decade working on antisemitism and discrimination awareness programmes for professionals. Drawing on POLIN’s research from 2022 and 2025 into how Jews are represented in Polish popular culture, she asks: Who Do Poles See When They See a Jew? The second half of the session opens outward, inviting participants to describe how Jews are portrayed in their own countries and to work together on educational strategies — including an honest conversation about what doesn’t work, and about well-intentioned approaches that turn out to be ineffective or counterproductive. Further information and registration

On Tuesday, October 13, Prof. Michał Bilewicz (University of Warsaw; UNESCO Chair on Antisemitism and Intergroup Hatred) offers a quantitative social science perspective. How is antisemitism actually measured, and what sustains it? Drawing on survey, experimental and longitudinal research, he examines how deprivation, loss of control, political alienation and social uncertainty feed antisemitic attitudes — particularly conspiracy beliefs — and gives particular attention to collective victimhood: when groups feel their own suffering goes unrecognised, resentment towards the commemoration of Jewish victims can follow. Further information and registration

The series closes on Tuesday, December 1 with Hans Wallage (Anne Frank House; University of Amsterdam), author of Antisemitism: Myths, Masks and Misconceptions. His workshop is the most practical of the three: where does legitimate criticism end and prejudice begin, and once we are clear on what antisemitism is, what can educators actually do about it in 2026? The session offers concrete tools for recognising antisemitism in its less visible and more persistent forms. Further information and registration

Funding:

The AEJM Educational Programme is funded by the European Union (CERV-OG-SGA 2026). Views and opinions expressed are those of the authors only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Education and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA). Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.