Board of Deputies launches Jewish Living Online – a free digital education resource for secondary schools

Jewish Living Online is a new, free, digital resource for teaching about Jews, Judaism, and antisemitism, created by The Board of Deputies of British Jews in partnership with ADL.

JLO is a comprehensive, authentic and engaging resource for pupils from KS3 and above. It contains information via multimedia content (including real British Jewish voices), discussion, and critical thinking questions and assessment tools. JLO aims to make the lives of teachers easier as it requires little planning or subject knowledge, as well as being modular and flexible – to support the schemes of work teachers already have in place.

Schools can have their own group registration page and manage their own students, get reports on pupil completion progress, check quiz scores, and issue completion certificates. The resource is the product of intensive consultation and feedback from focus groups, education consultants, teachers, religious education specialists, and headteachers. It is designed to support religious education, history, and PSHE curricula, in particular, with modules designed to slot-in alongside existing programmes and in compliance with data protection laws, GDPR, security and pedagogical best practice and guidelines.

In the context of an alarming rise in antisemitism in the UK, and in particular, a worrying increase in antisemitic incidents amongst younger demographics, the need for improved education about Jews, Judaism and antisemitism in schools is urgent. Of the 2,086 incidents recorded where the offender or offenders’ approximate age was provided to the Community Security Trust (CST), 369 (18%) involved offenders exclusively under the age of 18, and 10 involved mixed groups of adults and minors.1

It is our firm belief that educating about antisemitism must include a foundational knowledge of who Jews are as a people, what Judaism is, our history, language, culture, and diversity in order to help inform any specific education about antisemitism, its deadly history, tropes, and its contemporary manifestations.

“Education is the enemy of bigotry and hate. It’s hard to hate someone you truly understand.” – Barbara Streisand

Jewish Living Online is a groundbreaking initiative to address the lack of adequate education about Jews, Judaism, and antisemitism in UK schools. The first iteration is designed to fit in with the standard curriculum for KS3 and above. We fully intend to expand the project to include Welsh, Scottish, and Northern Irish variants in compliance with their respective national guidelines and language requirements.

The resource is free to use for all schools and individuals. The course includes hours of video, audio, and interactive multimedia elements, maps, printable posters, quizzes, and optional extra learning assignment suggestions and resources. Anyone can create an account and start learning right away. We have already run several beta tests with active users and incorporated feedback. We will continuously improve the resource based on user feedback, best practice, and regular content and performance reviews.

The unique technology stack was developed in-house by the Board of Deputies of British Jews with the support of ADL, and will the form the foundation of future work by the Board and partners in the online education space. A future teacher training module for JLO is also planned.

 

1. Antisemitic Incidents 2023, CST

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