The British government’s decision to embrace sweeping measures addressing antisemitism in schools is drawing a sharp contrast with New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s recently unveiled strategy, raising questions about why Britain’s plan appears more specific than the one proposed in America’s most Jewish city. The U.K. government accepted all 27 recommendations from an independent review into antisemitism in schools and colleges in England. The measures include encouraging adoption of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance working definition of antisemitism, specialized training for educators, strengthened reporting procedures and independent oversight.
Mamdani’s 33-page strategy — while not only focused on education — by comparison, does not adopt a single definition of antisemitism, explicitly address the relationship between anti-Zionism and antisemitism or establish numerical benchmarks for measuring whether its initiatives succeed. British Jewish author and Holocaust educator Dov Forman, who recently graduated from university, said Mamdani could learn from Britain’s targeted approach to addressing antisemitism in schools. MAMDANI PLEDGES MILLIONS TO COMBAT ANTISEMITISM WHILE LEAVING KEY QUESTION UNRESOLVED The British review followed a BBC report from Yavneh College, a Jewish secondary school near London, where students described how antisemitism has affected their daily lives.
Their accounts offered a window into the urgency behind the government’s recommendations. Education provides one of the clearest points of comparison between the two strategies. Mamdani's plan calls for expanding Holocaust education, including opportunities for students to visit the Museum of Jewish Heritage, while also addressing how public schools respond to antisemitic discrimination.
The U.K. government's recommendations address many of those same concerns, placing greater emphasis on how educators recognize antisemitism, how schools respond when incidents occur and what protections are in place for Jewish students. The review, led by former senior education official Sir David Bell, found that nearly three in five Jewish people between the ages of 16 and 19 had experienced or witnessed antisemitism. It concluded that antisemitism is a distinct form of racism requiring a specific response and called for clearer guidance to distinguish legitimate political debate from harassment, intimidation and antisemitic rhetoric.
"The least [Mamdani] could do is look at what has happened in the U.K. and adopt similar measures, such as adopting the IHRA definition, which is the agreed definition across the world and where there is a consensus of what antisemitism actually is," Forman told Fox News Digital. "The basic way to solve antisemitism is to actually agree on what it is and to understand that targeting a Jew deliberately because of what is going on in Israel, for example, is antisemitic, as the IHRA definition says," he added. Forman cautioned that the British recommendations remain largely optional and that their effectiveness will depend on whether institutions act.
"I do think some of them will be enforced and listened to. I do worry, though, that the government says things and does not actually take it seriously enough." Education Secretary Lucy Powell said the government would establish an implementation group, while Bell was commissioned to conduct an independent assessment of its progress after one year. Ambassador Rabbi Yehuda Kaploun, the U.S. special envoy to monitor and combat antisemitism, welcomed Britain’s decision while emphasizing that adopting recommendations is only the beginning.
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