Fielding difficult questions about Jews from inner-city teens

Are all Jews are rich? Why do Jewish women shave their hair? Is it antisemitic to say Zionists control the music industry?

These are some of the questions on non-Jewish teenager’s minds –  questions to which UK Jewish Film’s education manager Rachel Burns must gives answers at the charity’s workshops in inner-city schools across the country.

The former English teacher  has left children gobsmacked when she shares that even though she attends synagogue, her kids were bar mitzvahed, and the family say prayers at Friday night dinner, she does not believe in God. They are also surprised to learn that British Jews constitute a mere 0.5 per cent of the UK population, that most of us are Zionist and that some of us are black.

Class act: a UK Jewish Film workshop[Missing Credit]

“The bar is so low in terms of what kids and teachers know about the Jewish experience in Britain,” says Burns. “If you go into a school and you are unashamedly and openly Jewish, that in itself is a surprise. A lot of teachers and kids are expecting you to carry shame, so being there and saying, ‘I'm Jewish and I'm very comfortable in my Jewishness,’ is a learning point in itself.”