Helsinki, December 10th, 2025 – Educators and policy makers from seven EU member states gathered in Helsinki on Tuesday to discuss ways to combat antisemitism, prejudice and discrimination through education.
Speaking in a break-out session at the conference ECI Founding Director Tomas Sandell argued that “it is impossible to combat antisemitism without a proper understanding and appreciation of the rebirth of the Jewish state after the Holocaust.”
Recognizing the centrality of the State of Israel in combating antisemitism guest speaker Alex Maws called it “the elephant in the room” which is too often ignored or avoided in order not to create controversy. This was also confirmed in a quick survey where the participants were asked what they considered to be the main cause of antisemitism in Europe today but also which issue is the most difficult to tackle in an educational setting. In both cases the issue of Israel came up as the number one cause, clearly distancing any other plausible root causes for antisemitism, such as religious stereotypes or conspiracy theories.
Commenting on the result Sandell concluded that “if we fail to connect the dots between the suffering of the Jewish people under the Holocaust and how the surviving Jews returned to Israel to build what is today a vibrant democracy and a start-up nation, the modern State of Israel, our understanding is incomplete. In a time and age of storytelling we have too often failed as educators to share this redemptive story of Jewish resilience, return and restoration of statehood.”
Sandell also stated that Holocaust education cannot end with the liberation of the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camps on 27th January 1945 but need to include 14th May 1948, the day of the declaration of independence of the modern State of Israel. “This recognition does not prevent us from discussing a solution to the ongoing Israeli Palestinian conflict or from criticising policies of any Israeli government but simply gives us a basis for understanding and appreciating Zionism, the movement for self-determination for the Jewish people in their ancestral homeland, the land of Israel. Today’s antisemitism is not caused by the creation of a Jewish state but Israel was rather created as an answer to millennia of antisemitism around the world. While we must continue to combat antisemitism in the nations around the world we cannot leave Israel out of this equation,” he said.
In his keynote remark Finnish Minister of Education Anders Adlercreutz affirmed how antisemitism and other forms of prejudices clearly violate the spirit of the Helsinki Final Act of 1975 which established principles for security, human rights and cooperation in Europe and marked a milestone in that it affirmed the rights of national citizens and not only nations. This week’s conference, which was co-organised between UNESCO and OSCE (Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe) coincided with the Finnish presidency of OSCE. The 50th anniversary of the Helsinki Final Act was celebrated as part of this presidency earlier in the year.
Speaking at a reception at the Swedish Embassy on Tuesday evening conference co-host Karel Fracapane from UNESCO quoted the late Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks in stating that “it is not the Jews who can cure antisemitism; only the anti-Semites can do that together with the society to which they belong.”
The three-day conference which features participants from Finland, Sweden, Denmark, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Ireland will conclude on Thursday.
