Brazil’s President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, China’s Premier Li Qiang, India’s Prime Minister Narendra  Modi, South Africa’s President Cyril Ramaphosa, Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, and other leaders, attend the opening meeting of BRICS Summit, at the Museum of Modern Art (MAM) in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil July 6, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Ricardo Moraes

In São Paulo, a Jewish teenager was reportedly greeted by classmates with Nazi salutes. In Rio de Janeiro, another had swastikas drawn in his notebook. At a Brazilian university, a student reported being excluded from his student association because of his Zionist views.

These incidents deserve renewed attention following England’s independent review into antisemitism in schools and colleges. The British government accepted all of the report’s 27 recommendations on Oct. 21. Brazil should examine that warning and ask what its own educational institutions are failing to recognize.

The Brazilian cases are concrete. In March 2024, allegations emerged that a 15-year-old Jewish student at Beacon School in São Paulo had been intimidated by classmates drawing swastikas in his notebooks and making Nazi salutes. The school said it had suspended those involved, opened an investigation, and supported the affected family.

That same month, the Jewish Federation of São Paulo told the newspaper Folha de S.Paulo that five schools in the city had already contacted it over cases of antisemitism. The federation urged educational efforts that would reach parents as well as students.

In November 2025, another Jewish student had swastikas drawn in his notebook by a classmate at São Vicente de Paulo, a Catholic school in Rio de Janeiro. The institution said it had met with parents and strengthened its efforts against discrimination.

At the university level, a student at the Pontifical Catholic University of São Paulo reported in May 2024 that he had been expelled from his student association because of his Zionist views. The association justified the decision by citing a conflict between his position and the political causes its leadership supported.

These episodes do not establish the national prevalence of antisemitism. They do, however, require institutions committed to education and inclusion to examine how they respond when Jewish identity or attachment to Israel becomes a source of hostility.

England’s review, led by Sir David Bell, a former chief inspector of schools, offers a useful starting point. As The Algemeiner reported, it identified shortcomings in recognizing, reporting, and responding to antisemitism. Its recommendations include teacher training, clearer reporting procedures, and stronger safeguards for students.

One finding is particularly relevant beyond England: Students sometimes do not report incidents because they consider them insufficiently serious or believe they will not be taken seriously.

That creates a dangerous possibility. An institution may interpret silence as evidence that it has no problem, when students have simply stopped expecting help.

A BBC report published on Oct. 21, 2026, featuring Yavneh College, a Jewish school in England, shows that gates, fences, cameras, and four full-time security staff are part of everyday life. Teachers and pupils said they had become so accustomed to these precautions that they barely noticed them. Outside school, some students avoided wearing a kippah or a Star of David.

A child who conceals their identity out of fear has already lost part of their freedom, even if no physical attack occurs.

Brazilian educators should ask whether Jewish students here also feel pressure to become less visible.

Fewer confrontations do not necessarily mean an environment has become more welcoming. They may mean that students have learned which parts of themselves to keep private.

Recognizing a swastika is the minimum. The harder task is recognizing hostility when it adopts the language of political principle.

Criticism of the Israeli government is legitimate. Holding a Jewish student responsible for that government’s actions is discrimination. A student’s support for Jewish national self-determination does not, by itself, establish their position on a particular government, military operation, or proposal for peace.

No student should have to issue a statement about a war to be accepted by classmates. Schools and universities should make room for difficult questions, scrutiny of sources, and disagreement. Educators must guide those discussions without turning students into involuntary representatives of a country or a cause.

The Bell review also recommends broadening teaching about contemporary Jewish life. That matters in Brazil as well. Encountering Jews primarily through persecution offers an incomplete understanding of a living, diverse people. Literature, music, humor, religious traditions, and contemporary experiences belong in that education.

Studying the Holocaust or the Inquisition is not enough. A school can teach students to condemn the antisemitism of the past while failing to protect its Jewish students today. Classmates should be able to express their Jewish identity without being required to explain, defend, or conceal it.

The response cannot end with a statement condemning prejudice. Schools need trusted ways to report incidents, staff prepared to recognize them, and procedures that ensure complaints are investigated and followed up. Families need to know what action was taken. Students need reason to believe that speaking up will help.

Schools are failing their mission when Jewish students feel safer hiding their identity.

Nira Broner Worcman is a Brazilian journalist, CEO of Art Presse, and author of A Sisyphean Task (translated from the Brazilian hors commerce title Enxugando Gelo), on media coverage of the war between Israel and terrorist groups.