On 14 July 2022 our education team ran a 1-hour online workshop for 23 of our Anne Frank Ambassadors. These are young people aged 10 to 15 who have completed our schools programme on Anne Frank, the Holocaust, antisemitism and all other forms of prejudice. Mentored by our staff, they are now undertaking learning activities outside school to continue and develop their role in challenging prejudice.

To facilitate the workshop, our staff invited a freelance arts practitioner we had not worked with before. In the workshop, the young people were shown a video of a poem and practised skills in creativity and writing. As the event was only for our ambassadors, it had not been promoted externally, but afterwards we posted some images and quotations from the event on our social media.

On 16 July 2022 messages on Twitter drew our attention to reports of antisemitic comments made in the past by the workshop facilitator and the writer of the video poem. We responded by launching an
investigation, and by removing our social media posts of the workshop.

Led by our Chief Executive, the investigation included a review of all materials relating to the workshop and interviews with everyone involved. On 21 July 2022, the findings were reported to a panel of our trustees. This statement is a summary of the trustees’ conclusions.

The investigation assessed the learning and welfare of the young people who attended the workshop and found that the workshop focused entirely on creative skills, with no inappropriate learning. To confirm this, our staff have also carried out individual welfare checks with each young person.

Of particular concern was the offence caused, especially to the Jewish community, by the choice of
facilitator. We apologise unreservedly for this.

Our investigation found that the staff who organised the workshop, partly in their haste to deliver it before the end of the school year, did not carry out appropriate due diligence. We also found that a consistent policy and procedure for such vetting was not in place.

This was a failure in due diligence.

In response, we are introducing a new Due Diligence Policy and Procedure. We are also making
improvements to our operational planning so that events are organised in a more timely manner.

Education to end antisemitism has been at the heart of our work for over 30 years and we remain as
committed to this as ever.