Judentum im Religionsunterricht in der Grundschule: zwischen Nicht-Thematisierung, Stereotypisierung und Antisemitismusprävention

This article examines how ideas of religious difference, and Judaism in particular, are constructed and negotiated in the didactically guided framework of religious education in state schools. To this end, three different cases of the treatment of Judaism in religious education in elementary school are presented, which on the one hand show a considerable variance and range in teaching practice on the subject of Judaism and on the other hand point to the danger of reproducing anti-Semitic stereotypes and one-sided images of history. These results at the interface of anti-Semitism and educational research thus make clear the need to place the treatment of Judaism in religious education on the basis of an anti-Semitism-critical education. While the present study focuses on teaching practice and shows that Judaism, Jewish life and anti-Semitism are addressed very differently in religious education lessons in elementary school and that the teacher plays a central role here, the question of the institutional setting, among other things, remains an important desideratum in order to be able to empirically assess and structurally develop the potential of religious education for anti-Semitism-critical education.