Breaking Boundaries: Tackling Antisemitism from the Pitch to the Pavilion

This month began with some interesting conversations around the Tackling Antisemitism in Sport expansion from football into cricket. We spoke with a Jewish Australian ex-cricketer, who featured at the highest level in British and Australian cricket, about his experiences as a Jewish cricketer. We also met with Daniel Lightman KC, curator of the Jews in Cricket Exhibition at Lord’s Cricket Ground, to discuss the topic and enhance our own understanding of the landscape of cricket for the Jewish community. The timing of this research is fitting, due to the fact that our first booking has come through for the staff of Middlesex County Cricket Club, for next month. We are thoroughly looking forward to this expansion and to providing County Clubs with this essential information around Antisemitism and the Jewish Community.

Going back to the football world, we delivered training for the staff teams of QPR and QPR in the Community, which was attended by owner Ruben Gnanalingam. We also delivered work to Southern regional County FA discipline staff in a workshop hosted by Middlesex FA. This was well attended by representatives from multiple Counties, including far-reaching Jersey and Guernsey FAs!

Most significantly, we delivered our stewards training to the Stand Managers and Heads of

Stewarding at Aston Villa ahead of their Premier League fixture against Tottenham Hotspur. The participants were very clued-in and understood the importance of the training, with Spurs seen as a ‘higher-risk’ fixture for incidents of antisemitism in professional football.

On top of our normal activity, our Project Manager attended the first meeting of the Fulham Football Club EDI Advisory Board. This exciting opportunity featured EDI specialists from a variety of sectors, and Ben was invited to be on the Board to discuss Jewish inclusion in Fulham Football Club activity for the coming football season.

Ben also was selected to be a part of this years’ JLC Adam Science cohort, and this month he attended the programme’s residential weekend, which offered an amazing opportunity to network with other Jewish Communal leaders and to partake in some excellent panels and conversations with CEOs and other key figures working in the Jewish Community.

We also participated in Kick It Out’s working group meeting on Antisemitism, providing updates to the committee around our work in football this season so far, and upcoming plans for the summer months and into the beginning of the next football season.