Amberly Thay, a non-Jewish student at Exeter University in Exeter, England, has nevertheless suffered antisemitic abuse for her work as a regional ambassador for the Holocaust Educational Trust (HET), a British charity.

As a high school student, Thay visited Auschwitz in Poland, which inspired her to join HET as an ambassador in her first year at Exeter University. As part of her work, she was invited to the Israeli ambassador’s residence in London to hear a speech by a Holocaust survivor on Holocaust Remembrance Day, but a post on Instagram about the experience prompted harassment.

“People just started making all these offhand anti-Semitic comments to me all the time,” she said.

“I’ve been called a mouthpiece for Israel and an agent for Mossad because I work in Holocaust education.”

A stranger in a club approached her one night when she was meant to be having fun and asked her, “Why would you post something like that? You know what they do.”

“I was just sitting there thinking, ‘Why am I being harassed on a night out over my volunteering work?'” Thay said.

Her first experience happened when she was dancing at a nightclub and a friend went to the bathroom. When the friend returned, she told Thay, “‘I can’t believe you. Some girl in the toilets told me that you support the killing of children. She told me not to be friends with you.’ I just stood there shocked.”

She said she did not report the incidents to the university, following the advice of Jewish students, who told her that nothing would be done about it. She is planning to give a talk next week to Jewish community leaders and politicians at the HET appeal dinner in London about her experiences with HET.

“I don’t think that there is enough Holocaust education in British schools,” she said. “I’ve heard people say that it wasn’t actually six million [Jews who were killed in the Holocaust], it was only like 250,000 or whatever, because they’ve seen that online. And they don’t actually understand that what they’re saying is harmful and wrong.”

The university said it was not aware of the situation, which Thay said she had not reported.

“We are unaware of this incident, and we encourage both students and staff to report any matters of this nature to us. We are committed to eradicating any instances of discrimination, including antisemitism, and we investigate all incidents reported to us,” a university spokesperson said.

“We have been working actively with our Jewish staff and student collectives to ensure that there is awareness of our support and report pathways,” the spokesperson added.