Dr. Heather Mendick is a prominent British Jewish sociologist, education scholar, and activist. Growing up she was both religiously observant and zionist, taking part in her United Synagogue’s quiz team as a teenager and being active in her university’s J-Soc as an undergraduate before becoming first atheist and then anti-zionist.
She formerly worked as a Reader in Education at Brunel University of London. Her academic research is internationally recognized, particularly concerning youth aspirations, popular and celebrity culture, gender dynamics, and structural inequalities within science and mathematics education. Her publications include the book Masculinities in Mathematics, and the co-authored books Urban Youth and Schooling and Celebrity, Aspiration and Contemporary Youth: Education and Inequality in an Era of Austerity. Since moving away from full-time academia, she has worked as an independent researcher focusing on education and social justice, and using her research skills to support community campaigns.
Dr. Mendick has taken on various voluntary roles including as secretary of Hackney South and Shoreditch Labour Party, of Hackney Palestine Solidarity Campaign and of Morning Lane People’s Space. She was one of the organisers of the Hackney Divest Camp that occupied the Town Hall Square from May to July 2024 and she remains active in the Palestine solidarity movement. In 2021, the Labour Party issued two Notices of Investigation against her for breaches of its rules including accusations of antisemitism. Since then, she has been a leading figure in resisting the “weaponization of antisemitism” vigorously opposing the conflation of anti-zionism with antisemitism. Despite her expulsion from the UK Labour Party in 2022 due to her political stance, she has used the experience to expose the systemic suppression of pro-Palestine voices in British politics. She is currently involved in building a new local political party, Hackney Independent Socialists, and stood for council in May 2026 under its banner and with the support of the Green Party.
Dr. Mendick is anti-zionist and her public statements on YouTube and X/Twitter reflect this. For example: “Our starting point for any discussion of the Hamas attack on 7th October must be understanding it as an act of armed resistance, not terrorism”. When the Daily Mail approached her before running a story smearing her for this and other public statements as a supporter of terrorism, she chose to respond with the words: “I’m Jewish and I feel a responsibility to speak against the war crimes and human rights abuses being committed in my name by Israel.”