Report: Amid Rising Antisemitism, Secular Jewish Families in France Increasingly Transferring Children to Religious Schools

By Staff Reporter
Posted on 03/16/17 | News Source: Algemeiner

Amid rising antisemitism, secular Jews in France are increasingly taking their children out of the public school system and sending them to private Jewish institutions, the public Internet radio station for Seattle news and information KUOW reported on Wednesday.

According to the report, because French law prohibits collecting statistics based on race, ethnicity and religion, “it is difficult to quantify the number of Jewish students leaving public schools…But anecdotal evidence — and a steady flow of Jews leaving not only French schools, but France itself — points to a climate of insecurity that may be getting worse.”

Elodie Marciano, founder of Choisir L’École Juive — a nonprofit organization that, since 2013, has helped more than 400 families transfer their children to private Jewish schools through donations that help pay for the additional costs — said, “Often these families are not particularly religious, but when an [antisemitic] incident happens in school and they go to the headmaster to say something, they’re asked not to report it.”