A study published in March aims to measure the extent of antisemitism in schools across France by conducting interviews with 30 Jewish students, aged 8-15, in public or non-Jewish private schools.
The study, which the CRIF published in partnership with the Jean-Jaurès Foundation and the French Institute of Public Opinion (IFOP), was conducted to assess more accurately the scope of antisemitism in schools since October 7.
While figures provided by the Education Ministry and the French Jewish Community Protection Service (SPCJ) help to quantify and track the rise in antisemitism, they only reveal part of the issue.
The testimonies of the students interviewed document the difficulties faced by Jewish students since October 7, which are not widely reported.
“Yes, sometimes people ask me questions, and it makes me a bit uncomfortable because either I do not know how to respond, or I wonder how they can even think that. One time, someone asked me, ‘Why are you committing genocide?’” Lea, age 15, said.
“The school experience of Jewish students since October 7 is characterized by a strong uniformity, above all marked by a pervasive anti-Jewish hostility,” explained Valerie Boussard, sociologist at the University Paris Nanterre, who analyzed the interviews.
“To protect themselves when faced with this hostility, the students try to blend in by hiding their Jewish identity or their connections to Israel and by carefully avoiding responding to interrogations and accusations by their peers, often directed at them through the figure of Israel," she said.
It is rare that these incidents are officially reported since it is often difficult to distinguish the hostility as antisemitism.
Since October 7, discussions about the war have become extremely common in schools, but they have a “demonized representation of Israel.” The students view the conflict in binary terms, with the Palestinians as ‘good’ and the Israelis as ‘bad,’ forcing the Jewish students to pick a side.
“They say to me: ‘Who are you for? Are you for Israel or Palestine? Who do you support?’ and it really bothers me. They say, ‘I’m for Palestine because Israel started…’,” said Hilary, 8.
Difficulty in articulating hostilities faced
The study also reveals the difficulty faced by Jewish students in articulating the hostility they face. Boussard said, “It becomes clear that the students interviewed downplay what they endure, likely as a coping mechanism for their situation. They even end up ignoring incidents altogether, or more precisely, they do not consider the events as antisemitic incidents because they have become so commonplace.”
The SPCJ published its annual report on antisemitism in France in 2023, which already reported a dramatic increase in xenophobic acts in schools; this continued in their report for 2024. However, these figures only take into account antisemitic acts that were officially reported, such as through police complaints or court filings.
During the 2023-24 academic year, the Education Ministry recorded 1,670 antisemitic incidents, which accounted for approximately half (46%) of the 3,630 reports of antisemitism and racism recorded. By comparison, 400 antisemitic incidents were recorded for the 2022-23 academic year, which made up 31% of the total number of antisemitic and racist incidents recorded. These figures illustrate that there has been a significant rise in the number of antisemitic acts (317%) in one year and that their proportion among all racist and antisemitic incidents has risen from less than a third to almost half.
