Ailin Vilches Arguello
Algemeiner, Mar. 7, 2025
“Faced with this hostility and in order to protect themselves, students try to remain in the background: hiding their Jewish identity or their connection to Israel, and being careful not to respond to the challenges and accusations from their peers, which are often directed at them through the figure of Israel.”
Antisemitism in France has increasingly targeted Jewish students, exposing them to more violent rhetoric and behavior since the outbreak of the Hamas-Israel war in October 2023, according to a new bombshell report.
The Representative Council of Jewish Institutions of France (CRIF), the main representative body of French Jews, on Wednesday released a major study on the scale of hatred and violence specifically targeting Jewish students in the country due to their religion or origin. The report, compiled jointly with the Jean-Jaurès Foundation and French media company IFOP, is based on testimonies and interviews with Jewish male and female students educated across the country.
The study comes amid a rise in antisemitism in France following Hamas’s massacre across southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023. According to CRIF, the study’s findings highlight how everyday antisemitism, through its presence in daily language, helps legitimize more violent rhetoric and behavior.
During the 2023-2024 school year, the Ministry of National Education recorded 1,670 antisemitic incidents, accounting for nearly half of the total 3,630 racist and antisemitic acts reported.
This shows a 300 percent increase in antisemitic incidents from the 2022-2023 school year, with 400 antisemitic acts out of 1,270 total racist and antisemitic incidents reported. The proportion of antisemitic acts has also grown from less than a third to nearly half of all recorded incidents. ….SOURCE