Crif Conference held on the French public schools and the rise of antisemitism

Photo credit : ©Alain Azria

Since October 7th 2023, the resurgence of antisemitism in France has not spared the school environment. This is borne out by the figures published by the French Ministry of Education last October (1,670 antisemitic acts recorded for the 2023-2024 school year) and by those of the  Jewish Community Protection Service  (Service de Protection de la Communauté Juive) and the French Ministry of the Interior (12.2% of all antisemitic acts were recorded in schools).

To gain a better understanding of the scale and specificity of this phenomenon, Crif and its Education Commission, chaired by Deborah Elalouf, organized a symposium at the French Senate on Thursday March 6th 2025, with the support of Laurent Lafon, Chairman of the Senate's Culture, Education, Communication and Sport Commission, and in the presence of numerous players from the world of education.

The event provided an opportunity to present the results of various studies carried out by Crif in association with the Jean-Jaurès foundation, IFOP (French Institute of Public Opinion) and sociologist Valérie Boussard.

The conference opened with speeches from representatives of public authorities and institutions involved in the world of education: a message from the President of the French Senate, Gérard Larcher, a speech by the Minister of National Education, Higher Education and Research, Élisabeth Borne, by UNESCO's Assistant Director-General for Education, Stefania Giannini, and then by Crif president, Yonathan Arfi.

Facing antisemitism: what students have to say

One of the main aims of the event was to promote young people’s word. During the introductory sequence, three students representing the Union of Jewish High Schools of France (Union des Lycée Juifs de France) spoke about why they felt the need to create a high school movement, particularly following the rape of a twelve-year-old girl in Courbevoie in June 2024.
The sequence also helped announce the launch of a series of podcasts recounting the experiences of young Jewish students attending non-Jewish public or private schools, whom Crif, with the support of “Noé pour la jeunesse”, went to meet during the summer of 2024.

An alarming rise in antisemitism in schools

The heart of the symposium was the presentation of various studies carried out by Crif in association with the Jean-Jaurès fondation,  IFOP (French Institute of Public Opinion) and sociologist Valérie Boussard:

• The Jean-Jaurès fondation’ s study, presented by Roman Bornstein, Director of Studies, provides an overview of the situation of antisemitism in society, and particularly in schools, written by Milo Levy-Bruhl.
• The IFOP (French Institute of Public Opinion) survey, coordinated by François Kraus and Iannis Roder, and presented by Frédéric Dabi, Managing Director of IFOP, asks French secondary school students about their attitudes, prejudices and feelings towards antisemitism.
• Valérie Boussard, Professor of Sociology at the Paris Nanterre University and Director of the IDHE.S laboratory, analyzes the testimonies collected by Crif and compiled in the form of podcasts. Valérie Boussard highlights the emergence since October 7th of “everyday anti-Semitism”, as well as a displacement of hatred of Jews in the form of hostility towards Israel.