French textbooks detail Jewish history but provide superficial coverage of both the collaborationist Vichy regime during the Holocaust and contemporary antisemitism in France, a study published on Tuesday found.
While Jewish history, Israel, the Holocaust and antisemitism are taught in French textbooks used in school, “gaps remain” in the educational system on Jewish-related topics, the London-based IMPACT-se watchdog found.
The textbooks include various aspects of Jewish history, but there is limited content on the historic role of Jews in French public life. Similarly, they address the theme of antisemitism and include examples, but there is little on contemporary French antisemitism, the report found.
“The Jewish story is primarily portrayed as one of victimization, with little mention of Jewish contributions to French art, science, philosophy and politics, or of significant Jewish figures,” the report states.
While the 1894-1906 Dreyfus Affair is given prominence in the school curriculum, recent examples of deadly antisemitism in France—such as the 2012 Toulouse school shooting and the 2015 Hyper Cacher supermarket massacre—are omitted.
The textbooks note, however, that “racist and antisemitic acts increased significantly in France” over the last decade, citing the role of the internet in normalizing such attitudes.
The Holocaust is covered in detail, although content on the Shoah in France and the role of the Vichy government “could be expanded,” while the establishment of the State of Israel is addressed within the post–World War II narrative but “could be enhanced” with deeper historical context, the survey says.
“The founding of Israel is largely framed as a reaction to European antisemitism and post-World War Two decolonization, while textbooks also tend to emphasize the Arab–Israeli conflict without fully exploring Jews’ millennia-long ties to the land,” it states.
A Grade 12 History, Geography, Geopolitics and Political Science textbook misleadingly refers to the Jewish community in pre-state Israel as “Zionist settlers,” and Hamas is not described as a terrorist organization
Due to the strict separation of religion and state that serve as the foundation of French society, Jewish faith and religious practice are not included in the curriculum.
France has the largest Jewish and Muslim population in Europe, with more than five million Muslims and some 500,000 Jews.
“The surge in antisemitism in recent years reminds us how essential it is that French schools today present Jews, Jewish history, Israel and antisemitism in an accurate and detailed fashion,” said IMPACT-se CEO Marcus Sheff.
