French Ruling on Classes Evokes Mixed Jewish Reaction

Jewish leaders reacted with mixed views to a recent French court decision that, in effect, enables Jewish pupils to miss Saturday classes in the country’s secular schools.

In ruling that school headmasters should have the final say over whether to impose compulsory attendance on Saturdays, the court decision recognized the long-established practice of turning a blind eye to the Saturday absences of religious Jewish pupils.

Some Jewish leaders praised what they perceived as a wise decision, but others said they feared that the case would only serve to create a perception that Jews were different from other French citizens, a perception they said the community had fought long and hard to counter.

Last week’s ruling by the Conseil d’Etat came in the wake of a 1991 suit that challenged a decree issued that year which required all French pupils to attend regularly scheduled classes in the country’s secular schools.

The suit was brought by the Consistoire Central, the body in charge of protecting the religious needs of the 700,000-member French Jewish community. The case emerged in response to two cases involving Jewish pupils who had sought to avoid attending Saturday classes. The Consistoire and two religious Jewish organization felt that the decree infringed on the freedom of religion guaranteed by the French Constitution.

In its ruling last week, the Conseil d’Etat, France’s highest court in charge of resolving disputes between the country’s citizens and the government, stated that in both cases the pupils would have to abide by the decisions of their respective schools. Reacting to last week’s ruling, Jewish leader Jean Kahn, who serves as president of the Consistoire, praised the court’s decision. But others disagreed.

“This is really the last thing we needed right now,” said an influential member of CRIF, the umbrella body representing France’s secular Jewish organizations.

“It took us two centuries to be regarded as no different from any other citizen in this country,” said the CRIF member, who asked not to be identified. “Did we really need now to be perceived again as wishing to be ruled by our own laws?”

A similar point was made in an editorial carried by the Jewish weekly Tribune Juive: “The way this legal suit has been handled seems to indicate a will to religiously differentiate [the Jewish community] and take it out of the common law.”

So eager were some in the Jewish community to distance themselves from the appeal that people close to the leadership of the Consistoire were careful to point out that the appeal had not been brought by any of the organization’s current leaders.

Before the court rendered its verdict, not one Jewish leader wanted to be quoted about the case — with the sole exception of France’s chief Rabbi Joseph Sitruk.

In a statement, Sitruk wrote: “We do not ask for any specific right for the Jews, but we wish that in each and every case, solutions be found enabling all practicing Jews to assume their double duty toward God and toward the Nation.”

“Enabling all Frenchmen to be responsible citizens while remaining faithful to their religious beliefs is the greatness of a democracy,” Sitruk wrote.

Magistrate Yann Aguila, who argued against the appeal the consistoire brought before the court, stated that issues of religious freedom must be tempered by other overriding imperatives such as serving the public interest and maintaining law and order.

Aguila also maintained that because Jewish pupils have the option of attending Jewish schools, they “cannot complain about the restrictive rulings existing in the state-run schools.”

Arguing against the imposition of any measure that would undermine the basic laws establishing the country’s state-run schools, Aguila concluded his argument by quoting from the Talmud: “Dina dimalchuta, dina.” (“The law of the country is your law.”)

At a state-run school in Creteil, a suburb of Paris with a large Jewish population, most of the teachers were very critical of the court’s decision, the French daily Le Monde reported.

“If you agree on Saturdays for the Jews, why not Fridays for the Muslims and Tuesdays for who known whom?” said a teacher of history and geography.

“Where is this going to stop? Last year, pupils asked me to change the date of a homework assignment because of a celebration for the independence of Israel.

“They are not aware of the fact that they are giving ammunition to the anti- Semites,” the teacher reportedly said.