Children of French Immigrants Forging Ahead in Many Fields

The beginning of the school year again arouses the expectation, always fulfilled, that at its close a new group of outstanding Jewish pupils will have come to the fore.

France has many exemplary Jewish students who receive prizes and various other honors at the end of every school year, just before the Summer vacation begins. A large number of these children come from immigrant homes. Many have not been in the country more than a year when they are chosen the most promising in their classes.

To a large extent this ability of the Jewish pupils is given full scope only because of the friendly attitude of teachers and pupils towards foreigners, who are not differentiated from native Frenchmen in any way.

TREATED AS EQUAL

This attitude was emphasized last Spring in a speech delivered in one of the Jewish quarters by a former parliamentary deputy, who declared that Jewish parents could rest assured their children would receive equal treatment with all others, once they crossed the threshold of the school.

The children of yesterday’s Jewish immigrants have already made careers for themselves in many fields of French culture. Moreover, they are considered by many the future leaders of French Jewry, having quickly thrown off their East European distinguishing qualities. Immigrant Jews are among the outstanding French writers of today, among the more popular actors and most prominent journalists. Several of the children of a Jewish tailor who came here from a small town in Poland are considered the most promising of the younger members of the Comedie Francaise.

MANY GRACE STAGE

This is nothing new in France, where the children of immigrants from Poland, Rumania and the Russia of other days soon found their way to the stage. Suffice it to mention Ida Rubenstein, whom Sarah Bernhardt called her successor. Miss Rubenstein’s family came here from Warsaw several decades ago.

There are also many prominent Jewish actors, industrialists and bankers in France.

The children of the German refugees, too, have already, in the space of one year, distinguished themselves in their classes and have shown a firm grasp of the French language.

PRESENTED TO PRESIDENT

Every year, a number of the prize-winning pupils are presented to the President. At one of the recent presentations, a young Jewish boy asked whether he might write a message to the President. When his request was granted, the boy pleaded that his father be granted citizenship, that he might be a Frenchman along with his children, who were born in this country. The incident was the talk of the Jewish quarter for days.