Gilles Bergeron, assistant deputy Minister of Education of the Province of Quebec, gave assurances here today that a third-grade reader, which had been used in French-language schools here and which depicted a Jewish father throwing his son in an oven for attending a Roman Catholic church, would not be used next year.
The official’s statement followed a complaint about the book by Rabbi Morris Halpern of Toronto. The text is one of three available to Quebec’s French-language schools, and can be bought in bookstores for 80 cents. Mr. Bergeron said that proper measures will be taken to ensure that the text, “My Third Reading Book,” will not be used in future school years. The Roman Catholic School Board here said that the book was not currently in use, although it had been used in previous years.
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
