Religious Instruction to Start Shortly in Eight Wholly Jewish Schools in Turkey

Religious instruction in the eight wholly Jewish schools in Turkey is expected to begin shortly, it was learned here today.

Instruction will begin as soon as the government Department of Public Education, which recently ordered the teaching of religion in all schools, approves a new textbook on Jewish religion written by the Chief Rabbinate. Although religious teaching was optional in the past the Jewish schools could not offer such courses because of lack of adequate texts.

The French schools in Istanbul, however, were giving religious instruction to their Jewish students, using French textbooks for the purpose. The trend among Jews in this city is, increasingly, to send their children to French and American secondary schools rather than to the Jewish school where registration has declined severely and where the administration has been criticized by large segments of the community.