THIS CHAPTER compares the background, attitudes, values, and practices of French Jewish families who send their children to Jewish day schools with those of other such families who send their children to public (state) schools or non-Jewish private schools. Choice of school plays a pivotal role in the formation and expression of French Jewish identity.

The issue of school choice and the struggle of French Jews to preserve their identity must be understood in the context of the long and rich history of the Jews in France. Throughout their many centuries in the country, the Jewish community waxed and waned as its members were subjected to periodic legal restrictions, punitive taxation, violent attacks, attempts at forced conversion, ‘blood libel’ trials, and expulsion orders. Despite all this, the Jewish communities in the region persevered; indeed, some of the most famous Torah scholars of all time came from France. The Enlightenment and the French Revolution brought political emancipation to the Jews. However, the equality extended to all French citizens under the republic was granted with the expectation that allegiance would be exclusively to the state, and that all affiliation with ethnic or religious communities would be strictly private and subordinate to citizenship. This philosophy, which discourages affiliation with ethnic or religious sub-groups, still guides the political culture of France.

Today, the Jewish community of France is the second largest diaspora community in the world, and one of the most vibrant. The French Jewish community has experienced major demographic and cultural upheavals since the Second World War. Under Nazi occupation during the Vichy regime a quarter of the Jews of France were killed or deported, and the institutional and educational structure of the community was almost completely destroyed. The psychological impact was equally traumatic. In the decades following the war, Jewish refugees from other European countries as well as half a million Jews from France's newly independent colonies in north Africa migrated to France. French Jews today, while patriotic and largely integrated into French culture, are attempting to navigate a path between expression of Jewish identity and respect for the republican ideals of universalism and laïcité (secularism).