A study shows that the majority of French students have anti -Semitic ideas. Many also hear negative remarks about the Jews around them.
The resurgence of anti -Semitism in France since October 7, 2023 raises questions for the youngest. Do students from the colleges and high schools in France have anti-Semitic behaviors or are they exposed to hateful remarks towards the Jews? According to a study Ifop for the Representative Council of Jewish Institutions of France (CRIF) carried out by self-administered online questionnaire from February 7 to 12, 2025 with a sample of 2,000 people, representative of the population of second degree students (college and high school), they are a majority to have heard the evil of the Jews around them (51%). An exposure to anti -Semitic remarks that can have an impact in the youngest in their way of thinking. In addition, these remarks do not only come from other students, 25% have heard them from a family member, 24% of a religious, 13% of a teacher from their establishment …
Many of them join anti-Jewish prejudices, such as “the Jews have very powerful lobbies which intervene at the highest level”, “the Jews use the Holocaust and the genocide of which they were victims to defend their interests” and “the Jews control the media” … in all, 54% of the students interviewed express at least one of these prejudices.
Insults accepted by almost a third of students
The students who responded to the IFOP study were shown anti -Semitic insults, such as “a Jew is rich”, “the Jews, we recognize them” (by referring to the nose of a student), “that gauze?” (towards a Jewish student), or “Hitler, he could have finished the work”. There are 26% to estimate that at least one of these remarks is acceptable.
We note in this study that some students’ profiles are more likely to share this anti -Semitic vision. For example, 34% of students positioning themselves politically on the far left and 30% in the far right, assure that they would react badly in the event of a member of a member of their siblings with a Jew/Ve. 45% of Muslims would not accept to establish certain relationships with Jewish confession students. 74% of Protestants have already heard Jews in their entourage. It can also be noted that prejudices are propagated rather in an older population, among 17 and over (62%).