French Leader Bans Non-Pork Options from School Menus

French far-right Front National party leader Marine Le Pen Image by Getty Images

By JTA April 6, 2014

Non-pork options for Jewish and Muslim students will no longer be offered in school menus in towns where the far-right National Front party won local elections, the head of the party said.

“We will not accept any religious demands in school menus,” National Front party leader Marine Le Pen said in an interview on RTL radio on Friday. “There is no reason for religion to enter the public sphere, that’s the law.”

National Front candidates were elected mayors in 11 municipalities in the vote on March 30 — a dramatic increase over the party’s previous record of four mayors in 1997, the news site europe1.fr reported. A record number of French voters did not cast ballots, however.

Rabbi Menachem Margolin, general director of the European Jewish Association, strongly condemned Marine Le Pen’s “vicious call that undermines religious freedom in France.”

Margolin told JTA that he has called upon all “enlightened forces” in France and the European Union, “to unite against the exclusion of entire populations from educational institutions in the country.”

A law passed in 2004 in France bans the wearing of all conspicuous religious symbols in public schools, including kippahs and Islamic veils and headscarves. A law passed in 2010 bans the wearing of veils in public places.

A message from our Publisher & CEO Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

The coming year promises to be filled with more complex and historic developments. We are entering an era where independent, fact-based Jewish journalism will be more important than ever. We need to be ready for whatever 2025 will bring, and with your help, we can be.

We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.

If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.

— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO