Jewish school in France shuttered over shocking revelations

By Cindi Cook

PARIS (AA) – A Jewish school in France’s Loire Valley was shuttered on Monday after shocking findings were uncovered over the students’ treatment, living and sanitary conditions, local media reported.

Yeshiva Beth Yossef, an ultra-Orthodox boarding school in Bussieres, a commune in the Seine-et-Marne north of Paris, came under scrutiny as officials found that students were living in filthy surroundings, often deprived of food, and verbally abused by their instructors and administrators.

Over 100 gendarmeries carried out an investigation in which 16 school officials were taken into custody. After the proceedings were launched last year, 40 students were placed in temporary homes.

Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin reacted quickly and forcefully in a tweet: “We fight against all sectarian aberrations. An investigation is open and we will draw all the consequences.”

The public prosecutor in Meaux declared that the investigation would revolve around “deprivation of care and food … aggravated abuse of weakness … organized kidnapping, and aggravated violence.”

The investigation was launched initially at the school after one of its students ran away in July 2021, reporting afterwards that school officials were violent with pupils and that the food served was often expired, and that at times students were deprived of it entirely. Living conditions, the student said, were derelict and pupils were often highly isolated for years.

Yeshiva Beth Yossef has been in operation since 1948 and is comprised of undeclared students from Israel and the US.