Home » News » France: Justice declares legal the cessation of CAF aid to a Jewish leisure center

France: Justice declares legal the cessation of CAF aid to a Jewish leisure center

In 2018, the Chné-Or leisure center in Aubervilliers (Seine-Saint-Denis), attached to the school of the same name, saw its subsidies from the Caisse d’allocations familiales (CAF) of Seine-Saint-Denis be suspended following “breaches” of the principles of secularism and non-mixing.

In a judgment of January 17, 2023, the Administrative Court of Appeal of Versailles, seized by the leisure center, confirmed the legality of the cessation of these aids, reported the Seine-Saint-Denis News website.

The CAF had in fact suspended its subsidies to the establishment after its agents had noted that the children were wearing “clothes” characteristic of observant Jews, that “exclusively kosher” meals were served to them, and that “wall decorations at religious connotation” were hung on the walls of the Orthodox Jewish school of Lubavitch obedience hosting the leisure center.

The agents had also noted a “lack of gender diversity”, which was “not justified by objective and pedagogical considerations”.

The leisure center had thus taken legal action, asking 147,000 euros in compensation from CAF. The establishment had already been dismissed at first instance.

According to its management, the decision of the CAF contravened “fundamental freedoms” such as “freedom of conscience”. The establishment also explained that the principle of secularism should “combine with religious freedom, freedom of expression and freedom of association”, and that it “in no way violated the principle of non-discrimination”.

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