France Recognizes Shavuot As An Official Holiday

Sources: EJP (European Jewish Press) and France public holidays. The Jewish festival of Shavuot has been added to the Journal Officiel (the government's gazette), to join Rosh Hashana, the Jewish New Year, and Yom Kippur or Day of Atonement, which were already there.

This does not mean that Shavuot festival will become a general public holiday in France, but its addition to the government gazette was an important issue for the French Jewish community, as the festival falls in May or June annually (June 9 in 2008 and May 29 in 2009) and this causes problems for practicing Jewish students who, depending on their level of orthodoxy have to either miss final exams altogether, or at least curtail their studying. Jewish students will now be allowed to take exams at different dates that do not conflict with the festival of Shavuot.