[@Oak7ree] Actually, due to the frequent persecution of Judaism and the fact that we have always been a minority religion, Judaism tended to be fairly cohesive, varying primarily by region.  I did a bit of research to check, and I'm fairly certain your French Jew would probably be Reform, not secular.  Many non-observant Jews consider themselves to be members of the Reform community, and if you simply mean nonobservant I'd go with Reform.  The split into the spectrums of observance happened earlier than I thought, around the time period of the Enlightenment, so late 1700s/early 1800s.  However, most of the smaller branches -- including what is called secular Judaism -- split off several decades into the 20th century.  Secular Judaism, from what I'm seeing, didn't really emerge until after the founding of Israel, at least in Europe.

The main reason for this is that until the Enlightenment, even when not persecuted Jews were generally not seen as citizens, and not granted the rights given their non-Jewish neighbors.  This lead to close-knit communities, and a tendency to stick together.  As they were accepted into wider society, the potential for less observant sects developed, and Reform Judaism was one of the major ones and certainly among the earliest, with a founding date in 1810.  But as a whole, Jews tended to identify as Reform, and not merely culturally Jewish or secular Jews, as far as I know.

Huh.  And it seems that a /very/ large percentage of Jews, at least today, see themselves as at least partially secular.  [url=http://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/jewish-secularism/#]This[/url] is a really interesting article discussing the idea of being both secular and Jewish -- something that I've never much thought /why/ about, but certainly accept as something that exists.  ANYHOW.  Just Shy being Shy here, she can totally be secular if that's really what you want, and I'm sure there's a way to swing it.

As for her Judaism being an issue, I'm certain it was.  eSpecially as France has been occupied, and I believe Vichy France is around, Jews were required to wear stars either by now or in the near future, and many were sent to camps.