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Top Jewish school in court over admissions policy
27 Oct 2009A top Jewish school accused of breaking the Race Relations Act over its admissions policy goes to the Supreme Court today.
JFS (formerly the Jews' Free School) in Brent, north-west London refused to admit a boy because his mother was not officially recognised as a Jew.
Three judges at the Court of Appeal ruled in June this year that this entry criteria racially discriminated against the boy, referred to as M.
The boy's father is Jewish by birth, but his mother is Jewish by conversion conducted at a Progressive rather than an Orthodox synagogue and therefore not recognised by the Office of the Chief Rabbi (OCR), Dr Jonathan Sacks.
It is a basic principle that a child is not recognised by the OCR and other bodies as Jewish unless his or her mother is Jewish.
JFS argued in court that its admissions policy giving preference to Jewish children when the school was oversubscribed was lawful because it was based on religious and not racial criteria.
But the appeal judges said that "the requirement that if a pupil is to qualify for admission his mother must be Jewish, whether by descent or by conversion, is a test of ethnicity which contravenes the Race Relations Act".
The discrimination against M could not be justified, said Lords Justices Sedley and Rimer and Lady Justice Smith.
The school's appeal at the Supreme Court will be heard by a panel of seven judges headed by Lord Phillips.
Reader views (1)
Best of luck to the JFS in their fight against Labour's marxist social engineering. Balls and his ilk want to destroy cherished traditions in favour of sludgy uniformity.
And by the way, I'm a Catholic!
- Brian, London, 28/10/2009 18:36
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