Lord Carey Backs Call To Change Law After JFS Verdict

Chloe Markowicz - Thursday 24th December 2009


The JFS campus

Former Archbishop of Canterbury Lord Carey this week backed calls for a change in the law to enable faith schools to determine their own admissions policy in the wake of the Supreme Court ruling that JFS's policy is discriminatory.

Lord Carey told the Jewish News that he approved of the Board of Deputies' plan to urgently pursue a change in the legislation after the Supreme Court last week ruled that the Jewish school in north-west London had broken race relation laws. Lord Carey, who was archbishop until 2002, said: "I agree with the Board of Deputies on this matter. The Jews make an enormous contribution to British society. Sadly this decision discriminates against a fine Jewish school that has a fine record of tolerance. There surely is a compelling argument for changing the law."

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The JFS case is centered around a boy who had been refused entry to the school because he was not considered Jewish according to the office of the Chief Rabbi. The boy had a Jewish father and a mother who had converted to Judaism.
It was not, however, an Orthodox conversion.

During the case, which JFS lost in a 5-4 ruling, the judges suggested the discrimination law may be flawed. Lady Hale, who voted that the school's admissions criteria was directly discriminatory, said that there may be a case to allow Jewish schools to base their admissions criteria on religious law, even if the criteria is "ethnically based". She added this allowance "should be made by Parliament and not by the courts" and suggested the change be made through the Equality Bill, currently going through the House of Lords.

The Board said it was considering proposing an amendment to the Equality Bill. However, a spokesperson said: "Since the basis of how we operate is entirely by consensus, only following community consultations with all of the relevant bodies, would the Board take a lead in spearheading legislative change. As time is tight, these consultations have already begun."

The Board has said it is currently discussing the "appropriateness of a legislative amendment" with the Community Consultative Committee, a cross-communal organisation made up of United Synagogue, Spanish and Portuguese, Masorti, Reform and Liberal representatives.

JFS has said it would be "supportive" of the initiative to change the law but
it was "leaving it in the Board's hands". Russell Kett, chairman of governors at JFS, said: "This is a broader issue than a single school and the Board of Deputies is better placed to deal with it."

JFS can appeal to the European Court of Human Rights, however the Jewish News understands this is unlikely, although no decisions have yet been taken.
Rabbi Dr Jonathan Romain, chair of The Accord Coalition, which campaigns for inclusive education, expressed concern about the Board's initiative to amend the legislation. He said: "Any amendment that undermines this position and restores the ability of JFS to pursue a discriminatory admissions policy would be deeply offensive to many within British Jewry. The Board would be unwise to pursue any such legislation unless it spoke for the entire Jewish community, and that would certainly not apply in this case."

Likewise, Rabbi Tony Bayfield, head of the Movement for Reform Judaism, said he would "be opposed to any attempt to legislate in a way which attempted to revert to the status quo before the case".

Jonathan Arkush, a barrister and senior vice president of the Board, said that the Supreme Court's decision "prejudices the whole of the Jewish community" rather than just Orthodox Jews. He said a simple amendment to the Equalities Bill could change this. He added: "The wording of the amendment is not decided yet but it would be along the lines of a statement saying that it is not unlawful for a school to select pupils according to religious reasons."

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