Charlie Wolf

Lessons Anglo-Jewry Must Learn From JFS Ruling

Friday 3rd 2009f July 2009

The Jewish community has been disadvantaged by a misunderstanding. There is one attribute to Judaism that is exclusive to us - we are more than a religion. We are a people - we are the Children of Israel.

Instead of being judged as a religion we must be judged ethnically. Whatever our place of birth, Britain, Israel, America - many of us are first generation Brits and Yanks, different from the birth of our refugee parents, we are still Jewish. Unlike friends of mine who are Italian Americans or Irish Americans, I don't think back to the good old days of the Russian pogroms; my heart doesn't hearken back to halcyon days in Eastern Europe. I do not see myself as anything other than an American Jew.

The implications of this understanding of ethnicity versus religion are great. It explains my right to live in the land of Israel is just as strong as my Italian or Irish American friends' right to live in the land of their fathers.
It also explains some of the problems with the Appeal Court ruling in the JFS admissions affair.

It appears that the court has created a conundrum of its own making. The judges made it clear - as the BBC reports - that Jews constituted "a racial group defined principally by ethnic origin and additionally by conversion". So, setting up a trap, they declared that to discriminate on grounds that Child M's mother was not Jewish was, racial discrimation.

In the ruling, they declared: "This does not mean... that no Jewish faith school can ever give preference to Jewish children. It means that, as one would expect, eligibility must depend on faith, however defined and not on ethnicity."

But, uniquely in the Jewish faith it is based both on racial ethnicity and religious practice. The two are intertwined. What the court favours is a religious practice test - which in our faith (and not necessarily others) is a weaker test of Judaism.

Of course, this has created problems of the Jewish community's own making. In The Guardian, in an article entitled 'The oppression of Orthodoxy' Antony Lerman argues that the US and the Office of the Chief Rabbi have had it too good for too long. What gives them the right to speak essentially for all Jews in the UK? Fair point.

But that also goes for the Liberals and Reform Judaism. In a response to the court, Liberal Judaism's Rabbi Danny Rich states, "The JFS is a state comprehensive funded by taxpayers, has been exclusively following one religious authority and ignoring the rest," he said. He is glad that the court's ruling will mean "that the JFS will now be open to children from all types of Jewish background[s]..."

But the same can be said of Liberal and Reform schools. As a parent, I know of the song-and-dance we have to go through to get our children in a good Jewish school. Akiva, at the Sternberg Centre, for instance, requires two years membership at a Reform synagogue.

There are parents who pay to belong to more than one shul to insure the education needs of their children.

There are many parents who may not fully agree with Reform Judaism but think Akiva is a good school. There are some who may not be able to live up to the standards of Orthodox Judaism, but want to give their children a chance at that life.

This is a complicated situation for all of us.

Firstly, we need to define that Judaism is based on birth or proper conversion; this needs to be respected by the state. We must take this all the way to the House of Lords if needed.

Schools must be open to all Jewish children - as long as they respect the school rules and standards. Orthodox Jews may think cross-communal schools beneath them or not delivering their full needs. We should respect that but still the offer should be there for those that want it. If Liberal parents want to send their children to Hillel or Orthodox to Akiva we should do our best to accommodate them.

We must work together to help Jewish parents find a Jewish school that meets their children's needs both in secular education and Limmudei Kodesh. For the sake of our Jewish identity, the opportunity for any Jewish schooling over state secular schools is important.

We desperately need more Jewish schools. That will take more investment. We need more people like Benjamin Perl who has invested heavily in Jewish education. We need a community wide effort with all - even the childless - contributing something. The money distributed as needed to each denomination in the community.

We are a people with one shared world view and within that people many diverse groupings. But we are a chosen people with an obligation to maintain our history and identity. The education of our children is paramount to that end.

• Voice your opinion on the JFS ruling, by emailing letters@jewishnews.co.uk