JFS pupil selection: race discrimination or religious freedom? asks Craig Rose
The Court of Appeal has affirmed that Jewish schools can give preference to Jewish children in their selection policies, but has effectively made it impossible for them to apply the age-old Orthodox Jewish religious criteria for determining whether or not someone is Jewish (see R (on the application of E) v Governing Body of the Jews’ Free School (the United Synagogue intervening) [2009] EWCA Civ 626, [2009] All ER (D) 260 (Jun)).
The definition of Jewishness in Halachah, the ancient body of Jewish law, is simple—you are Jewish if you were born of a mother who was herself Jewish by birth or conversion. It’s irrelevant that your father was Jewish or not Jewish. Nor does it matter what a person believes or practises. As long as he was born of a Jewish mother, an atheist who eats pork chops on Yom Kippur is as much a Jew as the Chief Rabbi. This reflects the fundamental tenet of Orthodox Judaism that the Jews are a people as well as a religious group. The degree to
