The JFS case
Jul. 5th, 2009 11:06 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lavendersparkleI might surprise some people by revealing that I am very saddened and angered by the verdict of the Appeals court in the JFS school admissions case.
Some background. JFS is an oversubscribes Orthodox Jewish state school in London. In the UK, state funded faith schools are allowed to give priority to children from their faith communities in their admissions policies. As JFS is very oversubscribed, you can only get in if you're Jewish, and as JFS is an Orthodox school they use an Orthodox definition of who is Jewish. In 2006 a boy applied for the school, whose father was Jewish by Orthodox standards and whose mother had undergone a Conservative conversion. His father enquired about whether it would be possible for the boy to have an Orthodox conversion so that he could go to the school. The London Beth Din replied that conversion would take longer than a year and the boy would not get priority for admissions by virtue of being in the process of conversion. The school was oversubscribed, the boy didn't get into the school. The father appealed but did not win his appeal. He then took the school to court on the grounds of racial discrimination. The school one the case in the High Court, so he appealed and recently won in the Appeals Court. The school, with the backing of the Board of Deputies and the Chief Rabbi, will be appealing the verdict in the House of Lords.
The current policy of JFS means that I would not be able to send my children there, but I am still appalled by the verdict. Lots of people I know are pleased by the verdict because there don't like JFS, for being the epitome of everything which is awful about non-observant 'Orthodox' Anglo-Jewry, the London Beth Din, due to their arsey power politics particularly in the area of conversion, and faith based admission policies. However, the verdict of the Court of Appeal was not about the virtue of the London Beth Din and in my opinion it is worse. What the verdict boils down to, is that the Jewish definition of who is Jewish, is racist. When I say 'Jewish' I mean the definition of Jewishness held by all mainstream Jewish movements. If this verdict is upheld in the Lords it will effect JCOSS's admissions policy just as much as it will effect JFS's. Orthodox, Masorti and Reform Judaism all essentially have the same definition of who is a Jew, they just don't all recognise each other's conversions, but they all agree that you're Jewish if your mother is Jewish or you convert. The Court of Appeal have declared that this definition of who is Jewish is racist, and Jewish schools must instead use a Christian based definition of who is Jewish based upon religious practice. I'm not sure how exactly they propose to measure this. Presumably, as we're already applying Christian standards of religiosity let's go the whole hog, they're going to use synagogue attendance. Never mind that Judaism is a home based anarchic religion in which one can live an observant lifestyle without darkening the doors of your local shul too often, Anglican religiosity is often gauged by church attendance, why shouldn't Jews fall into line. Even if school places genuinely did depend upon observance, do we really want children's school places to depend upon whether anyone saw you drive on shabbat or grab a bite to eat from a non-kosher restaurant?
Another thing which annoys me about the case is that the judges are claiming the JFS admissions depend upon whether the child's mother is Jewish. This is blatantly not true. The majority of JFS pupils (possibly all) will have Jewish mothers, but they are there because they are Jewish. I don't know how the London Beth Din does about child conversions, but there are circumstances in which a child might be Jewish independent of his or her mother. If an Orthodox couple adopted a non-Jewish baby, it is usual for an Orthodox Beth Din to be willing to covert the infant, as long as they are satisfied that it will receive an observant upbringing. It is quite common for children to convert at the same time as their parents, it's possible that a widower or divorcee might convert his children with him. I wonder whether there may not be many children there in these circumstances because JFS isn't frum enough to attract Orthodox converts and their children. I rarely agree with the London Beth Din, but I have to say that if I were contacted by someone who'd suddenly decided he wanted his son to convert so that he could get into a particular school, my reply would be similar to theirs. Conversion to Judaism is a serious undertaking. I would hope that most rabbis of any denomination, faced by someone seeking a quicky conversion so blatantly not 'for the sake of Heaven', would, in the nicest outreachy way possible, tell them that they were being completely unreasonable.
Anyway, what's this world where children's admission to policies depend upon the faith of the child rather than that if his or her parents. Children apply to secondary school at the age of 10 or 11. Of all of my friends who've managed to confound their parents by adopting a different religion, I've never met someone who managed it before the age of 10. I think some of the same people who are applauding the JFS case would be appalled if a religious group converted a child that young without their parents' permission. So all faith schools, even the nice C of E ones, are basing their admissions on the religion of the parents rather than the children.
I just don't think that it's racist for a religious minority to stick to their over 2000 year old definition of who is a member of their religion, rather than have to adopt the definition of used by the majority religion. It's not racist that I couldn't have an aliyah until I converted. It's not racist that Alec can't toivel our dishes whereas our bacon loving friend Rob could. Legally imposing the categories of the majority religion upon a religious minority for no good reason, on the other hand, is oppressive.
Some background. JFS is an oversubscribes Orthodox Jewish state school in London. In the UK, state funded faith schools are allowed to give priority to children from their faith communities in their admissions policies. As JFS is very oversubscribed, you can only get in if you're Jewish, and as JFS is an Orthodox school they use an Orthodox definition of who is Jewish. In 2006 a boy applied for the school, whose father was Jewish by Orthodox standards and whose mother had undergone a Conservative conversion. His father enquired about whether it would be possible for the boy to have an Orthodox conversion so that he could go to the school. The London Beth Din replied that conversion would take longer than a year and the boy would not get priority for admissions by virtue of being in the process of conversion. The school was oversubscribed, the boy didn't get into the school. The father appealed but did not win his appeal. He then took the school to court on the grounds of racial discrimination. The school one the case in the High Court, so he appealed and recently won in the Appeals Court. The school, with the backing of the Board of Deputies and the Chief Rabbi, will be appealing the verdict in the House of Lords.
The current policy of JFS means that I would not be able to send my children there, but I am still appalled by the verdict. Lots of people I know are pleased by the verdict because there don't like JFS, for being the epitome of everything which is awful about non-observant 'Orthodox' Anglo-Jewry, the London Beth Din, due to their arsey power politics particularly in the area of conversion, and faith based admission policies. However, the verdict of the Court of Appeal was not about the virtue of the London Beth Din and in my opinion it is worse. What the verdict boils down to, is that the Jewish definition of who is Jewish, is racist. When I say 'Jewish' I mean the definition of Jewishness held by all mainstream Jewish movements. If this verdict is upheld in the Lords it will effect JCOSS's admissions policy just as much as it will effect JFS's. Orthodox, Masorti and Reform Judaism all essentially have the same definition of who is a Jew, they just don't all recognise each other's conversions, but they all agree that you're Jewish if your mother is Jewish or you convert. The Court of Appeal have declared that this definition of who is Jewish is racist, and Jewish schools must instead use a Christian based definition of who is Jewish based upon religious practice. I'm not sure how exactly they propose to measure this. Presumably, as we're already applying Christian standards of religiosity let's go the whole hog, they're going to use synagogue attendance. Never mind that Judaism is a home based anarchic religion in which one can live an observant lifestyle without darkening the doors of your local shul too often, Anglican religiosity is often gauged by church attendance, why shouldn't Jews fall into line. Even if school places genuinely did depend upon observance, do we really want children's school places to depend upon whether anyone saw you drive on shabbat or grab a bite to eat from a non-kosher restaurant?
Another thing which annoys me about the case is that the judges are claiming the JFS admissions depend upon whether the child's mother is Jewish. This is blatantly not true. The majority of JFS pupils (possibly all) will have Jewish mothers, but they are there because they are Jewish. I don't know how the London Beth Din does about child conversions, but there are circumstances in which a child might be Jewish independent of his or her mother. If an Orthodox couple adopted a non-Jewish baby, it is usual for an Orthodox Beth Din to be willing to covert the infant, as long as they are satisfied that it will receive an observant upbringing. It is quite common for children to convert at the same time as their parents, it's possible that a widower or divorcee might convert his children with him. I wonder whether there may not be many children there in these circumstances because JFS isn't frum enough to attract Orthodox converts and their children. I rarely agree with the London Beth Din, but I have to say that if I were contacted by someone who'd suddenly decided he wanted his son to convert so that he could get into a particular school, my reply would be similar to theirs. Conversion to Judaism is a serious undertaking. I would hope that most rabbis of any denomination, faced by someone seeking a quicky conversion so blatantly not 'for the sake of Heaven', would, in the nicest outreachy way possible, tell them that they were being completely unreasonable.
Anyway, what's this world where children's admission to policies depend upon the faith of the child rather than that if his or her parents. Children apply to secondary school at the age of 10 or 11. Of all of my friends who've managed to confound their parents by adopting a different religion, I've never met someone who managed it before the age of 10. I think some of the same people who are applauding the JFS case would be appalled if a religious group converted a child that young without their parents' permission. So all faith schools, even the nice C of E ones, are basing their admissions on the religion of the parents rather than the children.
I just don't think that it's racist for a religious minority to stick to their over 2000 year old definition of who is a member of their religion, rather than have to adopt the definition of used by the majority religion. It's not racist that I couldn't have an aliyah until I converted. It's not racist that Alec can't toivel our dishes whereas our bacon loving friend Rob could. Legally imposing the categories of the majority religion upon a religious minority for no good reason, on the other hand, is oppressive.