There is a well-known dictum in the Talmud, "the law of the land is the law". It laid down that, on civil matters, Jews should obey the law of the countries of their dispersion. For modern-day Jews in the UK, this has never been a problem, for they have enjoyed the freedom to practise their religion as they wish. But now an appeal court ruling has touched a raw nerve in the Jewish community, leading the chief rabbi to go so far as to say that it has, in effect, branded Judaism as racist.Two years ago a boy, known as M in the legal papers, was turned down for a place by JFS, a state-aided comprehensive in London, which is under the religious jurisdiction of the chief rabbi. According to traditional Jewish law, a child is Jewish if his mother is Jewish. But M is the son of a mother who was converted to Judaism by a non-Orthodox rabbi, and hence neither she nor her son is Jewish in the eyes of the Orthodox establishment.
There is a well-known dictum in the Talmud, "the law of the land is the law". It laid down that, on civil matters, Jews should obey the law of the countries of their dispersion. For modern-day Jews in the UK, this has never been a problem, for they have enjoyed the freedom to practise their religion as they wish. But now an appeal court ruling has touched a raw nerve in the Jewish community, leading the chief rabbi to go so far as to say that it has, in effect, branded Judaism as racist.
Two years ago a boy, known as M in the legal papers, was turned down for a place by JFS, a state-aided comprehensive in London, which is under the religious jurisdiction of the chief rabbi. According to traditional Jewish law, a child is Jewish if his mother is Jewish. But M is the son of a mother who was converted to Judaism by a non-Orthodox rabbi, and hence neither she nor her son is Jewish in the eyes of the Orthodox establishment.
No state supported faith based education. keep to the Fen Causeway
