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UK: Jewish school accused of racism

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posted on Mar, 6 2008 @ 04:00 AM
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UK: Jewish school accused of racism


www.ynetnews.com

North London school refuses to grant place to 11-year-old boy whose mother converted to Judaism but is not recognized by Chief Rabbi's Office
(visit the link for the full news article)


Related News Links:
www.telegraph.co.uk



posted on Mar, 6 2008 @ 04:00 AM
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This school needs to understand that the UK isn't an apartheid state. If it cannot operate within the law it should be closed.

www.ynetnews.com
(visit the link for the full news article)



posted on Mar, 6 2008 @ 10:22 AM
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OMG... Look Racism and Creedism everywhere.

No one is clean of any of these.

WAKE UP PEOPLE!!



posted on Mar, 6 2008 @ 10:35 AM
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I'm shocked that they are giving out excuses like this. I'm also shocked that they would say they give preference to children of jewish born mothers.

I'm not suprised that someone filed a suit. The competition to get into private schools is insane in some places and the anger over not getting in can often prod a parent into going public with these kinds of reasons for rejection, thus my comment in the first paragraph above.

Here in NYC, the competition is such that there are stories of donations being made to schools and kids still not getting in. What it all boils down to is the school is private and they are going to come across situations where there are two or more kids who are identical in every area so they need to find more criteria to help narrow down the decision process. I wonder if there are kids attending, or who have attended the school who did get in, even tho their mother converted.

It's discrimination for sure but it goes on in every private school, the only difference is the type of discrimination. Is it worse than not allowing a child to attend you school because you don't think the parents will donate as much money as another parent or because one child's parents don't summer in a certain place or attend services at the right church or temple?



posted on Mar, 6 2008 @ 10:59 AM
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Catholic schools and CofE schools have been doing this for years - muslim schools also do it.

Why is it a problem because jewish schools are doing it.

I sense an agenda in the article - no surprise there though, it's from The Guradian, a paper run by a selfstyled left wing liberal elite.

They want fairness - but only on their terms and only for those it considers "worthy"

If this were a school for say, one legged lesbian dwarfs, then they wouldn't have a problem keeing others out - all in the name of inclusivity, which only they want to apply.

BAH



posted on Mar, 6 2008 @ 11:05 AM
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This isn't about refusing anyone who doesn't have a Jewish mother. To be Jewish you have to be born to a Jewish mother. Call it matrilineal inheritance...

But that was wrong of them, if the mother converted then they are being bums :p

I do think it's wrong though that they don't consider children who "converted" on their own to be jewish. This does sound like an "orthodox" school though so it would be expected. It's like applying to become Amish, it just wouldn't happen...

[edit on 6-3-2008 by monkey_descendant]



posted on Mar, 6 2008 @ 11:12 AM
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It's a State run school?

Perhaps it's time to examine this issue more closely and do away with tax payer funding for religious oriented schools altogether. I am guessing that, should this woman seek damages at all, it would be paid by the state as well.
Time to get back to a level playing field state run education system that caters to all. If any religious groups protest that the curriculum doesn't cater to their specific needs or beliefs then they are free to set up their own schools outside of the education system and without any state support. As long as the state schools keep religion out of the classroom and stick to the basics then it should work. Having said that, I can then see we'd have the Christian Fundie parents of little Johnny complaining that creationism is not being taught.

You can't please all the people all of the time though



posted on Mar, 6 2008 @ 11:22 AM
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Originally posted by budski
Catholic schools and CofE schools have been doing this for years - muslim schools also do it.

Why is it a problem because jewish schools are doing it.

I sense an agenda in the article - no surprise there though, it's from The Guradian, a paper run by a selfstyled left wing liberal elite.


In fairness, I think this has been reported relatively widely in the UK media - the telegraph has covered it too, and that's hardly "a paper run by a self-styled left wing liberal elite".

I'm not sure that in practice Catholic schools or CofE schools HAVE been doing anything similar for years. Where I grew up there were a number of catholic schools and a number of CofE schools - and locally throughout my school life there was a debate about the merits of "faith schools" over the standard mixed-faith secondary education. I don't recall anyone being turned away from a CofE school. I went to one, and was subsequently confirmed, but that had nothing to do with my school, and I think you'd have to go a long way to find a less religious bunch than my schoolmates... There were however at least 2 orthodox Jews in my class, and I believe 3 or 4 Muslims (of various levels of orthodoxy). I can't say for sure that my school was representative of the country as a whole, but I've never heard of the practice that you mention, budski.

The fact is though that we are comparing chalk with cheese here. A brief bit of research shows that there are around 16 Jewish secondary schools in the whole of the UK (see link here. There are about 150 CofE schools in London alone. There are even 127 Muslim schools. It's clear that Jewish schools are far rarer. In those circumstances I can understand, if the school is orthodox, that it has a selection policy that works on an orthodoc basis. I'm not Jewish and am no expert on the religion, but even I know that matrilineal descent is important to orthodox judaism. This is a specialised school operating orthodox rules - in an area better served for secondary schools than 99% of the country. So what if this child didn't get a place? 20% of children DON'T get their first choice school in this country (see link here) - if you apply to a specialist school like this and don't get a place, I'd say you're a little foolish to be surprised....

LW




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