School Policy Slammed

The Barkingside school, which operates under the auspices of the United Synagogue, has announced it has changed its admission policy to accept pupils who are not Jewish under orthodox law.

But Rabbi Alex Chapper, minister of Ilford Federation Synagogue, told the Jewish News the decision would “seriously undermine the future of the school”.
He said he would speak out about the issue during his Shabbat sermon, claiming it would be preferable to admit non-Jewish children of all religions than institute a “policy that effectively recognises the liberal definition of ‘who is a Jew’”.

The controversial decision was made following to a drop in applications brought about by a decline in the local community and the imminent opening of a rival school in north west London. A recent change in the law meant that if the school could not fill its places it would be required to take pupils of other faiths.

Rabbi Chapper insisted: “If you can’t fill the places with Jewish children then I think the best option would be to open it up to children of any other religion as long as they are sensitive to the ethos of the school.”

“I think that would be better than to say now we recognise children who are paternally Jewish. It would be a clearer distinction and no one could be in any doubt. Children do not make a distinction between matrilineal Jewish or paternally Jewish.”

Rabbi Chapper claimed he was not in any way attacking the school but was criticising the “flawed logic” of the governors, who he said showed “a lack of ambition to find a more creative solution”.

And, he said, he would refuse to send any of his three children, the eldest of who is five-years-old, to the school if the new admissions policy was still in place.

“I’m fairly confident that my congregants who have children at the school wouldn’t be happy with this change. The fact it is an orthodox Jewish school was a major motivation in their decision to send their children there.”

The parent of one pupil, who wished to remain anonymous, told the Jewish News: “Being a Jewish school it should be a Jewish school. It won’t affect me personally because my son is in his last year. Even so, I wouldn’t have taken him out of the school because of it.

“But it’s strange that the headmaster has introduced stricter rules to make the school more orthodox – such as making the girls wear long skirts and the boys wear cupels at all times – but this seems to go against that.”

King Solomon Chair of Governors David Bajer told the Jewish News the change in the law regarding admissions policies had forced the decision on the school.

“Our admissions criteria – which works down a list of various levels of Jewishness – are laid down by the United Synagogue. We’ve taken guidance from the organisation of which we are a part.”

The list is believed to have been adopted by all US schools from late 2003. However, in what some might see as double standards, the policy didn’t come into play last year when a child with a Jewish father and a mother whose conversion was in dispute, applied to JFS. In that instance, the school had been able to fill its quota with more halachically acceptable students.

Bajer said Rabbi Chapper’s contention that it would be preferable to take in pupils of other faiths was “an interesting argument” that governors had wrestled with, but added: “I think there are no easy answers”.

And he insisted that the number of children from observant families in the Redbridge area was much smaller than in north west London.

“I don’t think this policy would deter parents from sending their children to the school more than any other would do. A lot of parents send their children there for a strong secular education.

“Cutting the number of forms would mean a cut in funding, which would also deter parents and the local authority would not support it, which means it would go to adjudication.”

Rabbi James Kennard was unavailable for comment. But in October 2005 he told the Jewish News that any attempt to force Jewish state schools to accept pupils of other religions would “seriously threaten” their character, as well as the identity of the community as whole.

The United Synagogue, meanwhile, refused to make any comment on Rabbi Chapper’s remarks.