Church and State in England: Who is a Jew?

Oy; you think we have problems keeping church and state separate? What with the annual December dilemma, with crèche scenes on public property declared constitutionally protected if part of an exhibit featuring Santa and reindeer, what with rabbis lighting Chanukah menorahs in the State House? In Britain, takah, they have problems beyond your wildest fears. The government in the guise of its newly established Supreme Court, has taken onto itself the responsibility of defining who is a Jew. Yes, I’m talking about Gentile judges in England, not Haredi rabbis in Israel.

The case, which was decided a couple of months ago in mid-December (your columnist is sometimes a bit slow on the uptake) concerned a boy called “M” in court papers who was denied admission to a Jewish school. “M” comes from an observant family where the father is Jewish and the mother a convert to Judaism through the Reform movement. (In Britain Reform roughly equates to Conservative, while Liberal means Reform as in America.) He applied to the state-supported Jews’ Free School founded in 1732 but was rejected on the grounds that he was not Jewish according to Orthodox halachah, since his mother had been converted by a non-Orthodox rabbi.

So the boy’s parents sued, arguing that the school had discriminated against him. The family lost, but the ruling was overturned by the Court of Appeals. Ultimately the case reached Britain’s Supreme Court, which ratified the Appeals Court decision in a 5-4 ruling, saying that basing school admission on whether one’s mother is Jewish is by definition discriminatory and in violation of the 1976 Race Relations Act.

Hurrah for the Liberals, eh? Well, not quite. The Modern Orthodox establishment (it’s called the United Synagogue) and a great many liberals are deeply concerned. It’s bad enough that the school, a Jewish institution had defined “M” as not being Jewish, but now the government was deciding who was and who wasn’t. There’s a very dangerous precedent for this. Actually there are several dangerous precedents. I’m thinking of Nazi Germany and Communist Russia, both of which were in the business of defining who was a Jew—but not for any particular Jew’s advantage as in this case, I might add.

The decision has left British Jewry divided. Not only did the decision open up the possibility that non-Jews could qualify for admission, but that the government, rather than Jewish religious authorities, can determine who is Jewish in Britain.

Another problem: Jewish groups in Britain remain concerned that the ruling, might stigmatize Judaism as a discriminatory religion anytime schools give preference to those who are Jewish according to Jewish law. However, the president of the court, Nicholas Phillips, said in announcing the verdict that it did not mean that those responsible for the school’s admissions policy had acted in a way that was “racist as that word is generally understood.” Very comforting. Jews could now be called racists of a different stripe.

So now the Orthodox want to fight the ruling, the liberals like what the ruling says, but not the fact that there was a ruling. The Jews’ Free School and other state-funded Jewish schools have made some major adjustments to their admissions criteria. The criteria now focus on requiring applicants to demonstrate participation in faith-based activities, such as synagogue attendance -- something the Chief Rabbi characterized as “a Christian solution for a Jewish school.”

And why do British Jews face the problem of the government defining who and what they are? Because in Britain there is no separation between religion and the state. The Anglican Church is official but so as not to be discriminatory, others are also allowed state funding. But the piper has to be paid, or, to mix my clichés he who holds the purse strings calls the tune. In the case of “M” the Orthodox establishment which takes state money disenfranchised a boy whose family is religiously observant. Foolish school; had it not, the state would not have had the opportunity to declare who is a Jew. The Haredi don’t have this problem. No governmental court is going to define who can attend their schools because they don’t accept funding from the government. Smart Haredi; they didn’t go for the bait which has snared the others. Now if only they’d stop lighting Chanukah menorahs at the State House.