THE Church of England has welcomed a High Court ruling that the oversubscribed Jewish Free School (JFS) in north London did not break the law, when it rejected a boy’s application for a place because his mother’s conversion to Judaism was not recognised by the Office of the Chief Rabbi. The boy’s mother, formerly a Roman Catholic, had converted before his birth to the Progressive Jewish tradition.
Rejecting the father’s application for a judicial review, Mr Justice Munby said JFS’s policy of giving preference to children who are Jewish, applying Orthodox principles, was essential to its legitimate aim of pursuing its Orthodox ethos. If the father had won the case, it could have rendered unlawful “the admissions arrangements in a large number of faith schools of many different faiths”.
Canon David Whittington, the national schools officer, said: “All religious bodies are going to be sympathetic to children refused admission to their schools. However, religious schools have a duty under the admissions code of practice to determine what it means to belong to their religious tradition.”
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