British Jews Unable To Develop Consensus For Legislative Change To School Admissions

JTA reported yesterday that Britain's Jewish community is divided on seeking a legislative change to reverse the UK Supreme Court's decision last December holding that Jewish schools could not use the traditional definition of who is Jewish for purposes of admissions. (See prior posting.) All denominations within the Jewish community are distressed that the court rejected a definition linked to religious law. However the non-Orthodox Jewish movements want any legislation to require Orthodox Jewish schools to accept converts from the Liberal and Reform branches of Judaism as well. The Orthodox movement is unwilling to accept this. The umbrella organization for British Jews, the Board of Deputies, has decided that without consensus it will just take a wait-and-see approach and watch how implementation of the court's ruling plays out.