Helen Gill questions why the Equality Act exempts faith schools from its provisions
The decision in R(E) v JFS [2008] EWHC 1665 (Admin) has been championed as clarifying the meaning of race discrimination under the Race Relations Act 1977 (RRA 1976). However, would it be better regarded as a stark illustration of the limits of developing equality jurisprudence?
JFS is a school whose admissions policy prioritises children who are recognised as Jewish by the Office of the Chief Rabbi (OCR) of the United Congregation of the Commonwealth. E’s son, M, was denied admission to the school because M’s mother’s conversion to Orthodox Judaism was undertaken by an “independent progressive synagogue” rather than by a category of synagogue approved of by the OCR.
M was unable to attend the school, although he “is recognised as Jewish by the Reform synagogues of Great Britain and the Assembly of Masorti synagogues, practises his own Jewish faith, prays in Hebrew and attends synagogue and a Jewish youth group”. An atheist child of an atheist family (or a child whose family practised
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