Labour's relationship with the British Jewish community has been tense in recent years, particularly under Corbyn's leadership.
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A leading member of London’s Jewish community, Rabbi Hershel Gluck, has voiced his fears over a proposed education bill.
The Children’s Wellbeing Bill will be debated during this parliament and focuses on a wide range of issues. This includes free breakfast clubs, uniform costs, school inspections and the regulation of home schools.
Home school regulation has proven to be a source of friction with Britain’s Orthodox Jewish community. There are approximately 146,000 Jewish people living in London, more than half of the country’s total population. Thousands of Jewish children, predominantly male, attend the yeshiva system, which has little secular teaching and focuses on the study of Rabbinic literature.
Last week campaigners returned to Westminster to protest against attempts to regulate the Jewish school system. The crowd was made up primarily of members of the Orthodox Jewish community.
Hershel Gluck, a British rabbi and president of the Shomrim, a Jewish volunteer Neighbourhood Patrol Group, took part in the protest. The rally was organised by the Rabbinical Committee of the Traditional Charedi Chinuch. Gluck is a prominent religious figure in Britain and not just within Jewish society. He was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2013 New Year Honours for services to interfaith understanding.
He spoke to City News about the upcoming bill and the effect that it may have on Britain’s Jewish population. His key concern centres around the requirement for official registration of all home school students. This would include all those attending yeshivah schools. For him, this is the first step towards total government regulation and control over the non-secular, traditional Jewish schooling. He labels the move as the ‘slippery slope to the end of Jewish education.’
Gluck believes that this is a deliberate attack on Britain’s Jewish community, citing the bill as ‘anti-Semitic.’ When asked what the reaction would be if the bill was passed and regulation enforced.
This is an issue which goes to the very existence, it is existential for the Jewish people to have this ability to educate our children. And if we’re not allowed to do it here, we will up sticks and do it elsewhere.
-Rabbi Gluck, President of the Shomrim
Rabbi Gluck would not confirm the exact nature of these plans nor the exact location where the community would move to. City news contacted the Board of Deputies of British Jews to comment on the existence of such plans. They did not respond.
The bill has been described in a Downing street briefing note as aiming to put “children and their wellbeing at the centre of the education and children’s social care systems, and make changes so they are safe, healthy, happy and treated fairly” Lord Storey, the Lib Dem MP, who is behind the bill answered questions on the concerns from the Jewish community.
He said that the bill’s only purpose is to serve the interests of children. He believes the lack of regulation across all home schooling is a major issue.
There are no checks, no safe guarding and often they get lost from the system completely…What we do know is that hundreds and thousands of children have gone missing from our school system and we don’t know where they are.
-Lord Storey, Member of the House of Lords
Lord Storey told City News explicitly that the bill was not focused on any particular community and that no other religious group has raised concern with it. City News contacted Ofsted and the Department for Education for further comment, both declined to respond.
The bill will be read once parliamentary time allows. With Labour’s current majority, it stands a strong chance of passing. Many view the bill as a necessary shakeup to a struggling system. Yet it is clear, that at least one group views it as a significant threat to their way of life and will continue to protest against it.
This isn’t just some fancy flight of imagination. For millennia, Jews have given their very lives to perpetuate Judaism, and Judaism can only continue through Jewish education because that sets the tone, that is the foundation of who we are.
-Rabbi Gluck, President of the Shomrim
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HeadlineChildren’s Wellbeing Bill faces resistance from the Jewish community
Short HeadlineBill 'smacks of anti-semitism' claims prominent Rabbi
StandfirstThe Jewish community in Britain may have no choice but to relocate if bill is passed, warns prominent rabbi.
A leading member of London’s Jewish community, Rabbi Hershel Gluck, has voiced his fears over a proposed education bill.
The Children’s Wellbeing Bill will be debated during this parliament and focuses on a wide range of issues. This includes free breakfast clubs, uniform costs, school inspections and the regulation of home schools.
Home school regulation has proven to be a source of friction with Britain’s Orthodox Jewish community. There are approximately 146,000 Jewish people living in London, more than half of the country’s total population. Thousands of Jewish children, predominantly male, attend the yeshiva system, which has little secular teaching and focuses on the study of Rabbinic literature.
Last week campaigners returned to Westminster to protest against attempts to regulate the Jewish school system. The crowd was made up primarily of members of the Orthodox Jewish community.
Hershel Gluck, a British rabbi and president of the Shomrim, a Jewish volunteer Neighbourhood Patrol Group, took part in the protest. The rally was organised by the Rabbinical Committee of the Traditional Charedi Chinuch. Gluck is a prominent religious figure in Britain and not just within Jewish society. He was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2013 New Year Honours for services to interfaith understanding.
He spoke to City News about the upcoming bill and the effect that it may have on Britain’s Jewish population. His key concern centres around the requirement for official registration of all home school students. This would include all those attending yeshivah schools. For him, this is the first step towards total government regulation and control over the non-secular, traditional Jewish schooling. He labels the move as the ‘slippery slope to the end of Jewish education.’
Gluck believes that this is a deliberate attack on Britain’s Jewish community, citing the bill as ‘anti-Semitic.’ When asked what the reaction would be if the bill was passed and regulation enforced.
This is an issue which goes to the very existence, it is existential for the Jewish people to have this ability to educate our children. And if we’re not allowed to do it here, we will up sticks and do it elsewhere.
-Rabbi Gluck, President of the Shomrim
Rabbi Gluck would not confirm the exact nature of these plans nor the exact location where the community would move to. City news contacted the Board of Deputies of British Jews to comment on the existence of such plans. They did not respond.
The bill has been described in a Downing street briefing note as aiming to put “children and their wellbeing at the centre of the education and children’s social care systems, and make changes so they are safe, healthy, happy and treated fairly” Lord Storey, the Lib Dem MP, who is behind the bill answered questions on the concerns from the Jewish community.
He said that the bill’s only purpose is to serve the interests of children. He believes the lack of regulation across all home schooling is a major issue.
There are no checks, no safe guarding and often they get lost from the system completely…What we do know is that hundreds and thousands of children have gone missing from our school system and we don’t know where they are.
-Lord Storey, Member of the House of Lords
Lord Storey told City News explicitly that the bill was not focused on any particular community and that no other religious group has raised concern with it. City News contacted Ofsted and the Department for Education for further comment, both declined to respond.
The bill will be read once parliamentary time allows. With Labour’s current majority, it stands a strong chance of passing. Many view the bill as a necessary shakeup to a struggling system. Yet it is clear, that at least one group views it as a significant threat to their way of life and will continue to protest against it.
This isn’t just some fancy flight of imagination. For millennia, Jews have given their very lives to perpetuate Judaism, and Judaism can only continue through Jewish education because that sets the tone, that is the foundation of who we are.
