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By Rebecca, December 16, 2009 11:59 pm

EDIT: I’ve rewritten the final few paragraphs, my thoughts on all this, and apologize for any confusion.

Bond posted a while back about a court case where a British court was asked to rule if a Jewish school was being racially discriminatory when it rejected a student who did not have a Jewish mother:

The case in question concerns a 12-year-old boy, referred to court documents simply as “M,” whose application to London’s Jews’ Free School was rejected on the ground that his mother’s conversion to Judaism was not overseen by Orthodox rabbis. The case has forced a reexamination of whether Judaism is a religion, a race, or an ethnicity.

The court has ruled that the school was practicing racial discrimination. From The Guardian:

M’s father took the school to court claiming racial discrimination. In June, the court of appeal ruled in his favour. It said the school’s policy amounted to racial discrimination because it prioritised applications from children with Jewish mothers.

And, ultimately, the supreme court ruled (5 to 4) that the school had “directly discrimintated against M on grounds of his ethnic origins.”

Continue reading 'Who decides what is Jewish?'»

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By Rebecca, December 16, 2009 2:16 pm

An interesting article at the NYT:

Then he led off the discussion of the homework assignment. It consisted of an article from the national Jewish newspaper, The Forward, about a married couple who participate avidly in both synagogue and swinging. “Aren’t these people just being honest?” Rabbi Lookstein asked. Five or six hands immediately shot up.

So began another day in Jewish Sexual Ethics, the course better known around Ramaz, even to its teacher, as “Sex With the Rabbi.” For the last 23 years, since Rabbi Lookstein devised the class, he has taught it to every 10th grader to pass through Ramaz, a Modern Orthodox institution combining rigorous secular and religious curriculums.

I don’t have anything to add, just thought it was an interesting article. And nice to see an article on a more conservative Jewish institution acknowledging that sex exists and shouldn’t be taboo.