The British Dare to Determine Who is a Jew

By Rabbi Shmuley Boteach

URL: http://www.jewishjournal.com/rabbi_shmuley/item/the_british_dare_to_determine_who_is_a_jew_20091109/

Every once in a while a story comes along so jolting that it is scarcely believable. One such story was that which appeared in the New York Times of all places this past Sunday about how the Jews’ Free School in London has been ordered to admit a child whose mother had a non-orthodox conversion after the child’s parents sued. I will not here enter into the ongoing and bitter divide in England between orthodox and progressive Jews. It was a battle that I witnessed and worked hard to mend through countless essays and public forums over the eleven years that lived in the UK. Less so will I here address the very pressing questions of Jewish status as determined by conversion on the part of Judaism’s three major branches. I am a passionately orthodox Jew who is equally passionate about Jewish unity. Our divisions must indeed be addressed and healed.

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Comments:	A friend has recommended you read the following from The Jewish Journal... The British Dare to Determine Who is a Jew Every once in a while a story comes along so jolting that it is scarcely believable. One such story was that which appeared in the New York Times of all places this past Sunday about how the Jews’ Free School in London has been ordered to admit a child whose mother had a non-orthodox conversion after the child’s parents sued. I will not here enter into the ongoing and bitter divide in England between orthodox and progressive Jews. It was a battle that I witnessed and worked hard to mend through countless essays and public forums over the eleven years that lived in the UK. Less so will I here address the very pressing questions of Jewish status as determined by conversion on the part of Judaism’s three major branches. I am a passionately orthodox Jew who is equally passionate about Jewish unity. Our divisions must indeed be addressed and healed. http://www.jewishjournal.com/rabbi_shmuley/item/the_british_dare_to_determine_who_is_a_jew_20091109/