Thousands attend Schools Bill protest meeting in Stamford Hill
Attendees urged to send letter to the Education Secretary claiming Bill 'seems to serve a secret agenda: the assimilation of our community to the practices of the majority'
Lee Harpin is the Jewish News's political editor
Nearly 2,000 male members of Stamford Hill’s strictly-Orthodox community attended a meeting to protest against government proposals to regulate yeshivot.
Monday’s meeting, which was addressed by Rabbi Elyakim Schlesinger, included a call for attendees to send a pre-written strongly-worded letter to Education Secretary Nadhim Zahawi.
Another speaker at the event was the property developer Jeremy Stein.
Many in the more conservative sector of the Orthodox community are up-in-arms over measures in the new Schools Bill which forced yeshivot to teach secular lessons and allow inspections from Ofsted.
At present the yeshivot, for boys aged 13 and over, are not classed as schools because they only teach religious works.
Other measures in the Bill include allowing councils to keep a register of children receiving education outside school settings.
The Education Secretary also has new powers to suspend independent schools judged to put their children at risk.
There have already been clashes over demands to teach on LGBT issues as equality laws stipulate.
Last week Levelling Up Secretary Michael Gove met with Charedi leaders in which similar issues were raised with him.
A letter circulating in the community, with a call to sign and send to the Education Secretary, states:”I write to you as a member of the Charedi member of Orthodox Jews to express my deep concern and strong objection to the Schools Bill.”
It added:”The Bill seems to serve a secret agenda: the assimilation of our community to the practices of the majority.”
The letter then stresses the majority of the community are “grandchildren and great grandchildren” of Holocaust victims, who are grateful of the home given to them in the UK.
It continues:”Yeshivas enable orthodox families to raise their children in line with a high standard of morals and values.”
It is then suggested that “many provisions” in the Bill “threaten our principals” and “impose on them a duty to teach secular subjects besides religion, fundamentally changing their role and purpose. This undermines the parents and children’s right to practice their religion.”
The letter suggests the Bill amounts to “contemplating expelling Orthodox Jewry from the United Kingdom.”
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