by NYC Private Schools on November 15, 2009
Admittance into Jewish Private School is getting a little more difficult in Britain, so much so that the Supreme Court is getting involved. The core issues in Britain are which students are Jewish, based upon which criteria. The criteria are what are mostly in question for different schools.
A Times article brought up the issue of admission into Jewish Schools being discussed in one London court:
The questions before the judges in Courtroom No. 1 of Britain’s Supreme Court were as ancient and as complex as Judaism itself.
Who is a Jew? And who gets to decide?
On the surface, the court was considering a straightforward challenge to the admissions policy of a Jewish high school in London. But the case, in which arguments concluded Oct. 30, has potential repercussions for thousands of other parochial schools across Britain. And in addressing issues at the heart of Jewish identity, it has exposed bitter divisions in Britain’s community of 300,000 or so Jews, pitting members of various Jewish denominations against one another.
“The requirement that if a pupil is to qualify for admission his mother must be Jewish, whether by descent or conversion, is a test of ethnicity which contravenes the Race Relations Act,” the court said. It added that while it was fair that Jewish schools should give preference to Jewish children, the admissions criteria must depend not on family ties, but “on faith, however defined.”
There are many religious schools, especially NYC Private Schools which do not actually require that a student actively practice a particular religion however, in London, practicing religion is becoming a big issue. There are sure to be international repercussions to this decision on a global level within the community of Jewish Schools.
by NYC Private Schools on November 14, 2009
Older students at NYC Private Schools are often expected to prepare for and understand some of the more sophisticated situations that face adults on a daily basis. This past week, students at Dalton were given first hand experience with the both the legal any journalistic side of adult life after a visit by Supreme Court Justice Kennedy.
The NY Times carried the story of Justice Kennedy’s speech at the school, and how students learned the importance of journalistic integrity.
WASHINGTON — The school newspaper at Dalton, a private school in Manhattan, contained a cryptic note from its editors last Friday.
“We are not able to cover the recent visit by a Supreme Court justice due to numerous publication constraints,” the note said. It promised “an explanation of the regrettable delay” in the next issue.
It turns out that Justice Anthony M. Kennedy, widely regarded as one of the court’s most vigilant defenders of First Amendment values, had provided the newspaper, The Daltonian, with a lesson about journalistic independence. Justice Kennedy’s office had insisted on approving any article about a talk he gave to an assembly of Dalton high school students on Oct. 28. Kathleen Arberg, the court’s public information officer, said Justice Kennedy’s office had made the request to make sure the quotations attributed to him were accurate.
The justice’s office received a draft of the proposed article on Monday and returned it to the newspaper the same day with “a couple of minor tweaks,” Ms. Arberg said. Quotations were “tidied up” to better reflect the meaning the justice had intended to convey, she said.
Ms. Arberg indicated that what had happened at Dalton was unusual. “Justice Kennedy does not have a general policy for making such requests,”
Some very clear points were made by those who criticized the practice as the age and sophistication of the students were a factor in the criticism.
Even at a high school publication, Mr. LoMonte said, the request for prepublication review sent the wrong message and failed to appreciate the sophistication of high school seniors.
“These are people who are old enough to vote,” he said. “If you’re old enough to drive a tank, you’re old enough to write a headline.”
Either way, the students at this NYC Private School were treated to an experience that will not be soon forgotten and have most likely learned an important lesson on politics, legalities and the difficulties that professional journalists must face.
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