Ofsted penalties

Unfortunately, Ofsted’s announcement that it will “support Jewish schools, state-funded and independent, to become good” is selective and too good to be true. It blatantly ignores the strictly Orthodox schools, a vast and significant sector within Jewish education, which Ofsted not only fails to support but actively penalises (Ofsted: all Jewish schools can achieve good status, July 14).

Ofsted’s narrow and agenda-led interpretation of the law targets schools within the strictly Orthodox community, seeking not improvement but closure. Ofsted’s insensitive inspections with barbed and loaded questions to students, with an obsession on a few of the Protected Characteristics, completely ignores that people of faith are also a Protected Characteristic under the law. Going above and beyond what is required by law, Ofsted refuses to accept that Orthodox primary and secondary schools throughout the country do not teach sexual matters, respecting parents’ rights not to teach these subjects at school. In strictly Orthodox societies in general, sexuality is given no space in the public sphere, a more traditional approach is taken, and these subjects are taught more discreetly in religious settings or by parents.

In previous decades, society at large had a three-way interconnected educational system. Children were taught values, knowledge and conduct from their homes, their faith establishments and at school. An entire interlocked community structure cultivated the young to become educated, healthy adults. Then, with the breakdown of communities in the 1960s, schools began to assume the responsibility of teaching everything to children, even subjects that were previously the rightful domain of parents and faith leaders. Teaching intimate subjects at schools was done only because parents and mentors were not doing so; communal life had broken down.

Yet in the strictly Orthodox communities, homes and synagogues continue to play a large, stable role in educating children, influencing them as much as school does and intimate subjects are taught in context within those domains, in a more discreet and age-appropriate manner. Sexual content does not enter the classroom.

Ofsted’s all-to-common accusation that “pupils lack readiness for life in modern British society” is wholly discriminatory towards different communities and ignores the parental rights of those educating their children to thrive within their own religious and cultural context, within communities that so impressively remain intact and strong.

The Secretary of State, Gillian Keegan, stated that the purpose of education is to “help people to build the life they want”. We simply want Ofsted to respect that life, however different it may be from others, or at least not to undermine it. Only then can Ofsted announce that it is in support of Jewish schools.

Shimon Cohen

Torah Education Committee

What about the PA?

The Palestine Arabs’ conflict against Zionism or Israel has followed the same pattern since the 1936-38 Arab rebellion and the Arab rejection of the Peel Report’s two-state suggestion.   

Dr Tony Klug is right that the last Jenin operation will not do more than put out some of the current generation of know-it-all Arab angry young men (Been here before, Letters, July 14).  War is politics by violence and ends only when the underlying political problem is subjected to treaty.

However, Dr Klug’s appeal for kindness and sane leadership could and should also be directed at the PA “leadership”, who have never wavered from their aim of getting rid of any area of Jewish statehood and presence, seen as impudent affronts to Islam.

Guerilla violence on the civil population is the principal recruiting sergeant for reprisal raids and an oppressive military presence.  Arab “policy” in Palestine attacked the deceptively soft underbelly of Jewish civilians in the Mandate riots of the 1920s but got nowhere by way of stopping Zionism. Ditto since 1948 in the fedayeen campaign of 1953-56 and the intifadas.    

They and the US forced Israel to the table but then continued to reject any scheme to freeze facts on the ground by permanent partition.

That would end their war to end Israel. The current PA is too much of a one-trick pony to devise another.

When the PA constituency stops expecting Israel to vanish and shifts priorities to building a PA economy and society like the Yishuv under the Mandate, we might see at least an absence of violence — by both sides.

Frank Adam
Prestwich

The cemetery is alive

I write further to Tanya Gold’s article Let’s have museums of Jewish life, not more monuments to the dead (30 June) and Jeremy Jacobson’s letter in response (Thriving Cornwall, Letters, 7 July).  As someone who has lived in the Penzance area for 50 years and who, as a non-Jew, is an associate member of the present Cornish Jewish community, I would like to offer a contrasting perspective.

I have had the great privilege and pleasure to be custodian of the Penzance Jewish Cemetery since 1998, on behalf of its owners, the Board of Deputies of British Jews. I have been visiting it for over 45 years.

Not only is it recognised as the best-preserved 18th-century Georgian Jewish cemetery of the 25 outside London, but it was also the first Jewish cemetery to be listed (grade II) and it was comprehensively restored some years ago.

Gold may not have visited it or have any particular interest in it but in the last 25 years I have accompanied hundreds of visitors who have clearly possessed a keen interest in its existence, and who have come to it with the greatest sense of respect.

These have been Jews and non-Jews, both local and from all parts of the UK, and overseas — from Israel, America, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa. In many cases where visitors have come to visit the graves of their forebearers, it has helped them refine a better picture of their past, of themselves and of their families today.

Many Jewish visitors spend time in prayer during their visit. In fact, we have on average 100 visitors each year and almost without exception, they remark on how uplifting it has been. Many are clearly moved.

In the first year I took responsibility, an elderly Jewish visitor reminded me that a Jewish cemetery remains a sacred place in perpetuity and cannot be deconsecrated. He also mentioned that a cemetery was called in Hebrew “Yarden L’Chaim”, the Garden Of Life.

It does not represent a mere monument to the dead for everyone.

In 2014, I published The Jews of Cornwall, a detailed history of the Jewish presence in the 18th and 19th centuries. In the introduction, these words appear: “My motivation has been above all to bring these people to general notice, to let them live again within these pages… so that they will not be forgotten.” That is also why we have those people here, Jews and non-Jews, who work with dedication to conserve and protect Cornwall’s two Jewish burial grounds.

Keith Pearce
Custodian, Penzance Jewish
Cemetery

Cooking and eating

As someone who has studied nutrition at Masters level, I was interested to read Elisa Bray’s article about the healthiness of kosher food (Kosher food producers lagging behind wider market in cutting out ‘harmful’ ingredients, July 7). The over-reliance on pre-packaged food with high levels of sugar, salt and additives is a significant issue. One of the problems is that a lot of kosher food is imported from the US, where they do not have such good food standards as the UK’s. This happens because UK kosher food producers do not do enough to widen their market to non-Jews.

If indeed a wider range of healthier food is being approved by the London Beth DIn, as Richard Verber suggests, then this should be promoted to the whole UK community as a more ethical alternative (particularly around meat).

However, the rabbonim should consider the whole food chain. We know that meat is kosher once the slaughter has been approved, but what about what has been put into the meat when it was reared? Pumping hormones into cattle and chickens and keeping them in crowded conditions may well affect quality, but is this checked by the Beth Din? I remember attending a session at Limmud some years ago by Rabbi Josh Levy showing the terrible conditions animals were being kept in before slaughter in the US kosher market. That meat is sold here. We need those who approve kosher to take a more holistic approach. They do this with matzah at Pesach so why not meat?

Another issue is the range of unhealthy pre-packed parev foods, which tries to compensate creamy desserts with vegetable fat and additives.

There should be rabbinical encouragement to have something non-creamy or maybe drop the meat meal, which would be a healthier alternative.

We also need to teach children to cook well. Mine know how to make challah, cook pasta and sauce from scratch and create stir-fries as well as the usual cakes, biscuits and pies.

I, in turn, am thankful to have learned how to cook from my mother, who taught me that biscuits and cakes were always treats. It should be noted these are much healthier and cheaper when homemade.

The kosher remit is too narrow, concerned around milk and meat, scales and fins and blood spots. We have a responsibility to Hashem look after our bodies and eat better.

Gordon Kay
Brighton

Unknown engagement

I refer to your reports concerning the involvement of Nelson College London in an event held on the premises of Sir George Monoux College on July 1 (College “didn’t know” it was backing antisemitic conspiracy group’s event, July 14).

Nelson College did not knowingly engage and would never wish to engage in a partnership with the Muslim Public Affairs Committee [MPAC UK]. We believed we were simply supporting a local college as part of our wider outreach programme. To have subsequently discovered that the event was, in fact, exploited to support MPAC troubles us deeply and we are undertaking a thorough investigation to establish what occurred.

Professor Geoffrey Alderman
Principal, Nelson College London

Lucky to have her

Your podcast with Melanie Phillips is the best thing the JC has ever done. Mazal tov on this achievement.

I am pleased to have been the first writer to review Melanie’s novel and found that she is much revered on both left and right in Israel.

My experience of programme-making with the BBC, as well as research conducted for them, is exactly the way Melanie describes.

Melanie is not extreme at all: it is Anglo-Jewry that is cowardly and blind.

I was informed as much in 2003 by Professor Wistrich of Yad Vashem (formerly of UCL), the world’s greatest expert on antisemitism, who feared very much for the fate of this country and asked me to become involved.

The ludicrous and offensive proposed Holocaust memorial for Westminster is a case in point, especially as we, the planning design jury, were lied to by government and the Anglo-Jewish leadership every step of the way.

Looking forward to reading much more from our greatest contemporary journalist, Melanie Phillips. We are lucky to have her.

Dr Irene Lancaster PhD PGCE

Chair, Broughton Park Jewish Christian Dialogue Group