Some of the UK’s most senior Charedi rabbis have reacted to the Chief Rabbi’s guidance on LGBT+ pupils.

Rabbi Mirvis’ document, which was published just before Rosh Hashanah, emphasised schools’ responsibility for the wellbeing of  LGBT+ pupils and was hailed as the first of its type in the Orthodox sector.

While the Charedi rabbis noticeably refrained from any direct criticism of Rabbi Mirvis’ guidance and affirmed that “no child should suffer bullying, regardless of his or her inclinations”, they moved to clarify any “misconception” that “compassion and other inter-personal obligations supersede Torah Laws relating to relationships”.

The letter, signed by Dayan Gavriel Kraus, Rabbi Shraga Feivel Zimmerman, Dayan Yakov Yisroel Lichtenstein, Dayan Chanoch Ehrentreu, Rabbi Avrohom Gurwicz and Rabbi Moshe Chaim Efrayim Padwa, later stated that “any intimate physical relationship other than that between a married male and female, is totally, strictly and absolutely forbidden according to Jewish Law”.

The letter added: “Some… have interpreted the Chief Rabbi’s message as a relaxing of the Torah’s attitude towards alternative lifestyles (relationships).

“Whilst society at large in a relatively short period of time has accepted and even embraced alternative lifestyles, and whilst we recognise that UK law has been changed recently to reflect society’s changed values, one of the fundamental principles and tenets of the Jewish Faith is that all laws and practices of the Torah are eternal and immutable, regardless of how modern society may view them.”