Plan B Forum

Leaders of an ultra-Orthodox Jewish sect in north London have said children who are driven to school by their mothers will be turned away at the school gates.

Rabbis from the marginal Hasidic sect Belz have told women in Stamford Hill who drive that they go against “the traditional rules of modesty in our camp”.

In a letter sent to parents last week, seen by the Jewish Chronicle, they say there has been an increase in the number of mothers driving their children to school and add that this has led to “great resentment among parents of pupils of our [Hasidic] institutions”.

The letter says the ban, to come into force in the summer, is based on the recommendations of Rabbi Yissachar Dov Rokeach, the Belzer spiritual leader in Israel.

It says that if a mother has no other choice but to drive her child to school – for medical reasons, for example – she should “submit a request to the special committee to this effect and the committee shall consider her request”.

The move has been met with some disagreement within the Orthodox community. Dina Brawer, the UK ambassador of the Jewish Orthodox Feminist Alliance, said: “What this is really about is the curtailing of women’s freedom of movement rendering them dependent on men. It’s an issue of power and control not one of religious sensibility.

Belz community
By John McManus, social affairs reporter

The Belz community are part of the Haredi community - ultra-orthodox Jews for whom religion is a defining part of their identity.
Although historically a small part of the overall Jewish population in Britain, the Haredi are growing, mostly because of their high birth rate.
They are already the dominant group among Jewish communities in Hackney, Haringey, Salford, and Gateshead, and the Institute of Jewish Policy Research (IJPR) says that Haredi numbers will double in size every eighteen years.
An emphasis on studying the Torah has led to concerns that Haredi boys are leaving school with few qualifications.
Men often continue with their prayer studies after marriage, rather than seek work, and those who do have employment have been affected by changes in traditional occupations, like textiles.
As a result, poverty and deprivation tend to hit Haredi households hard, and there's evidence that Haredi areas in Hackney, for example, receive higher than average rates of means-tested benefits.
The IJPR though, says that the insular nature of Haredi life also produces a highly-supportive community, whose members work hard to help each other.

The Equality and Human Rights Commission has told the ultra-Orthodox Jewish sect that banned mothers driving their children to school that its behaviour is illegal.

In a letter sent after consultation with the Department for Education, Baroness O’Neill, chair of the commission, describes the actions of the Belz sect, which runs two schools in Stamford Hill, north London, as unlawful and discriminatory.

On Wednesday 3 June, the commission wrote to the sect “advising them that their actions are unlawful under the Equality Act 2010”.

The group runs Talmud Torah Machzikei Hadass, a boys’ primary school, and Beis Malka, a primary school for girls. Both have been rated good by Ofsted.

The schools had said that from August, any child driven to school by their mother would be turned away at the school gates. The letter said the ban was based on the recommendations of Rabbi Yissachar Dov Rokeach, the Belzer spiritual leader in Israel.

Gloria De Piero, shadow minister for women and equalities, wrote to the commission last week asking for “urgent clarification of the law” over whether religious freedoms trumped other rights. “Our laws protect individuals in the enjoyment of their basic rights and freedoms from discrimination because of their sex and I have serious concerns about the implications of the ban as reported,” she wrote.

O’Neill’s reply, sent just five days later, said: “In our view, the actions of the proprietor of the two schools in question are likely to constitute direct discrimination (contrary to section 13) by association with the sex of another person (in this instance their mothers, when driving them to school).”

She also tackled the issue that that article 9 of the Human Rights Act allows “the right to freedom of religion”.

“This, as you know, is a qualified right and must be balanced against the rights of others, including the right not to be discriminated against under Article 14 and the right to an education.”

Nicky Morgan, the education secretary, has also condemned the ban as “completely unacceptable in modern Britain”.

Parents in the area have defended the ban, which was first reported by the Jewish Chronicle last week, as part of living within the Belz community. Women rejected the characterisation that they were oppressed, and the schools wrote to Morgan, saying the notice had been misrepresented.