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A Medieval Provençal prayerbook given as a wedding present and a shoe sole cut from a Sefer Torah acquired in Salonika in 1946 are among the Roth Collection of Jewish artefacts that was this week made available online by Leeds University Library
LEADING JEWISH barrister Sam Grodzinski QC has warned the Charedi community that any legal challenge to Ofsted’s requirement for schools to teach respect for LGBT orientation is “very likely to lose”.
Mr Grodzinski represented the Adath Yisrael Burial Society (AYBS) in its successful challenge of the “cab rank rule” burial policy of Mary Hassell, the senior coroner for Inner North London.
Addressing the Charedi community’s standoff with Ofsted at the annual dinner of the United Synagogue burial society on Thursday night, the barrister said: “My concern is that if the community ends up taking this fight through the courts and tries to argue that there is no obligation to teach anything about respect for those who have a different orientation, they will lose, and they will lose in a way that makes the issue more problematic than it is today.
“The legislation is completely clear. It says that all schools have to ensure that as part of their curriculum, pupils are taught principles which encourage respect for others, having particular regard to ‘the protected characteristics listed in detail in the equality act 2010’. One of the protected characteristics is religion. Another is sexual orientation.”