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The case of R (E) v Governing Body of JFS, being heard today, Wednesday and Thursday by a 9 Justice panel, is creating considerable media interest. Here is a small selection.

Nicola Woolcock, in The Times, writes that JFS is appealing to the Supreme Court “to challenge a ruling that it broke race laws“. They print an extract of a statement to be read to the Court, from the father of another child refused admission to the school. That child was the daughter of the school’s head of English.

In their coverage of the case, The Guardian, quotes Tony Bayfield, head of the Jewish Reform movement, who says “Though I cannot possibly condone the discrimination which inflicts unimaginable pain on people who know they are Jewish but are told they are not – discrimination which, ultimately, denies my rabbinic authority – I still find the JFS case an unwelcome distraction. The real issue is how we develop faith schools in this country.”

The BBC’s News Magazine from Monday, discusses “What defines your religion?” and their news site suggests that “Jewish case may hit other schools“.

On 22 October, Simon Rocker in The Jewish Chronicle noted that the “legal battle over entry to JFS [would] reach a climax” with the hearing this week. The article discusses other Jewish schools’ revising their admissions policies following the earlier Court of Appeal ruling.

The “Record number of interveners at the Supreme Court” in the JFS case are commented upon by the Solicitors Journal.

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