Illegal Jewish schools: Department of Education knew about council faith school cover-up
A London council’s education authority destroyed evidence of children being educated in illegal faith schools at the request of religious institutions, The Independent can reveal.
An investigation by The Independent also found that more than 1,000 children are missing from schools in London and are at risk of abuse in illegal faith schools. The schools are ultra-Orthodox Jewish faith schools at which boys are placed from the age of 13, and where they receive no education beyond studying religious texts. A number of pupils leave school with little or no ability to speak English, and few – if any – qualifications or skills which equip them to work, or live independently
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In the meeting, Trust representatives discussed that in an attempt to track the whereabouts of Jewish children when they go missing from education records, they had asked legal Jewish state schools to inform them when a child was taken away by their parents to attend an illegal one instead. A Trust representative says that although they were initially able to receive evidence tracking the missing children in this way which could have enabled them to act and protect children, some of the schools threatened legal action against the Trust and that they subsequently backed down and agreed to destroy all evidence it collected on the issue.
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(Rabbi Dr. Jonathan Romain) He added: “It could be that people higher up the educational chain fear that closing the schools could be branded as anti-Semitism. There is no reason why one cannot be immersed in Jewish life, but still speak the national language or be able to gain qualifications. As a rabbi I applaud those engaged in Jewish education, but as a rabbi I also condemn those who blinker children’s horizons and isolate them from wider society”.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/illegal-jewish-schools-department-of-education-knew-about-council-faith-school-cover-up-as-thousands-a6965516.html
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