The War on Torah Extends to Europe

20 Sivan 5778

Report: French Education Ministry to Forbid Religious Clothing at Public Schools

The director general of the French Education Ministry issued a series of regulations that will be implemented next year in public schools across the country, including the prohibition on wearing a kippah or a long skirt.

...According to the directives, which were aimed first and foremost at the Muslim students and indirectly affecting Jewish students as well, a number of regulations will be enacted, including forbidding girls to wear long skirts on a regular basis, and prohibiting the wearing of a kippah or a hat, a wig or a handkerchief on a regular basis. Head coverings will be allowed only as a fashionable item, and not as a permanent garment for religious reasons.

... Many French Jewish children still learn in the public school system, but these new rules will presumably cause many families to transfer their children to the private Jewish schools.

'No future' for Orthodox Jews in Britain, says Rabbi Aaron Klein

...Earlier this year, one of the most influential strictly Orthodox rabbis in the UK, the Gateshead Rav, Shraga Feivel Zimmerman, warned that state interference in religious was “the most serious issue” facing British Jewry since Edward I expelled the Jews of his kingdom in 1790.

Some of the proposed changes would be “impossible” for Charedi schools to meet and overnight they could become “illegal institutions,” Rabbi Klein wrote.

Over the past two or three years, many Charedi schools have been pulled up by inspectors for not talking about same-sex relationships as part of the requirement to teach “British values” of respect and tolerance.

...According to documents produced by the DfE in support of the consultation, the proposed changes could result in the closure of more "ultra-Orthodox" Jewish schools.

But the government papers go on to say; "Even though children may have to move schools, or go to a different school, and this might not be the school of the families’ choice, the enforcement action would ultimately be to the benefit of children... because they are entitled to attend a school which offers a satisfactory education, whether that is another independent school or a state school. Places are available in the state sector for any child of compulsory school age living in England."

Danish MPs to vote on under-18s circumcision ban

Bill to criminalize male circumcision is still alive in Iceland

Flanders ban on ritual slaughter is legal, says court

Slovenia's Constitutional Court Rules ban on Halal Slaughter Legal
The act on animal protection does not only prohibit Islamic ritual slaughter but any type of slaughter without stunning. [This would include shechita.]