Around 1,000 Orthodox Jews gathered in a Stamford Hill, London, recently to protest against the compulsory teaching of LGBTQ-related issues in schools.
According to the Jewish Chronicle, the meeting was called by Jews who are fiercely opposed to any negotiation over Torah principles which prohibit homosexuality.
The Orthodox Jewish community has been at odds for a number of years with the education authorities over LGBTQ teaching.
Rabbi Asher Gratt told the meeting: “It is sadly the compromise approach and the willingness to find a meeting-point that strengthens Ofsted resolve in imposing an alien value system on children.”
The aim of the meeting was to call on schools to be “more strident and assertive” in resisting attempts to introduce “depravity and moral corruption” into the Jewish education system, he said.
A number of Orthodox Jewish schools have been marked down by inspectors over the past month for refusing to discuss subjects such as sexual orientation or gender reassignment.
According to the RSE guidelines, children should be taught about same-sex relationships before the end of secondary school. In primary schools, the topic is encouraged but not mandatory.
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Orthodox Jewish attitudes related to LGBTQ inclusion are grounded in the Torah and subsequent rabbinic teachings, which prohibit sexual relationships between individuals of same gender.
Sex between men and particularly anal intercourse are deemed a violation of biblical laws. Lesbian relations are not mentioned in the Bible but are prohibited explicitly by rabbinic authorities.
