Race or religion?

R (on the application of E) v Governing Body of JFS and others [2009] UKSC 1

The school’s admission policy was to give preference to pupils whose status as Jews was recognised by the Office of the Chief Rabbi (OCR). The claimant’s son, M, was refused admission because he was not so recognised. The relevant test applied by the OCR was concerned with whether M’s mother was a Jew at the time of M’s birth. As she was not born of a Jewish mother, she could only be recognised by the OCR as a Jew and was capable of conferring Jewish status if she had converted before her son was born, which she had not. The claimant brought judicial review proceedings challenging the school’s admission policy. The Court of Appeal held that the requirement of the school that if a pupil was to qualify for admission his mother had to be Jewish, whether by descent or conversion, was a test of ethnicity contrary to the Race Relations Act 1976.