In the January 2010 issue of First Things, (unfortunately not yet on-line) David Goldman rhetorically asks: “Have Birtain’s jews ever undergone a legal assault on the practice of thier religion within their own institutions?” 

They have now. A British court has ruled that an Orthodox Jewish school’s admission policy violated the UK’s civil rights laws which prohibit discrimination on the basis of race or ethnicity. The offending action by the school was to deny admission to the child of a Jewish father and a non-Jewish mother who converted to Judaism at a progressive synagogue.  The implication of this decision, if it is allowed to stand, is not only that the Orthodox Jewish community cannot control their own institutions. It is that the British court has declared Judaism itself to be racist. According to Britain’s cheif rabbi, Jonathan Sacks,

An English court has declared [the religious definition of Jewish status] racist, and since this is an essential element of Jewish law, it is in effect declaring Judaism racist. To be told that Judaism is racist is distressing. To confuse religion and race is a mistake. 

You can find First Things here.   Keep an eye out for the January issue to go on-line, so you can read all of this important article. The author, David goldman, writes on the First Things website as Spengler.  He has some commentary on this case here and here.