Time for Samford Hill to Relinquish Their 19th Century Mentality

Stamford Charedi leader addressing the protest (The JC)

I am not a fan of governments forcing their cultural values upon its citizens. Thankfully the United States does not do that in any capacity – other than in an advocacy level. What it does do is protect classes of people where there is discrimination. At least in theory. Whether we have actually achieved fair treatment for all classes of people is a matter of great debate in this country. 

Be that as it may, one group that has experienced  a lot of discrimination is the LGBT community. That is why the US has extended civil rights legislation to include them. 

I am a firm advocate of treating everyone with the respect and human dignity they deserve. That includes LGBT people. However, as an Orthodox Jew I cannot accept the forbidden nature of a lifestyle that is conducive to violating Halacha. This is why for example I cannot approve of gay marriage. 

There is also no sin in having gender dysphoria - the tragic condition where someone believes they were born the wrong sex. What is forbidden is acting like it in ways that the Torah forbids. Which certainly includes sex reassignment surgery or even cross-dressing. But there is a difference between respecting people for who they are and approving of what they might be doing in private - or even considering doing.

The question arises about how we transmit these values to our children. 50 years ago LGBT did not exist as a movement. To the extent that people like this existed it was kept in the closet. LGBT people did not reveal that about themselves for fear of being ostracized from their commuity. Whcih they surely would have been. Being gay was considered a mental disorder. And most people never heard of gender dysphoria which was considered extremely rare. 

It wasn’t. It was just kept in the closet for fear of what public disclosure would do to their lives.

Today being gay is quite common… and widely accepted as part of the social order. And altough not as common, gender dysphoria is out in the open too. It is not as rare as it was once thought to be. 

In my view this subject has to be addressed educationally. Our children need to know about this subject and how to deal with it.  

In the case of the those if us that believe in biblical values children should be taught what LGBT is and to be sensitive to people that are LGBT. And to treat them with human dignity and respect. At the same time they must be taught what the Torah says about the kind of behavior  common to them. In other words they must not be taught that behavior the Torah prohibits is the same as that which the Torah permits.

This brings me to OFSTED the UK’s department of education and their relatively recent educational guidelines requiring UK schools to teach this subject. There is an ongoing conflict between OFSTED and the Charedi (Mostly Chasidic) community in the Stamford section of London.

Charedi leaders are extremely upset and angry by this new requirement. They have been fighting it since it OFSTED required it. As a recent meeting protesting it demonstrates. If I understand correctly they lose government funding if they don’t. They refuse to even acknowledge the existence of LGBT. Let alone teach their children how to deal it . They frame their objection pretty much the same as being forced to teach their children to be Mechalel Shabbos.

That is patently false. OFSTED wants  British children to know what LGBT is and to not to discriminate against them. 

And yet, this community is treating this subject as pornography of the worst kind. But it is not. It is merely abut being educated about a growing group of people and to teach them to not discriminate against them. None of which is against the Torah. Which is why UK Chief Rabbi, Ephraim Mirvis came out with an educational guide for religious day schools to follow which is acceptable to OFSTED.

One might argue that the Charedi world has the right to teach their children in any manner they wish and  to consider Rabbi Mirvis’s guide immoral. Just a secular humanist has the right to consider the Torah immoral. Perhaps they should have that right. But the government has the right to say that their requirement for government funding is not being met if they refuse to follow their guidelines. 

This kind of strident opposition to something the Chief Rabbi says is OK - does not put the Charedi world in the UK in a good light. They need to stop and think about how Charedim - the most recognizably religious Jews in the UK are seen by the rest of the world. I don’t think the way they are handling it is a Kiddush HaShem. It would be nice if for a change if they actually respected the UK’s Chief Rabbi, followed his example, and realize that they no longer live in the 19^th century.