The Supreme Court of Ontario has rejected a plan by the Board of Education of a Toronto suburb, North York, to incorporate a Jewish day school with compulsory religion classes, into the local public school system.
Judge John Holland declared in the ruling that no school board has the power “to establish a mandatory course of religious instruction in any school.” He declared that if this was permitted, a situation could develop in which, in any school district, “one could find denominational schools, each teaching its own special mandatory course in religion.”
The Board of Education, in making the proposal, said that students who did not want to attend the Jewish religion classes could be sent to another school in the district. Holland responded that “there is a clear right in each and every student in each and every school within the district to claim exemption from any religious studies.” Jo Treasure, chairman of the North York trustees, said “we never talked about the next step” in the event of an adverse court ruling. He added “the board will have to think about it.” Integration of the Jewish school would have relieved the parents and the community of much of the financial border of the private education. About 400 junior high school students at the Associated Hebrew Schools would have been involved. In Ontario, Jewish day schools do not receive any governmental funding.
Thomas Wells, the Educational Minister, told the board three years ago that it could make such an arrangement if religious classes were optional. However, Associated Hebrew Schools officials said in 1976 they favored the proposal only if the religion classes were mandatory. Ironically, Jewish organizations have supported the ban on mandatory courses in religion, hoping it could be extended to the removal of all courses in religion in the public schools, which in the past have always been courses and exercises in Christianity.
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.