The Supreme Court ruled last Friday that a Jewish religious school here need not admit a student whose mother is not Jewish.
The high court’s decision in favor of the Maimonides Lyceum ended more than a year and a half of litigation that zig-zagged through the lower courts, attracting much media attention.
A complaint was filed against the school by Robert Drucker, who accused it of discrimination against his son Aram, now 13. The school refused to admit the boy, because he is not Jewish according to halacha (religious law), since his mother is not Jewish.
The Amsterdam lower district court upheld the school’s right to select its students. That ruling was overturned on appeal by the higher district court, which ordered the school to pay Drucker the equivalent of $500 a day for each day Aram was kept out since the school term began last September.
The Lyceum appealed to the Supreme Court and the fine was suspended pending the outcome. The youth has been attending another school.
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