OPINION: Mayor’s kosher school meals pledge has national, even international, ramifications

Jewish News recently reported about London Mayor Sadiq Khan pledging more than £1m to help fund kosher school meals. That’s only half the story.

By making this landmark pledge, the major is saying our community’s state-funded schools are entitled to kosher school meals as a “protective characteristic”.

This has national, even international, ramifications.

This decision, in response to the cost of living crisis, to extend free school meals to all 7-11-year-olds in state schools, has been welcomed.  For it to include an extra 85p per meal per day in 25 state-funded Jewish primary schools across London is so helpful.

In some schools this may cover the cost, in others it will reduce the additional funding and fundraising required.  There has been cross-party praise for this process and result from councillors.

This was not a political decision or the whim of the mayor, but the result of a detailed equalities impact assessment.

Inside our community, data was built up by Rabbi Joel Sager, the headteacher at Pardes House School, a Charedi state primary school in Barnet. I was alerted to the issues by Fleurise Lewis, who is a trustee of the United Synagogue and a parent of children in Jewish state schools.

Over the last few months we have worked closely with the Barnet education team, Barnet councillors, Joanne McCartney AM (deputy mayor for education and young people) and Mayor Sadiq Khan. Anne Clarke as a Barnet councillor and a London Assembly member was the vital connector.

We also arranged for the impact assessment team to interview Motti Pinter from Chinuch UK, so they could consider how to respond to food poverty in private strictly-orthodox schools.

I had no idea that this would lead to a separate appendix, and half the equality statement, grappling with the conundrum of the responsibility of the state in a private school.

If kosher food is a protective characteristic for 7-11 year olds, will the government now follow suit in its funding for 3-7 years olds?

In some schools this may cover the cost, in others it will reduce the additional funding and fundraising required.  There has been cross party praise for this process and result from councillors.

If kosher food is a protective characteristic for 7-11 year olds, will the government now follow suit in its funding for 3-7 years olds?

If it is a protective characteristic how does that impact on discussions with DEFRA about kashrut?

This has not yet resulted in an allocation to private Charedi schools. However, discussion continues between the GLA, Hackney and the Jewish community on increasing support to children in food poverty in the Charedi community

The London Jewish Forum was formed in 2006 as the community struggled with its relationship with then Mayor Ken Livingstone in office.

Adrian Cohen as founding chair, backed by a wide range of communal institutions, stabilised the relationship then and has continued today, as Co-Chair with me, as we have built the relationship with successive mayors.

Under Sadiq Khan as mayor of London we have been able to build further our connection with the deputy mayors and the work of the GLA.

We have also built up strong relations with councils across London and also worked on Hertfordshire and Essex.

Decisions like this are made, not just at Governmental level, but also at regional and local level. The community needs to maintain the incredible and underrated work of the Board of Deputies and Jewish Leadership Council nationally, yet also expand local advocacy making representation to local and regional government, including services like policing and local health, as a greater priority for our community.

Our role has to be to work together bringing our knowledge and network, giving access to the right stakeholders in our community, ensuring that local and regional government has increased levels of cultural sensitivity and competence.

In London, on kosher school meals, together we collaborated and got a big result.