Senior London rabbi signs letter denouncing secular teaching for Jewish schools

One of London’s most senior rabbis, who gives religious guidance to the Hasmonean Boys’ School, has put his name to a letter from the Union of Orthodox Hebrew Congregations denouncing the teaching of secular subjects to Jewish schoolboys, as required in the government’s most recent Schools Bill, now going through the House of Lords.

Rabbi Yisroel Meir Greenberg, of Golders Green’s “MUNK’s” Synagogue, has signed a letter, along with other UOHC rabbis, attacking the provisions of the Schools Bill, which they say would effectively destroy the yeshiva movement.

Protesters against the Schools Bill have described it as “anti-religious” and some — invoking the Holocaust — have even worn yellow stars at Westminster demonstrations, a move which provoked outrage in parts of the mainstream community.

But Rabbi Greenberg’s protest is particularly controversial as he tops the governance structure for Hasmonean Boys School, itself a state-aided school.

The letter from the UOHC describes the teaching of secular subjects as an “existential threat”.

Three years ago Rabbi Greenberg put his name to, and then rescinded it from, a letter denouncing JW3, the Jewish Community Centre for London, which called on strictly Orthodox people to boycott the complex.

The row began after JW3 hosted an event to mark the 50th anniversary of the decriminalisation of homosexuality.

Hasmonean said at the time that it continued to use JW3 for events.