British Judge Rules Jewish Disabled Teenager’s Human Rights Violated by Plan for Care in Non-Jewish Home
Error: Contact form not found.
by Algemeiner Staff
Manchester, UK Town Hall. Photo: Wikimedia Commons / Parrot of Doom
A British judge has ruled that the human rights of a disabled Jewish teenager were violated when he was offered care in a non-Jewish residential home by the Manchester City Council.
The BBC reported that Judge Stephen Davies ruled that if the teenager were to be placed in a non-Jewish home there would be “significant interference” with his “religious freedom and his family and private life.”
This, Davies said, “cannot be necessary” for the protection of the teenager’s health, particularly with alternatives available, such placing him in a Jewish home in London or “through the provision of support staff at home.”
The teenager lives in a Haredi community in Manchester, and his family was concerned that he would not be able to practice Judaism in a non-Jewish home.
The Manchester City Council had argued that its plans for the teenager’s care would have allowed him to “manifest his faith as far as was considered practicable.”
The plan would have placed the teenager in the home for 12 weeks, including the Passover holiday.
The Council also said that kosher food would have been provided, although with supervision by a mashgiach to uphold kosher guidelines only on Shabbat, rather than every meal.
