London: Gov Forces Charedi Girls Yeshiva To Revise Dress Code

Students at a London girls yeshiva should not be deterred from wearing “Brightly colored clothing” according to new guidelines from the government. In addition, the government agency in question also ruled that the yeshiva must accept more students for certain grade levels than its current limit.

According to a report in the UK’s Jewish Chronicle, an anonymous complaint was filed with the Office of the Schools Adjudicator (OSA) against several policies of Yesodey Hatorah Senior Girls School in Hackney- clearly singling out the Jewish educational institute.

Source: Al Jazeera [John Sibley/Reuters]

One issue stated in the complaint was the school’s dress code, which was created for tznius purposes. In its ruling, the OSA’s Dr. Bryan Slater pointed to the ambiguity of the rule, saying: “I think it probable that most people would agree that some objects one could imagine were brightly colored, but that it is not possible to know where the dividing line between ‘bright’ and ‘not bright’ would be drawn by all people.” He also felt that the use of certain Hebrew words in the dress code violated OSA policies because they prevent parents from easily interpreting the rules.

As per the OSA, while the school has the right to prohibit certain colors, the current instructions are too vague, and the yeshiva must be more specific in its definition of “bright”.

In addition, the agency also ruled that the yeshiva must accept more students for certain grade levels than its current limit. However, Dr. Slater overruled one complaint that suggested that the state-owned yeshiva’s admission policies are discriminatory.