Disorder in the Court: A British Court Declares the Basis of Judaism Racist. David P. Goldman Holds Them in Contempt

Since Oliver Cromwell allowed Jews to settle in England in 1656, Britain's Jews have often suffered indignities, but have they ever undergone a legal assault on the practice of their religion within their own institutions? Certainly they have now. On June 26, a British court of appeals labeled "racist" a founding premise of Judaism: the election of Abraham and his descendants and the determination of Jewish status by matrilineal descent. That the court's decision is preposterous is the least of the matter. Not since the Middle Ages have Jews had to defend their religion before state authorities. And not since the Treaty of Westphalia have states claimed the fight to compel changes in religious doctrine. For the first time in many years, a secular liberal state has arrogated to itself the fight to determine the legality of millennia-old practices of a monotheistic religion.