Eve Sacks, at The Blogs

May 27, 2022, 4:25 PM

Education bill can help ensure rounded outlook for Charedim

Some 10 years ago, I started talking to Chasidic men who were angry about the deficiencies in their secular education. Their concerns encouraged me to campaign for the registration of all yeshivahs that cater for school-age children so they provide both balanced secular education and...

Jan 28, 2022, 12:41 PM

Keeping school children safe from sexual predators

The books of Chaim Walder that used to take pride of place have been binned by readers and recalled by publishers around the world. Photo by Yonatan Sindel/Flash90 (Via Jewish News)

I helped set up Nahamu, a Jewish human rights lobbying group to raise awareness of harms in the charedi community. One of the harms we lobby on is the lack of reporting of abuse, including child sex abuse, to the police. In the aftermath of...

Jul 15, 2021, 5:53 PM

Where to now on coercive control bill and forced Gittin?

Illustrative. (via Shutterstock) via Jewish News

The ongoing saga with the Federation Beth Din and the coercive control legislation has demonstrated that the UK Batei Din have not been enthusiastic or creative enough in finding ways to free women from chained marriages. Whilst there are halachic issues to navigate with the...

Mar 23, 2021, 6:20 PM

The four daughters of forced marriage

Jewish holiday Passover background with matzo, seder plate, wine and tulip flowers on wooden table. Top view from above. (Jewish News)

All young people must have the right to choose who to marry, when to marry or if they marry at all. The Haggadah refers to four sons and explains how each of them differently experience the telling of the Pesach story, and how we should...

Feb 12, 2021, 3:18 PM

Social pressures hinder free and full consent

A strictly-Orthodox wedding (Jewish News)

I recently watched Pixar’s Brave. Merida, the heroine, is being pressurised by her mother, to get married. It struck me that Merida was subject to a forced marriage, as UK law sets out: You have the right to choose who you marry, when you marry...

Feb 1, 2021, 5:09 PM

Toxic ‘them versus us’ narrative makes the chasm grow wider

Screenshot from Jewish News' video footage of police interrupting a Charedi simcha

When it was reported that police had broken up a wedding in Yesoday Hatorah school in Stamford Hilll, I was just surprised it had taken them so long. It’s been known for months that despite Covid lockdown rules that Charedi weddings have continued. Initially, the...

Dec 27, 2017, 5:56 PM

It’s time for the entire community to embrace British values

The recent Court of Appeal decision in the case of “In the matter of M (Children)” overturned the High Court decision in “J V B” to give transwoman “J” contact with her children. This case is a timely reminder that the Orthodox community cannot ignore...

Nov 17, 2017, 11:34 AM

Rabbis, please confirm shunning children is inconsistent with Jewish law

How the UK justice system handles intentional (illegal) discrimination in the Jewish community

Oct 20, 2017, 5:09 PM

We shouldn’t need courts to tell us to give boys and girls the same chances

Last week’s Court of Appeal decision in the Al-Hijrah case found for Ofsted that segregated education is discriminatory for both boys and girls due to their lack of opportunity to develop confident relationships with the opposite gender. The judgement seems bizarre given that the right...

About Me

Eve Sacks is a co-founder of Nahamu, a think-tank lobbying on harms in the Charedi community, and a trustee of the Jewish Orthodox Feminist Alliance UK.