When I was working in my dad's office, I once had to file a medical report that said, "Patient suffered cardiac arrest and sudden death. This was particularly serious given patient's history of sudden death."

nteresting. A court ruled that a Jewish school in London is allowed to give preference in admission to Jewish kids, but is not allowed to use the traditional Orthodox rule that the child of a Jewish woman is Jewish in order to determine which kids are Jewish enough to get that preference. [link]

I think given UK law this makes sense. A school can target a religion, but not an ethnicity. That is a school can admit only Hindu's or only Muslims, but it can't admit only South Asians, or only East Asian. To the extent the extent a school admits people based on birth, that is treating Judiasm as an ethnicity. To the extent it admits people based on belief it is a religious school and thus legal. And since "Progressive" Jews (equal Reform in the U.S.) are admitted if their mother was recognized as Jewish, to not recognize Progressive Jews as Jews if their Mom was converted by a Progressive Synagogue does meet the criteria of ethnicity rather than religion. The school would be within its rights to admit ONLY Orthodox Jews. But to admit all Jews, but exclude those converted outside of Orthodoxy, or with ancestors who converted outside of Orthodoxy is unlawful discrimination.

Who'd he go to lunch with ita? We often use lunches for meet and greets with various people when we're bringing a new person on so it wouldn't particularly ping me.

"well-dressed" could be a similar euphemism for "not homeless or looking like he/she might have fleas/lice."

Yep. No obvious socio-economic [poor or homeless] or substance-related [junkie] cause for whatver.

When I was working in my dad's office, I once had to file a medical report that said, "Patient suffered cardiac arrest and sudden death. This was particularly serious given patient's history of sudden death."

Have you mentioned that before, Hil? It's still amusing.

Yep. No obvious socio-economic [poor or homeless] or substance-related [junkie] cause for whatver.

Except she's a cancer patient! THAT IS PRETTY MUCH THE CAUSE OF STUFF.

I've always liked the term "well-fed", which is a nice euphemism for "fat".

It isn't a euphemism for fat, it just means well nourished as in "has access to adequate amounts of food and eats regular meals." At least that's always been my understanding.

Well-dressed I've never seen, but I think Connie's right that it means meeting a baseline level for access to shelter and clothing.

The school would be within its rights to admit ONLY Orthodox Jews.

But then how would you define Orthodox? By observance, or by what synagogue they belonged to, or something else?

(I think I can argue about five different sides of this issue, and I haven't yet figured out which one I think makes the most sense.)

But then how would you define Orthodox? By observance, or by what synagogue they belonged to, or something else?

Either could work. The point is it can't be on the basis of ancestory. Note that admission to the synagogue can be on any basis you want. But if you are running a school, admission has to be based on what the person admitted believes or does, not what their parents believe or did. Don't see this as overwhelming hardship for the school.

The school would be within its rights to admit ONLY Orthodox Jews.

But then how would you define Orthodox? By observance, or by what synagogue they belonged to, or something else?

I think that the court's contention is that the religious determination is based on race. But, it's kind of not. As I understand it, Jewish heritage is based on the religion of the mother. If she has converted to Judaism (i.e. her mother was not Jewish), then she is not Orthodox (but can her children EVER be Orthodox, or can you be Orthodox if your mother converted to Judaism and you were raised Orthodox? Oy.)

Am I way off base?

That he works for the HHGttG?

Oh good, not just me.

Converts can be Orthodox. I was told when I converted that my conversion would be recognized by the Orthodox Union even though it was done through a Reform synagogue, and that my children would be recognized as Jewish.