Ed Balls

Ed Balls’s "not embarrassed" by Nazi pic

Thu, 04 Oct 2012 10:21:21 +0100

Shadow Chancellor Ed Balls says he is “not embarrassed” by the student-era pictures of him in a Nazi uniform that appeared in the press in 2008.

In an interview with the Huffington Post he said: “Of course I’m not embarrassed by it. If I had the choice again, would I do it? No.”

Mr Balls explained that he wore the uniform at an end-of-year dinner at Keble College, Oxford, as a forfeit for allowing through rent increases as President of Keble’s Junior Common Room. “I went along with it for a laugh,” he said. “In retrospect, I wouldn’t do it again.”

Mr Balls is regarded as a consistent supporter of Israel. He speaks frequently at LFI events, and announced the LFI’s UK-Israel Economic Dialogue at its annual lunch in July, where he began his address with the word “Chaverim”.

Ed Balls talks Glee and Shadow Cabinet

Jennifer Lipman — Thu, 27 Jan 2011 10:58:28 +0000

New Shadow Chancellor Ed Balls spent Wednesday morning debating issues including recycling, school lunches and whether football is a man's game with a more youthful governing body - the student parliament at cross-communal secondary JCoSS.

Mr Balls was at the Barnet school to meet pupils from its first intake who have been elected by their peers to serve in the JCoSS cabinet.

Along with JCoSS chair Gerald Ronson, he talked to the representatives for education, health, sport and the environment.

He praised pupils for being "much less unruly" than their Commons counterparts, but was surprised to learn that at JCoSS, the prime minister handles the funds.

Mr Balls offered the group policy advice, suggesting that the health secretary run a poll about lunch preferences, and urging a PMQs-style panel session for pupils to air educational concerns.

Informed of the school's new drama group, GLoSS - inspired by the cult TV series, Glee - Mr Balls revealed himself as a Glee fan, albeit preferring Journey's original version of Don't Stop Believing to the one performed by the show's cast.

Accepting congratulations on his new job, he said it had been "a pretty turbulent week" for Labour following Alan Johnson's resignation for personal reasons. "It's a big change to be back at the economy. While I am pleased to do this, the last thing I wanted was for it to happen this way." He joked, however, that the handover of his previous duties as Shadow Home Secretary had been easy, given that his wife Yvette Cooper had succeeded him.

Mr Balls was Schools Secretary when JCoSS was being set up and was present when the building's foundation stone was laid. It was great, he said, to return to see it operational.

"For me it's the end of an exciting period, but for the school this is just the first step. Being here and seeing it makes me want to be 11-years-old again."

Praising Jewish schools for their "great passion, love of learning and drive to succeed", he was cautious in his comments about Michael Gove's free schools plan. "My problem is not the idea of new schools being set up but the idea of there being a massive excess of places at some schools and competition at others. But for a school like this there was definitely a need."

He added that JCoSS was the first school he had seen with a parliament modelled on Westminster rather than a student council. "It's very impressive - the students should make the most of it."

Sex education gets a cautious welcome

Leon Symons — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 15:59:35 +0000

Jewish education leaders have given a guarded welcome to the government’s announcement of its plans for sex education in schools.

Ed Balls, Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families, unveiled plans to make personal, social, health and economic education compulsory in schools from 2011.

Faith schools will have to teach the new curriculum, but “within the tenets of their faith”, said Mr Balls.

A Jewish cross-communal group under the aegis of the Board of Deputies has been in talks with the government and other faith groups, including Catholics, Anglicans and Muslims, discussing a voluntary strategy.

Catholics and Anglicans have given a broad welcome but with some reservations, shared by Muslim groups. But there has been criticism of the change to parents’ right to withdraw their children from sex lessons.

Board chief executive Jon Benjamin argued: “We have said all along that if the government wants this to work, it has to be presented in a way that is acceptable to schools coming from different points of view.

“If there is something outlandish, it won’t work.”

At the same time, he said, the community needed to be realistic about dealing with the issues that affect young people.

“Schools could teach the physical aspects of the subject through science lessons, which some are doing already, while the moral side could be dealt with in religious studies lessons.

“We will be pushing for schools to have a lot of latitude in how they teach this.”

A more radical view came from Dr Joanna Rees, a mother of six, a GP and former chair of the parents’ association at Hasmonean Schools. She said: “The government has poured so much money into sex education yet we still have the highest teenage pregnancy rate in Europe.

“We should be putting money into ‘no- sex’ education. I believe it is important to teach this in a religious, cultural and social context.

“You can’t look at this in isolation. Children have access to pornography on the internet, music is sexual, there is so much of this around them. But what is this legislation doing? It’s teaching them to have sex when they should be taught how to say ‘no’ to sex before marriage.”

But Rabbi Avraham Pinter, principal of the strictly Orthodox Yesodey Hatorah schools in Hackney, east London, argued that the government’s plans were well intentioned but would only allow parents to avoid responsibility for their children.

“We don’t have a problem with sex education itself, because that will be dealt with in terms of the ethos of the school,” he said.

“The issue is the way children are brought up and this will allow parents to avoid responsibility by taking away choice.”

Ed Balls: Holocaust education is best investment

Robyn Rosen — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 16:04:33 +0100

Schools Secretary Ed Balls has said the money put into Holocaust education is the “best investment” his department has made.

Mr Balls and his wife Yvette Cooper, the Work and Pensions Secretary, were among the 300 guests at the Holocaust Educational Trust dinner in central London.

Stressing the enduring importance of Holocaust education, he said young Britons were learning about the Shoah in a “relevant and sophisticated” way.

“The money we are investing is probably the best investment our department makes for the future of young people. To learn about the Holocaust is firmly part of the curriculum and HET brings it alive for young people with messages that are very powerful for our country today.”

The Department of Children, Schools and Families is giving the HET £1.5 million annually for its Lessons from Auschwitz project, through which sixth-formers visit the death camp site. HET also aims to raise awareness and understanding through teacher training and has taken more than 7,000 staff and pupils to Auschwitz.

But HET chairman Lord Janner says there is more to be done. “In some schools it’s good and in some schools they are doing very little.”

He was concerned at rising antisemitism and the ever-dwindling number of survivors to relay their stories to new generations.

“We work against racism of all kinds and we can’t let people forget about what happened. We’ve been very lucky to hear survivors’ stories but they are dying off, so we have to train more people.”

Addressing diners, actor John Hurt said his interest in the Holocaust had grown since starring in the 2005 film, Shooting Dogs, about the Rwandan genocide. “I met many of the Rwandan survivors and thought their stories were extraordinary.

“But the more I experience, the more it seems to me that before any of us move forward, we have to recognise the fact we are all capable of that which is wonderful and that which is terrible.”

Praising the HET for its “fantastic work”, he added: “It’s crucially important to keep teaching the next generation about the Holocaust because it is just common sense.”

Fellow actor Antony Sher, broadcaster Angela Rippon and a number of survivors were also among the guests at the dinner.

Balls praises JCoSS ethos

Marcus Dysch — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 13:51:36 +0100

Schools Secretary Ed Balls said this week that the cross-communal JCoSS secondary school in Barnet will be a beacon for tackling discrimination and prejudice.

“This is a very important and significant day,” Mr Balls told the 200 guests at Monday’s ground-breaking ceremony for the £50 million project.

“This is a time when we have to redouble our efforts, say discrimination is wrong and stand together, community by community, to root out intolerance and prejudice. That is what this school is about.

“I will be going to other local authorities and telling them: ‘Go and learn what has been done at JCoSS’. This school will be a good investment for the future of our country.”

JCoSS will take in its first pupils in September 2010, building up to a roll of 1,310 Jewish children from all backgrounds. School president Gerald Ronson believed it would be instrumental in tackling British Jewry’s declining numbers. “After 10 years in the planning, in just six months we will receive our first applications,” he said. “Suddenly it all seems very real.”

Recently appointed JCoSS head Jeremy Stowe-Lindner reported that the process of reaching parents of potential pupils was picking up speed. “It’s unbelievable the number of people who want to talk to us. It’s a real challenge to make ourselves open to as many people as possible.”

Reflecting the JCoSS commitment to inclusion, a special resource provision will enable 50 children with autism to learn alongside students at the mainstream school. The flagship facility is being developed by Norwood and will be known as the Pears Special Resource Provision in recognition of the Pears Foundation’s £2 million investment in JCoSS.

Mr Balls, Mr Ronson, Mr Stowe-Lindner and Barnet Council leader Mike Freer buried a time capsule including the JC from the week the school received its final planning permission and a fragment of a Second World War bomb discovered by builders at the site last month.

Rabbis in New Faith School Challenge

Dana Gloger — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 00:00:00 +0100

LEADING Jewish education figures have reacted with outrage on learning that two Progressive rabbis are to lobby the government to prevent state-funded faith schools using a child's or parent's religion in determining admission.

The JC understands that the rabbis will form part of a wide-ranging coalition, due to launch on Monday. It will lobby Ed Balls, Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families, to stop such schools discriminating against students and teachers on the grounds of faith, as well as recommending that such schools do not offer compulsory worship sessions.

Rabbi David Goldberg, emeritus rabbi of the Liberal Jewish Synagogue in St John's Wood, said he and Rabbi Jonathan Romain of Maidenhead Synagogue would be supporting the coalition.

There are also Hindu, Christian and Humanist organisations involved with the group.

Two years ago, the government proposed that state-funded faith schools should be able to admit only 75 per cent of pupils on the basis of religion and that the rest be allocated by the local authority. The Board of Deputies persuaded the government to back down.

Rabbi Goldberg said: "I do not think it would best serve integration to allow more faith schools. They are not the answer, and so I will be supporting this coalition.

"It seems to me that faith schools just cause people to live parallel lives and do not help integration."
He suggested to the coalition that it appoint Rabbi Romain as its chairman.

Details of the coalition are embargoed until Monday, and Rabbi Romain would say only: "This is not about Jewish schools but about faith schools in general, including Catholic, Muslim, Sikh and Hindu ones. I will be able to give much greater details after the launch on Monday."

The launch will come a week before the opening of the newest Jewish day school in Finchley, North London.

Philanthropist Benjamin Perl, who has founded and provided funding for around 20 Jewish schools, said: "It is absolutely disgraceful for someone to be a rabbi and yet fight our very own day schools, and to have a hand in an agenda that can destroy all our schools and cause more assimilation.

"It is disgraceful to give them a platform, as they do not speak for 99 per cent of the community."

He added: "This is not about Jewish schools not appointing non-Jewish teachers, as all the schools have non-Jewish teachers, so that has never been an issue."

Joshua Rowe, chairman of governors of Manchester's King David High School, said of the campaign: "This is staggering. Faith schools are a gift and a partnership between a community and the government. To try to undermine them makes no sense."

Russell Kett, chairman of governors at London's JFS comprehensive, said: "The rabbis are entitled to do what they like, but I would not support this and my preference is that they should not be doing this."

JFS was last month at the centre of a major court case over a claim that its admissions policy racially discriminated against the son of a convert. It successfully defended the policy.

Jon Benjamin, chief executive of the Board of Deputies, said: "The policy that has underpinned education in this country for the past 60 years has been one of choice.

"What we campaigned for is for parents to have a choice in how they educate their children. We are confident we have the ear of government on this."

Ed Balls told June's Salute to Israel rally in Trafalgar Square of his admiration for Jewish schools. "I know that they are often setting a great example to our education system," he said.

Ban Kabbalah access to schools, Balls told

Leon Symons — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 00:00:00 +0100

An Orthodox rabbi who has campaigned against a children's organisation run by the Kabbalah Centre has called on the government department responsible for education to "pull the plug" on its access to schools.

Rabbi Yitzchak Schochet, minister of Mill Hill United Synagogue, wrote privately to Children, Schools and Families secretary Ed Balls after it was revealed in June that Spirituality For Kids (SFK) - an offshoot of the Kabbalah Centre - had been holding lessons in six schools in the London boroughs of Westminster and Tower Hamlets.

Since then, two schools have told SFK that it was no longer welcome.

Last week, the JC reported that Chief Rabbi Sir Jonathan Sacks had sent two of his senior staff, together with Central Synagogue minister Rabbi Marcus, to a fact-finding meeting with two representatives of SFK after an approach from television presenter Esther Rantzen. One of the SFK representatives was Ms Rantzen's daughter, Emily Wilcox, who now uses her Hebrew name, Miriam.

In his letter a month ago to Mr Balls, Rabbi Schochet - who holds the family portfolio in the Chief Rabbi's cabinet - asked him to "nip in the bud" SFK's involvement with state schools.

He told him: "I truly believe this runs the risk of becoming a very real problem."

A reply came from a member of the DCSF's public communications unit, rather than Mr Balls himself.
The letter said that the Department "was interested to read your concerns about Kabbalah and SFK and [has] made sure your letter has been brought to the attention of relevant policy officials. However, I should also explain that we neither endorse nor ban specific teaching methods or resources, unless it is part of a national campaign for raising standards. It is a matter for individual schools to determine how to organise the school day and what teaching methods to use."

Rabbi Schochet said: "I am pleased to know that the matter has been passed on to ‘relevant policy officials'. But the suggestion that ‘it is a matter for individual schools to determine what teaching methods to use' raises serious concerns, especially where those methods may involve indoctrination.

"That SFK and the Kabbalah Centre are inextricably linked is indisputable. That the Kabbalah Centre is on some cult watch lists in America is also fact. That should surely trigger enough alarm bells to encourage policy officials to pull the plug. I truly hope they will ensure they investigate thoroughly to appreciate what is at stake here and take appropriate action."

Balls pledges fresh look at school safety

Simon Rocker — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 16:38:09 +0100

Ed Balls, the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families, has promised to revisit the question of how to help Jewish schools meet security costs amid frustration at the lack of tangible support.

Last autumn, the government announced that local councils would be allowed to help with capital expenditure on security, but some councils have said there is no money available.

In a letter to the Community Security Trust this week, Mr Balls — who lunched with CST officials last week — said that his department would take a fresh look if necessary.

“I believe there is enough money in the system for capital investment in security at all schools, including, of course, Jewish schools, and that our funding systems should deliver the capital where it is most needed,” he wrote. “I also believe it is right that decisions on the allocation of this funding should be taken locally.”

But, he added, in view of concerns that had been raised with him, “I am willing to look again at whether there is an issue that still needs to be addressed.”

If the CST could provide examples where the current system was not working, he said he would consider “in the light of such evidence, whether there is indeed a case for a change and whether a different system of central or targeted local funding is needed to ensure that funding is allocated appropriately to this need.”

Welcoming the letter, Mark Gardner, the CST’s communications director said: “Ed Balls is a true friend of our community and we look forward to working with him to ensure that the current obstacles can be overcome as soon as possible.”

In a letter to the JC last month , Mike Freer, leader of Barnet Council in North-West London, which has the largest number of state-aided Jewish schools of any UK borough, complained that council allocations had not been increased to fund school security.

Mr Balls, who spoke at Sunday’s Salute to Israel rally, also used the occasion to record his admiration for Jewish schools. “I know that Jewish schools are often setting a great example to our education system,” he said.

“Indeed, many of our best schools are Jewish schools and we support the history and tradition and contribution which Jewish faith schools make to our education, to our society and the continuation of the Jewish faith into the years to come.”

Israel rally set to raise the roof

Fri, 20 Jun 2008 14:48:40 +0100

Thousands of people are expected to turn out for the first UK “Salute to Israel” parades in London and Manchester on June 29.

The London parade, which will start at midday on the corner of Berkeley Street and Piccadilly, will culminate in a Trafalgar Square rally at 2pm. Supporters can expect a visual spectacle as they watch marching bands and floats sponsored by companies, including the JC, and communal organisations.

The rally will be compered by LBC radio host Nick Ferrari, with guests including Knesset member Isaac Herzog and Ed Balls MP.

Taking to the streets to advertise the rally

Chief Rabbi Sir Jonathan Sacks will lead a special version of Oseh Shalom, already viewed more than 100,000 times on YouTube. Israeli pop punk band Useless ID, singer Liel and Chassidic pop star Yoni Shlomi will complete the line-up.

A live webcast of the event will run at www.salutetoisrael.org.

Thousands of people have already confirmed that they will attend the event by joining groups on Facebook and other social networking sites.

Douglas Krikler, UJIA chief executive, said: “We want the whole community to mark Israel’s 60th birthday. We are excited to celebrate with friends and family here in the UK at an event that will educate the public about the importance of our connection with the people of Israel, as well as providing a family friendly fun time with a carnival atmosphere.”

The celebration is being overseen by a team of community organisations, under the aegis of the Board of Deputies and Jewish Leadership Council. They include: UJIA, JNF UK, Zionist Federation, Zionist Youth Council, the United Synagogue, the Movement for Reform Judaism and other main synagogue bodies.

The Manchester celebrations will include a street parade starting at a North Manchester location. For further details email manchester@salutetoisrael.org or call the JNF office on 0161 795 7565.

The parade will be followed by the “Party in the Park” at Heaton Park with three hours of entertainment.

Balls backs primary age Shoah education

Craig Silver — Fri, 30 May 2008 00:00:00 +0100

A Holocaust survivor has told Children, Schools and Families Secretary Ed Balls of the importance of educating primary pupils against antisemitism.

Joanna Millan met Mr Balls at the UK Holocaust Centre in Nottinghamshire last Friday where the minister was supporting a forthcoming Holocaust exhibition, The Journey, aimed at primary-age children.

Mrs Millan was born Belo Rosenthal and was brought to England in 1945 after surviving the Theresienstadt concentration camp in Czechoslovakia. Her mother died in Theresienstadt and her grandfather was killed in Auschwitz.

Ed Balls with Joanna Millan and pupils from Lode Heath School, Solihull

For many years, she has recounted her Holocaust experiences to young audiences.

She told the JC that she had emphasised to Mr Balls that “antisemitism and racism does start at an early age, especially with primary school children. The children I talk to are always very interested in what I have to say and ask a lot of questions, which is important”.

The minister believed “this exhibition will be hugely beneficial to help young children learn about the history of the Holocaust in an appropriate way. But it’s not just about absorbing information — it will also give them a chance to question values, behaviours and attitudes and as such will be an investment in the future cohesion of our schools and communities.”

Holocaust Centre director Dr Stephen Smith stressed: “We will not be telling 10-year-olds about mass execution and gas chambers. Instead we will take them on a journey through history, exploring identity and discussing the values of the world we share.”

Backed by the Heritage Lottery Fund and the Association of Jewish Refugees, The Journey is due to open in September.