When the Board of Deputies asked Clive Lawton to look over a draft textbook on Judaism produced externally for the new GCSE in religious studies, he was aghast. It was so poor that the Board decided that there was only one option: to publish its own.
It commissioned the veteran educator, a former Jewish school head and A-level RS examiner, to write "The Definitive Resource" for the Judaism component of the new course, which begins in September.
While the government's demand for children to study at least two faiths has had a mixed response from the Jewish community, it does mean one thing: more non-Jewish children choosing GSCE RS are now likely to take Judaism.
Initially projected to be a slim 30 pages, his book has stretched to a full 140 pages with a glossary of terms. Its aim is to be authentic and accurate. "I remember from 40 years ago when I worked at the Board that commercial textbooks in Judaism were repeatedly riddled with appalling errors which then got repeated," he said. "The number of times I have seen, for example, that the black stripes on a tallit are there to mourn for the Temple - as if black is a mourning colour for Judaism!"
Each section on Jewish practice, or themes such as relationships and families or peace and conflict, contains introductory bullet points or paragraphs setting out the key principles; these are followed by a short background essay going into more depth.
The topics follow the government's specifications - which form the backbone of the syllabi set by the four exam boards in England and Wales. But the criteria issued by the Department for Education were "problematic", he said.
"They had more or less come up with a template of what everyone should study in each religion," he explained. But the topics did not necessarily reflect the priorities within a particular religion and resulted in the Jewish syllabus being "somewhat influenced by Christian attitudes".
Mr Lawton added: "To take a simple example, when studying the Jewish attitude to God, a main section was the Shechinah [the Divine Presence]."
However, the Shechinah is not a Jewish preoccupation, and its appearance on the exam specs was "to do with the fact that you've got to have something equivalent to the Holy Spirit [in Christianity]".
In the original section on artefacts used for worship, the Magen David was included. "I think any Jew knows the Magen David is not used in worship. But presumably, this was something to do with [finding] a Jewish equivalent to the Cross, which is used in Christian worship." The Magen David was subsequently dropped from the section.
DfE criteria also required consideration of God as "judge and king" but not, for example, as merciful, he said.
Unusually, for a textbook, he offers a short commentary on where the exam course covers aspects that may not be central for most Jews. So for the Messiah or life after death, while Judaism has views on these subjects, he points out that "it would be false to say that this is what Jews think about all the time".
Each section also contains a short summary of diversity within Judaism, which is a course requirement.
On the new GCSE overall, he said: "I am not unhappy with the requirement that everybody studies two religions. I think a GCSE in religious studies should encourage young people to think about the fact that not all religions are the same. I think Jewish pupils too are better educated as a result of that. It's forced us to stop the nonsense of being afraid of hearing about another religion."
