Jewish group seeks Muslim Adviser

Published: 8 January 2008

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7177381.stm 

A body which represents Jewish people in Britain is looking to appoint a Muslim adviser for one of its schemes.

The aim of the Shared Futures Project - run by the Board of Deputies of British Jews - is to link Jewish and other faith schools.

Alex Goldberg, of the Board, said he hoped the project would bring together Britain's different communities and allow the different pupils to interact.

"This is an exciting opportunity for faith schools," he said.

Good citizens

The scheme coincides with government aims, announced last September, to promote community cohesion within schools.

The project will include creating links between Jewish, Roman Catholic, Sikh and Hindu schools.

Mr Goldberg explained that the Board had chosen to look for a Muslim adviser because "these faith schools are greater in number than Sikh and Hindu institutions".

"This is vitally important, we believe single faith schools provide good citizens"

Alex Goldberg

The Board hopes children from different schools will work together side-by-side on a wide variety of projects such as environmental, arts, sports and business schemes.

Mr Goldberg said the initiative would "promote diversity and improve understanding" between Britain's different faith communities.

"This is vitally important. We believe single faith schools provide good citizens with good academic results and we want these pupils to go out into the world equipped for a diverse community," he said.

Matching schools

Mr Goldberg said Shared Futures was looking to work with a variety of organisations such as Kick It Out, the organisation aiming to eliminate racism from football.

He explained there was a need to be sensitive to the needs of different schools: "One size doesn't fit all and we want to create a menu of programmes so that schools are equally matched, for instance, liberal schools are matched to other liberal schools."

Work has already begun on pilot schemes for the summer with the long-term aim of matching 20 to 30 faith schools during the first year, and at least 60 by 2010.