Should Jewish kids stay in non-Jewish homes?

(Page 2 of 3)

“We don’t take any position on whether she is a fit mother or not,” Rabbi Biser said. “Our only interest is that if you take the children they have to be in the same faith home.”

Randy Hall, the commissioner of the Renssellaer Department of Social Services did not respond to requests for comment in time for The Jewish Star’s deadline.

The Agudah is basing its objection on a statute of child custody law that maintains that any child “remanded or committed by the court to any duly authorized association, agency, society, or institution” should be placed “when practicable… under the control of persons of the same religious faith or persuasion as that of the child.”

“Basically [Rensellaer County Social Services] made a mistake and now they want to continue the mistake,” Rabbi Biser said. “Now they want to make that permanent. Once a child is adopted there’s no recourse … I don’t feel that the department, because of whatever reason, lack of inquiry, negligence, made a serious mistake and that this child be lost forever for the Jewish people.”

Rabbi Biser claims that the agency is not moving the children because the move would not be “practicable,” since the boy has already bonded with his foster parents and the girl suffers from various medical issues associated with her mother’s addiction.

Though the case may be more complicated than that.

According to Jim Dyer, the Arthur B. Hanson professor of Law at the college of William and Mary, moving the boy may be a violation of the his constitutional rights.

“A child has a 14th amendment right against the state going into their existing homes and family and terminating their relationship,” Dyer said. “There are reasonable policies behind the statutes, but now we have a different story. The child, by mistake or accident, has a relationship with caretakers and that relationship is likely very important to the child’s welfare… It shouldn’t matter to the child’s constitutional rights to the state how the relationship arose.”

He said the court would look askance at Agudah’s involvement.

“They’re bystanders and they have no legal standing to protest the adoption,” he said about Agudah. “The adoption mandate is to do what’s in the best interest of the child.”

Page 2 / 3