Census decision to exclude Jewish category a pity, say religious leaders

SOME members of the Jewish community in this country have expressed dismay that next week’s census will not include a category box for Jews in the section on religious beliefs.

One of the questions on the census form is ‘What is your religion?’ and includes a number of boxes to be ticked, including Roman Catholic, Methodist and Muslim. Jewish people will have to identify themselves in the ‘other’ category.

The Central Statistics Office (CSO), which is running the April 23 census, has said it has no wish to cause offence and the religion was not included in a box category as the numbers are low.