Rabbis Plan to Up Their Game in Defense of Shchita

Only days after the Dutch Parliament rejected proposed legislation to ban shechitah in Holland, Deputy Director of the Rabbinical Centre of Europe (RCE) Rabbi L. Goldberg told the Knesset Committee for Aliya, Absorption and Diaspora Affairs that in order to prevent a wave of legislation proscribing shechitah, better public diplomacy needs to be used.

“The only way to prevent a wave of anti-shechitah legislation in Europe is by explaining the facts,” Rabbi Goldberg told the Knesset committee, headed by Member of Knesset Danny Danon of the Likud Party. The committee meeting was organized to discuss the attempts by various parties, including the Green parties, across Europe to proscribe religious animal slaughter.

“The RCE has been in touch with one of the largest advertizing agencies to lead an experimental campaign in the Netherlands,” Rabbi Goldberg continued. “However, it is an extremely costly venture and I would expect the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Ministry of Public Diplomacy and Diaspora to share the burden.”

The meeting was initiated by MKs Avraham Michaeli and David Azoulay, both from the Shas Party, MK Uri Maklev from the United Torah Judaism Party and Jacob Edery from the Kadima Party. Also, in attendance were representatives from the communities and organizations involved in the campaign to halt the wave of legislation against shechitah.

Rabbi Binyomin Jacobs, Chief Rabbi of the Dutch Interprovincial Rabbinate and a senior member of the RCE, came to Israel especially for the committee meeting to share his views on the latest events in Holland.

“The legislation against shechitah did not emanate from an anti-Semitic worldview,” Rabbi Jacobs said. “So attacking the Dutch Government as somehow anti-Semitic is only harmful to us.”

Rabbi Jacobs explained that behind the campaign was the fight against the attempted Islamisization of Holland and the desire to protect animal rights. As of today, the proposed law would prohibit kosher slaughter in the Netherlands, but that such a proscription should be fought on the basis that it contravenes the Dutch Constitution which guarantees freedom of religion for all Dutch citizens.

Apart from the legislation in Holland, there have been repeated attempts to proscribe shechitah in Europe, using European Union institutions. The European legislation also requires the electric stunning of an animal before it is slaughtered, which is against Jewish Law. All the Jewish organizations agreed that although the European Union legislation has not passed thus far, there is a strong chance it will return and there remains the possibility that the legislation could be passed.

Also in attendance at the committee was Alon Nuriel, the representative of Religious Affairs Minister, Yaakov Margi. Nuriel asked that the committee to approach the Prime Minister’s Office and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to call on them to be more active in the campaigns to prevent the proscription of shechitah.

Nuriel also mentioned the recent visit and address by Minister Margi to the European Parliament during the RCE conference to discuss the issue in front of European parliamentarians.

The committee was also attended, amongst others, by representatives from the Conference of European Rabbis, Moshe Friedman and Yisrael Goldschmidt, Chief Rabbi of Rome, Riccardo Di Segni, Pinchas Kornfeld of the European Bureau of Shechita, Rabbi David Levinger, former Chief Rabbi of Basel and the author of several books on shechitah and Shmuel Ben Shmuel, Head of the World Jewish Affairs and Interreligious Affairs Department at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.