Polish Senator Michal Kaminski claimed his country’s status as a kosher meat exporter would help Jews convince its government not to ban the practice. He said: “In Poland’s history, religious slaughter was always legal except during Nazi occupation. For almost 1,000 years it was legal… it was a part of Polish tradition.”
Belgian MP Michael Freilich said defenders of religious slaughter could not rest on scientific arguments alone.
“Regular scientific consensus says kosher slaughter means the animal does feel pain,” he said, “even if it’s found out that shechita is less humane we should be allowed to do it because it’s fundamental to our religion.”
He warned religious circumcision was the next big fight: “We are preparing ourselves for that battle. Starting a debate is a very difficult thing because you risk alienating people.”
Israel’s ambassador to Hungary warned there were “stormy days” ahead for European Jewry. Yacov Hadas-Handelsman said the community was facing: “[The] rise of antisemitism around the world and a threat towards Jews to continue living in their traditional ways, with kosher slaughter and circumcision in Jewish communities.”
Hungarian Chief Rabbi Slomó Köves insisted that while fighting hatred, Jews must not forget “the freedom to thrive”.
