No Plans To Reverse Kosher Slaughter Ban, Polish Premier Says
Is It Kosher? Poland?s Prime Minister Donald Tusk says a constitutional court will rule at some point whether a ban on kosher slaughter violates religious rights of Jews. Image by getty images
Poland’s Prime Minister Donald Tusk said he had no plans to reintroduce legislation to lift a ban on the production of kosher meat, despite mounting criticism from Isreal and Jewish groups that it is harmful to Jews in Poland.
Polish lawmakers last week rejected a government-backed draft law that would have allowed slaughterhouses to produce meat in accordance with Jewish ritual law.
The law’s opponents said the practice, which has been halted since a constitutional court ruling last year, is cruel to livestock.
Israel’s Foreign Ministry said on Monday the ban on kosher slaughter methods damaged efforts to rehabilitate Jewish life in a country whose large Jewish community was nearly wiped out under German occupation during World War Two.
“Right now we are not planning any legislative action in this matter,” Tusk told a news conference.
He added the government would await a decision by a constitutional court on whether the ban on kosher slaugher was harming the rights of religious minorities.
Why I became the Forward’s editor-in-chief
You are surely a friend of the Forward if you’re reading this. And so it’s with excitement and awe — of all that the Forward is, was, and will be — that I introduce myself to you as the Forward’s newest editor-in-chief.
And what a time to step into the leadership of this storied Jewish institution! For 129 years, the Forward has shaped and told the American Jewish story. I’m stepping in at an intense time for Jews the world over. We urgently need the Forward’s courageous, unflinching journalism — not only as a source of reliable information, but to provide inspiration, healing and hope.
, editor-in-chiefSupport our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
