JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
(JTA) — A ban in Belgium on the Jewish and Muslim methods of ritual slaughter of animals will go into effect on New Year’s. The Flemish Region, whose capital is Antwerp, passed the measure in July 2017 over vociferous objections by faith community leaders. It becomes effective on Jan. 1. A similar ban in the Walloon…
Scandinavia is the darling of liberals the world over. Yet for Jews living in there, life isn’t all free health care and minimalist design. In Iceland, the tiny Jewish population is now facing the most serious legal challenge to male circumcision in Europe. A new bill that criminalizes circumcision of minors and penalizes parents and…
A new Polish bill proposes to limit kosher slaughter, in a move that has been internationally interpreted by Jews as anti-Semitic. But kosher slaughter is evil, you protest. Surely the world is better off free from the scourge of cruel, old-fashioned, unnecessary ruthless murder and torment that haunts Eastern Europe? Not so fast. Poland has…
The Dutch government announced it plans to limit ritual slaughter through new measures, including a ban on the export of kosher and halal meat. Agriculture Minister Martijn van Dam announced his government’s plan to limit ritual slaughter in the kingdom on Wednesday, in a letter he sent to the Tweede Kamer, the lower house of…
France’s chief rabbi warned the country’s association of veterinarians of the “far-reaching” consequences of its recent opposition to the ritual slaughter of animals. Rabbi Haim Korsia expressed his concern regarding the position of France’s Order of Veterinarians in a letter he sent to the president of that association, Michel Baussier, the AFP news agency on…
British lawmakers spent three hours debating a possible ban on religious slaughter. The debate on Tuesday came after an on-line petition from the British Veterinary Association calling for a ban on slaughter without stunning generated 115,000 signatures in nine months. It is the second parliamentary debate on religious slaughter in the last three months. A…
A Polish court ruled that the de-facto ban imposed last year on slaughter without stunning of animals, which includes kosher and halal ritual slaughter, is unconstitutional. A majority of five out of the nine justices who reviewed the ban at the Polish Constitutional Tribunal Wednesday ruled it ran contrary to the country’s constitution, the European…
The Muslim custom of killing sheep at temporary slaughterhouses jeopardizes all ritual slaughter in Belgium, a Cabinet minister there warned. Ben Weyts, Belgium’s minister for animal welfare, made the warning Sunday during an interview with the VRT broadcaster about a ban that will go into effect next year throughout most of Belgium on the slaughter…
