Proposed Dutch ban on Kosher butchery represents ‘crisis of tolerance’

President Komorowski; photo - PAP/Jacek Turczyk

The issue was high on the agenda in Warsaw this week, with the Polish capital hosting close to 200 rabbis from across the continent for a meeting of the Conference of European Rabbis.

In June this year, the lower house of Holland's parliament passed a bill calling for fundamental changes to the practice of ritually slaughtering livestock carried out both by Jews (for whom the practice is known as ‘schita’) and Muslims (‘halal’).

According to the Dutch bill, animals must be stunned before they are submitted to the knife.

However, speaking at a press conference at Warsaw's Nozyk Synagogue on Tuesday, Michael Schudrich, the Chief Rabbi of Poland, condemned the Dutch move.

“For those of us that remember a time when half of Europe wasn’t free and suffered under the yoke of the Soviet Union, there are literally no words to describe the irony of a liberal European country enacting a law against freedom of religion,” he told the Jerusalem Post.

Schudrich insisted that the ancient practice of schita is “humane” and that the animal expires in a matter of seconds.

In a statement released earlier by President Komorowski, Poland's head of state said the Dutch bill, which still has to pass through Holland's upper house of parliament, “targets the Muslim and Jewish community” and represents “a crisis of tolerance” in Europe.

The hosting of the two-day meeting in Poland had symbolic value according to Rabbi Schudrich, who said that it was “a recognition of the re-emergence of a living Jewish community in Poland and the important role Poland is playing in Europe today.”

Prior to the war, Poland provided a home to over 3 million Jews. Today, there are approximately 40,000, according to some estimates. (nh/pg)