Dutch Jews 'Fearful' After Shechita Ban

Baltimore Jewish Life ^ | 6/29/11 | Chana Ya'ar

[Nachum]

Dutch Jews are beginning to wonder what's coming next after the lower house of the Netherlands parliament voted Tuesday to approve a ban on ritual slaughter of animals for kosher and halal meat. The bill, sponsored by the country's Animal Rights Party, stipulates that livestock must be stunned before slaughter.

In Jewish law, meat must by prepared through ritual slaughter before it can be declared kosher. Likewise, Islam requires similar procedures for halal meat but does not prohibit slaughter after stunning. A possible loophole in the new law – which has yet to pass the upper house of the parliament -- allows religious groups to continue the practice of ritual slaughter, if they can prove it is no more painful than stunning.

According to greater Netherlands Chief Rabbi Binyomin Jacobs, who was interviewed by INN several months ago on anti-Semitism in Holland, many Jews have called to ask what the future holds, given the fact that such a law could pass.

"Old people are scared, and young people who are just married are calling me to ask if they should stay here. Today it is the shechita and tomorrow, what? Circumcision? People are afraid," Jacobs told the Reuters news agency.

"This is very painful," Jacobs noted. "Those who survived the [second world] war remember the very first law made by the Germans in Holland was the banning of shechita, or the Jewish way of slaughtering animals."

Although regulations in the European Union require stunning of animals prior to slaughter, exceptions are allowed for ritual slaughter. According to the European Court of Human Rights, production and purchase of ritually slaughtered meat is a religious right.

Nevertheless, a number of Scandinavian and other European countries have banned ritual slaughter, including Sweden, Norway, Luxembourg and Switzerland. Activists in Switzerland are also working to secure a ban on the import of halal and kosher meat -- a fallback plan that both Jews and Muslims might be forced to rely upon, should the Dutch ban pass in the upper house of parliament as well.

[miss marmelstein]

My point is that we are talking about Dutch Jews - not American Jews - who are under attack from the Dutch government concerning the Kosher killing of animals and circumcision. They’d be crazy to be anti-Israel. I have no idea what party Dutch Jews support.

On second thought, I hope they all go to Israel. I wish they would come here but I think America is turning against Jews and Israel. I blame Obama’s government and academia.

P.S.: We are already seeing hostility toward circumcision - I’m sure the Kosher killing of animals will be next, if it hasn’t started already. Anybody who has ever had a Kosher chicken (or as my mother calls it “a Jewish chicken” doesn’t know what they’re missing!!)

[Tax-chick]

My daughter always buys Hebrew National hot dogs ;-).

I’ve read of opposition to Jewish slaughter practices in the US, but I don’t know that any laws have actually been passed. Maybe in a few cities?

I think the Obama Administration is a big problem, but the G.W. Bust administration wasn’t as supportive of Israel as I would have liked.

[heartwood]

Au contraire, mon ami. It is entirely possible to ensure that both unconsciousness and death follow from the throat cutting, and that the animal is positioned so that gravity will drain the blood, without actually hoisting it upside down by its hind feet. See Temple Grandin. Also see the videos of kosher slaughter from Argentina, for how it’s done badly - the shochet (sp?) does not always manage one clean cut. That would be easier if the animal were properly restrained, and not terrified and struggling.

As for Islamic slaughter, that’s so often amateur hour. It’s feast day, kiddies, let’s go jump on some goats and get covered with blood.