Celebating Chanukah with PM Sophie Wilmès

EUROPEAN JEWISH ASSOCIATION LAMENTS EUROPEAN COURT OF JUSTICE RULING ON KOSHER SLAUGHTER IN BELGIUM “WHAT A TERRIBLE MESSAGE TO SEND TO EUROPEAN JEWRY – YOU AND YOUR PRACTICE ARE NOT WELCOME HERE” SAYS ITS CHIEF.
“Bogus animal welfare claims are being used to penalise a practice that puts care and respect for animals at its very core”,
“This ruling gives the green light for other countries to follow suit, and if they do, there will be no Kosher meat available in Europe”, says Rabbi Menachem Margolin, Chairman of the European Jewish Association.
(Brussels 17 December 2020) The European court of Justice today delivered a potentially devastating ruling on an issue that has plagued European Jewry for years, the right to slaughter animals in the Kosher tradition, a millennia old practice that puts animal welfare and minimizing animal suffering at its very core.
Rabbi Menachem Margolin, Chairman of the EJA today said his organisaton will explore every avenue and recourse available to protect the rights of Jews everywhere in Europe,
“This is a sad day for European Jewry. For decades now, as animal rights have come into vogue, Kosher slaughter has come under relentless attack, and subject to repeated attempts to ban it. The entire basis of the attacks are built on the entirely bogus premise that Kosher slaughter is more cruel than regular slaughtering, despite there being not a shred of evidence backing this up, and worse completely ignoring the fact that Kosher slaughter puts the welfare of the animal and minimising its suffering as of paramount importance. This is not a glib staement, but a commandment that all Jews must adhere to.
“What today’s ruling does is put animal welfare above the fundamental right of Freedom of Religion. Simply put, Beast takes preference over man.
Potentially devasting too, it gives other European countries like Belgium – who similarly regard this fundamental Charter freedom as ‘negotiable – the green light to follow suit. If every european country does it means only one thing: there will be no Kosher meat available in Europe anymore.
“What a terrible message to send to European Jewry, that you and your practices are not welcome here. This is a basic denial of our rights as European citizens. We cannot let it stand and will pursue every recourse and avenue to ensure that it doesnt.”
The European Court of Justice has ruled on a Belgian case, involving Flanders and Wallonia laws, that require pre-stunning of animals before slaughter. In short, the Court says that individual Member State moves to ban kosher slaughter by making stunning a pre-requisite, do not in themselves violate the Freedom of Religion rights contained within the EU charter of Fundamental Rights.
The ruling runs contrary to an opinion given in early September 2020 by the European Court Advocate General who suggested the oppositea.

One thousand students from schools throughout Portugal toured the Jewish Museum of Porto, the museum announced last week.

The visit took place on the anniversary of the 1496 Edict of Expulsion, which banned Judaism in Portugal. The edict had a negative impact not just on the country’s Jews but on Portugal as a whole, explained Michael Rothwell, the museum’s director.

“The edict caused the Jews to leave the kingdom and enrich other competing powers,” Rothwell said. “A chain of events even led to the loss of Portugal’s independence in 1580, as seen from a rare object exhibited in the museum, the ‘Megillat Purim Sebastiano.’”

“This document demonstrates how the Moroccan Jewish community feared being forcibly converted to Christianity by Dom Sebastião. With the help of two Portuguese conversos (forcibly converted Jews), they provided decisive information for the Muslim armies to prepare for the clash,” Rothwell added. “This resulted in the crushing defeat of the Portuguese nobility, the death of the king, and, two years later, the loss of Portugal’s independence, which passed into Spanish hands.”

During their tour of Portugal’s second-largest city, the students learned about the history of Jewish life in the area, which dates to before the founding of the Kingdom of Portugal in the 12th century. Jews were instrumental in the founding and development of the country, the museum stated. Portugal currently has a Jewish population of 3,000 – 6,000 people.

Importance of Jews in Portugal

“The Jews played an important role in the administration of the country,” said Gabriel Senderowicz, president of Porto’s Jewish community. “With their scientific, cultural, commercial, and economic skills, as well as their mastery of many languages, they contributed to Portugal’s diplomatic relations and the voyages of discovery that transformed a small country into an empire,” Senderowicz said.

In the museum’s theater, students watched films produced by the community, including The Light of Judah, The Lisbon Genocide, and 1618. The films depict the immediate effects of the edict on Portuguese Jews, the massacre of thousands of Jews in Lisbon, and the Inquisition’s activities in Porto, respectively.

Hugo Vaz, a museum historian, discussed 1618 with the students.

“The municipal and judicial authorities of Porto opposed such Inquisitorial persecution and even ordered the siege of the ecclesiastical court by guards on horseback,” Vaz explained. “This unprecedented case in 17th-century Portugal led an onlooker, Sebastião de Noronha, to travel to Madrid to complain to King Dom Filipe.”

The museum, inaugurated in 2019, is open exclusively to schools and the Jewish community for security reasons. However, it opens to the public on the European Day of Jewish Culture, celebrated on the first Sunday of September, alongside the Holocaust Museum and the Kadoorie Mekor Haim Synagogue.