'Most difficult Polish-Jewish relations since fall of communism'

From left: Minister of Administration and Digitisation Michal Boni, Mufti Tomasz Miśkiewicz, President of the Jewish Community of Warsaw Piotr Kadlcik and Polish Chief Rabbi Michael Schudrich during a press conference after a meeting in Warsaw on Monday: photo - PAP / Grzegorz Jakubowski

“This is the most difficult moment for Polish-Jewish relations in 24 years [since the fall of communism],” Chief Rabbi Schudrich said after a meeting, accompanied by mufti of the Muslim Religious Association Tomasz Miśkiewicz with Minister Michal Boni, following a vote in parliament in July extending the ban on kosher and halal slaughter, enforced by the Constitutional Court last December.

Tomasz Miśkiewicz said that the shock that Muslim and Jewish communities greeted the news of the ban was equivalent to “Polish Catholics being told they could not eat carp at Christmas”.

Minister Boni said that the government aimed to send the issue back to the Constitutional Court, which ruled last year that kosher and halal slaughter was incompatible with Poland's animal rights legislation.

This time, Boni said, the issue before the court would be whether banning the ancient ritual was incompatible with Polish laws on religious freedom.

“Until the Constitutional Court makes a ruling, everyone should abstain [from the ritual] but at the same time keep in mind the basic constitutional rights that religious minorities are given by the Polish Constitution,” Michał Boni said.

The ban on what is referred to in Poland as 'ritual slaughter' drew an angry reaction from Israel, which called it “totally unacceptable” and farmers have complained that they will lose millions of zloty in lost exports. (pg)

source: PAP