Better public diplomacy needs to be used in order to prevent a wave of legislation proscribing shechita, the kosher slaughtering of animals, Rabbi Goldberg, Deputy Director of the Rabbinical Centre of Europe (RCE), told a committee of the Knesset, Israel's parliament.
"The only way to prevent a wave of anti-shechita legislation in Europe is by explaining the facts," he told the Knesset committee for aliya, absorption and diaspora affairs headed by Danny Danon of the Likud party.
The committee meeting was organized to discuss the attempts by various parties across Europe, including the Green parties, to proscribe religious animal slaughter.
In December, the Senate, the Dutch parliament's upper house, expressed its concern about a bill that would have required stunning of animals before slaughter or the provision of evidence that non-stunned animals did not suffer unnecessarily.
Jewish organizations argued that such a demand would breach the framework of constitutional rights, particularly the freedom of religious practice.
Dutch Agriculture Minister Henk Bleker acknowledged the Senate will continue its deliberations on January 17 and vote on the proposed bill.
The minister stated in a letter to various stakeholders that a compromise could be reached between religious groups, the slaughter industry and the scientific community in order to set a national standard which will safeguard both animal welfare and religious rights.
"The RCE has been in touch with one of the largest advertizing agencies to lead an experimental campaign in the Netherlands," Rabbi Goldberg said.
"However, it is an extremely costly venture and I would expect Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Ministry of Public Diplomacy and Diaspora to share the burden," he added.
The Knesset meeting was initiated by MK’s Avraham Michaeli and David Azoulay, both from the Shas Party, MK Uri Maklev from the United Torah Judaism Party and Jacob Edery from the Kadima Party.
It was also attended by representatives of communities and organizations involved in the campaign to halt the wave of legislation against shechita.
Rabbi Binyomin Jacobs, Chief Rabbi of the Dutch Interprovincial Rabbinate and a senior member of RCE, came to Israel especially for the committee meeting to share his views on the latest events in Holland.
"The legislation against shechita did not emanate from an anti-Semitic worldview," Rabbi Jacobs said. "So attacking the Dutch Government as somehow anti-Semitic is only harmful to us."
Rabbi Jacobs explained that behind the campaign was the fight against the attempted Islamization of Holland and the desire to protect animal rights.
He said that that legislation to ban shechita should be fought on the basis that it contravenes the Dutch Constitution which guarantees freedom of religion for all Dutch citizens.
Apart from the legislation in Holland, there have been repeated attempts to proscribe shechita in Europe, using European Union institutions.
The European legislation also requires the electric stunning of an animal before it is slaughtered, which is against Jewish Law.
All the Jewish organizations agreed that although the European Union legislation has not passed so far, there is a strong chance it will return to the European parliament. The possibility remains that the legislation could be passed.
The committee meeting was also attended, amongst others, by representatives from the Conference of European Rabbis, Moshe Friedman and Yisrael Goldschmidt, Chief Rabbi of Rome Riccardo Di Segni, Pinchas Kornfeld of the European Bureau of Shechita, Rabbi David Levinger, former Chief Rabbi of Basel and the author of several books on shechita and Shmuel Ben Shmuel, head of the World Jewish Affairs and Interreligious Affairs Department at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
The NIK, the organization of Jewish communities in Holland, said Tuesday that it was "more optimistic" than ever about our chances of challenging the threat on shechita in the country.
NIK sanctions shechita being performed in Holland.
Animal welfare has become a major issue in the Dutch parliament since the Party for the Animals won significant representation some five years ago.
The parliament now wants to be at the forefront of global efforts to improve animal welfare particularly given the size of the Dutch farming industry. Furthermore, the increasing secularisation of the state has led to a diminished respect for religion and religious practises.
Rabbi Moishe Friedman, director of the Israeli office of the Conference of European Rabbis (CER) explained that the challenge to shechita by the Party for the Animals would not only embolden other opponents to the religious practice across Europe to pursue similar campaigns but that it would also feed into a wider secularist campaign against other cornerstones of Jewish practice such as the brit milah, the circumcision.