At a Rabbinical Centre of Europe’s (RCE) annual meeting in The Hague, Dutch parliamentarians joined in paying respects to people murdered in Toulouse.
“As spiritual and political leaders we share a common language of sorrow over these murders and call for a greater emphasis on the education of morality and justice in the European educational system,” Rabbi Aryeh Goldberg, Deputy Director of the RCE said.
“Education is the only way we can prevent such tragedies in the future, our youth deserve nothing less.”
“Education must entail more than merely transmitting knowledge,” Chief Rabbi Lieberman of Antwerp said. “We must instill European youth with a sense of justice and morality, which overrides any cultural or ethnic differences.”
Dutch Chief Rabbi Binyomin Jacobs emphasized that there is also a need for immigrants to accept European multiculturalism, just as they are expected in some places, like Holland, to know the host language.
“We should not tolerate any group or religion that does not tolerate others, otherwise tolerance leads to unacceptable intolerance,” he said.
The The Hague meeting was held in order to send a message of gratitude to Dutch politicians who fought against a ban on shechitah, the Jewish animal slaughter, which did not pass through the Dutch Senate at the end of last year.
"The campaign against Shechita, was rooted in the dominant religion of secularism. It proved to be a complete confusion of the moral compass, where the value of so-called animal welfare concerns prevailed over basic human rights,” one of the members of the Dutch Lower House said during the meeting.
The rabbis emphasized the importance of including the awareness of a Divine Authority in the political debate.
"Freedom of religion’ is not synonymous with ‘freedom from religion’," said a member of the RCE.
The RCE is an organization representing over 700 European religious leaders dedicated to meeting the needs of Jewish communities in Europe.