In order to appeal a recent vote in the Polish parliament to ban shechita, the kosher butchering, the Brussels-European Jewish Association (EJA) and Rabbinical Centre of Europe (RCE) have hired the services of a lawyer and former politician, Roman Giertych, in order to petition the matter before the Polish Constitutional Tribunal.
‘’Giertych was hired as part of the efforts conducted by EJA Director General, Rabbi Menachem Margolin, with Polish Minister Michał Jan Boni, to revise the ban on kosher slaughter in the country,’’ the Rabbinical Center said Wednesday.
Giertych, the former chairman of the League of Polish Families party and a former Deputy Prime Minister, was one of the first right wing party leaders in Poland to come out against anti–Semitism in the country when he visited the Holocaust memorial in Jedwabne – where thousands of Jews where murdered in 1941.
The announcement of Giertych’s hiring came as another rabbinical organization in Europe, the Conference of European Rabbis (CER), issued a statement Tuesday condemning EJA's activities in shechita crisis in Poland that, the RCE said, ‘’received full cooperation from the Polish Government and its representatives in the European Union.’’
The CER says it unites more than 700 religious leaders of the mainstream synagogue communities in Europe.
The CER statement read : “It is for the Jewish and Muslim communities in Poland to appeal to the Constitutional Court as in fact they are doing as invited by the government and with the strong support of the European Jewish Congress and the Conference of European Rabbis. Defending the basic religious rights of the Jewish community in Poland is best achieved by working in support of and in collaboration with the official instances of the community and its chief rabbinate rather than in competition against it.”
The EJA and RCE argued that Poland’s Chief Rabbi Michael Schudrich, a member of the Conference of European Rabbis, has failed in the quest to prevent the legislation from being approved by Sjem, the Polish Parliament, despite the help they had offered to him.
‘’After Poland's chief Rabbi and Conference of European Rabbis' colossal failure in preventing the ban on kosher slaughtering in Poland, a significant number of members of the Jewish world have called upon all Jewish organizations to rise above minor differences and come together in order to revise the parliament law that can have major implications on the entire European Jewry,’’ EJA and RCE said.
‘’It was only when this call was not answered by Poland's Chief Rabbi and the Conference of European Rabbis, that the EJA and the RCE have volunteered to conduct their intensive lobbying,’’ they added.
The EJA says it represents over 20 Jewish organizations across Europe and the RCE gathers around 800 rabbis.
In their statement, the EJA and RCE said they have succeeded in the past few months to fight the ban on kosher slaughtering in Holland and the German court's verdict banning circumcision.
Last week, Rabbi Margolin, who was invited to take part in a special committee established by Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk in order to find a solution to the shechita problem, met in Brussels with the commitee's head, Minister Michal Jan Boni, who is in charge of religious affairs in his country, and Poland's ambassador to the EU Marek Prawda.
"The situation of kosher butchering in Poland is very problematic and can spread to other European countries," said Rabbi Margolin, ‘’therefore all we can do is operate with resolve as we have proven in other countries in order to overturn the decision.’’ ‘’Whoever is willing to rise above minor disagreements and join this important cause is very welcomed,’’ he added.