Key rabbonim in the shechita struggle: (from left) HaRav Ralbag of Holland, HaRav Pizon of Metz, and HaRav Gigi of Belgium
The European Union Court of Justice, in its home site in Luxembourg, authorized last week the laws of the parliament houses in Dutch-speaking Flanders and French-speaking Wallonia regions of Belgium, giving the official legal stamp to the first decree against shechita in Europe. This raised a hue and cry in the Jewish world in Europe and in the rest of the world lest organizations against cruelty to animals in various countries will try to legislate this as well, thereby delivering a serious blow to the viability of Jewish communities throughout Europe.
The court determined that the laws requiring animals to be stunned strike "a fair balance... between the importance attached to animal welfare and the freedom of Jewish and Muslim believers to manifest their religion."
In a fascinating interview with Yated Ne'eman, HaRav Pinchas Pizon, chief rabbi of Metz, France, who also serves as a surgeon and veterinarian, and who has in recent years represented the position of Jewish European communities regarding shechita and milah in civil courts and branches of the European Union, described the steps which led to the court ruling in Luxembourg and warned against the threat of shechita limitations in other countries. He expressed a weak hope against an appeal to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, which is the last hope for all efforts in the legal battle in Europe.
It was not easy to reach Rabbi Pizon. He is presently occupied with the burials of the elders of his community, victims of an outburst of Corona in the Metz Jewish Senior Citizens Home. "We have had funerals every day this past week and this is very painful. Ten people have died up till now and many have contracted the disease, some of them over a hundred years old. This is a great loss to the community," he said at the beginning of the talk.
He highlighted the glory of the Metz community where great Torah leaders officiated in the past, including the Shaagas Arye and others. He also celebrated the fact that the shul resumed public services two weeks ago with municipal authorization and guidance according to necessary social restrictions.
Rav Pizon gave us a resume of the battle against the shechita law, being one of its chief combatants but he sounded very worried. "We are in grave danger. Organizations against animal cruelty have a strong backing from the court judges in Luxembourg and I hear the jubilant cries of success whereby this law will be enacted throughout other European countries. This past week, members of the Dutch parliament began raising the subject and the forecast doesn't look good."
Before he resumes describing the danger lurking in the future, he first briefly reviews the main points of the battle in Wallonia and Flanders where ritual slaughter is now permitted only with previous stunning of the animal. "This, in effect, outlaws shechita according to Halacha."
Herein, he maintains, is the crux of the danger. "The intervention of the legislative court which has blatantly determined that according to their understanding, the stunning does not contradict the Halacha because it does not cause death, so that their law does not violate freedom of religion. But to maintain that the Halacha permits stunning is a severe and hostile assumption stemming from basic ignorance and misconception. It is outrageous that a secular court dictate the Halacha to us Jews."
He also points out an important precedent in the decision of the Luxembourg court. "They have determined de facto that the rights of animal are equal in value and level as the rights of freedom of religion and that if we argue that this does violate the freedom of religion, who says that this right overweighs the basic right of animal rights?"
Rabbi Pizon sounds very overwrought when he reviews the court decision. "The makeup of the judges has established a number of untenable precedents in their decision. The main proof of their hatred of religion is evidenced from the fact that European Advocate-General Gerard Hogan said that requiring stunning in the slaughter process "would compromise the essence of the religious guarantees" the EU provides.
"The court is in accord with the Advocate-General in 90% of its decisions. I can guess why this happens. I am afraid that the lobby of animal rights organizations is at that bottom and they are rolling in money."
He added, "Another point in the conclusions of the judges raises stormy questions. They determined that hunting for recreation is permissible because this only involves small numbers of animals, while totally ignoring the fact that shechita, which is critical for Jewish viability is less than 0.1 percent of all of Belgium. Hunting is permissible; for Jews, shechita is outlawed."
What is still left to be done?
Rabbi Pinchas Pizon replies that the Belgian Consistoire under Rabbi Avraham Gigi is preparing an appeal against the decision in the uppermost European Court of Human Rights for all of Europe which sits in Strasbourg, France, where they will claim an injustice of the rights of freedom of religion and against Jewry.
"We hope to succeed. We have solid arguments, especially in light of the support of the attorney general of the European Advocate-General for the rights of Jews and also Moslems, who also demand the right of shechita for their hallal meat."
