Will Swiss Lawmakers Vote To Ban Imports Of Kosher Meat?
(JTA) – Lawmakers in Switzerland are set to vote on a bill proposing to outlaw the import of meat from ritual slaughter of animals, which is already illegal in the Alpine country.
The bill, which was submitted in June by Matthias Aebischer, a federal lawmaker for the Social-Democratic Party of Switzerland – the country’s second-largest political movement — prompted opposition because it proposes to outlaw importing foie gras. A delicacy made of goose liver that is particularly popular among French-speaking Swiss consumers, its production through forced feeding is widely considered cruel.
The debate on this issue, which divides the multinational Swiss state, has eclipsed the existence of a proposed ban also on importing any meat that is produced from animals who are not stunned prior to their slaughter, the Tages-Anzeiger daily reported Monday.
Shechitah, the Jewish ritual method of slaughtering animals, requires they be conscious when their throats are slit — a practice that critics say is cruel.
Herbert Winter, president of the Swiss Federation of Jewish Communities, told Tages-Anzeiger that if the law is passed, it will “be a massive limitation on the religious freedoms of Jews” in Switzerland, who according to the European Jewish Congress number approximately 18,000 people.
A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you move on, I wanted to ask you to support the Forward’s award-winning journalism during our High Holiday Monthly Donor Drive.
If you’ve turned to the Forward in the past 12 months to better understand the world around you, we hope you will support us with a gift now. Your support has a direct impact, giving us the resources we need to report from Israel and around the U.S., across college campuses, and wherever there is news of importance to American Jews.
Make a monthly or one-time gift and support Jewish journalism throughout 5785. The first six months of your monthly gift will be matched for twice the investment in independent Jewish journalism.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
