Community
By Rafael Hoffman
NEW YORK -
Sunday, December 20, 2020 at 12:58 pm | ה' טבת תשפ"א
Demonstration of a shechitah for yeshiva Jewish students in Israel, on April 26, 2011. (Yaakov Naumi/Flash90)
The European Union’s highest court struck a major blow to protections for religious slaughter and freedom of religious practice with a broad ruling that permits member states to ban the production of kosher and halal meat in the name of animal welfare.
The decision upholds a de facto ban on shechitah and halal slaughter methods in most of Belgium, which came about through at 2017 law that struck religious exemptions to the nation’s requirement that animals be electronically stunned before slaughter.