Dear Mr. Lauder,



I do not fully agree with your article that the new legislation shows that Poles disregard civil rights of the Jewish. The ban of shechita also known as ritual slaughter is not an assault on freedom of religion in Poland but a mere protection of animals from unjustified suffering. There are a couple of reasons why I believe so.



First, the ban only prohibits ritual slaughter of animals. The new legislation does not forbid trade of meat that comes from animals slaughtered according to Torah. Kosher meat will still be available on shops’ shelves. It will just not be produced by Polish slaughterhouses. Thus, the Jewish in Poland would not go meatless as you feared.



Second, the ritual slaughter causes lots of suffering to animals. The agony of an animal slaughtered according to shechita may last couple minutes. Many readers may not know it, but in shechita animals’s throat is cut and the animal bleeds out until it dies. On industrial scale the process is sped up by hanging the animal upside down. As a result, the content of animal’s stomach rushes into its mouth causing suffocation. In addition, the claim that shechita is carried out by experienced people according to well-established procedures may not always hold. The slaughtering is done on massive scale and procedures are often not fully satisfied. It happens that a single cut is not enough. The butcher needs to correct the cut, which in practice means that he needs to go with his knife over a fresh wound. We can only imagine how much suffering it causes to animals.



Third, the freedom of religion cannot be used to justify immoral behaviour. According to European standards and values, it is immoral to cause extra suffering to animals. The fact that people eat meat does not imply that animals may do anything for us. They do have a well-developed nervous system and they do suffer pain in their own way. If animals are treated badly, they suffer. From the moral point of view, we should do anything to restrict the amount of pain that animals suffer because of us. The ban of shechita in Poland is a result of the Polish realising it. In many other European countries, e.g. Norway, Iceland, Switzerland, and Sweden, the shechita is forbidden too, which you forgot to mention leaving by the reader the impression that Poland is the only country in Europe to do so. Even if Poland is not a country hitherto known for championing animal rights, as the Economist put it, the Polish should be given the right to undo the mistakes of mistreatment the animals in the past.



In the past lots of Polish citizens used to be Jews. Before the WWII, the Jewish community used to be an integral part of Polish society. The war and socialism that followed the end of the war have changed a lot. I cannot say that nowadays the Polish society is very tolerant towards different religions, which in my opinion has to do with years of isolation that the Polish used to live in. However, there are lots of positive developments going on in Poland. Maybe, you would like to attend the Jewish culture festival that takes place annually in Cracow or the annual festival of music, theatre, film, literature and visual arts in Warsaw that is just about to start. Maybe, participation in those events will show you how the Poles embrace the rebirth of Jewish culture. Maybe, you will realise that the Polish society is very much expecting the return of Jewish life. I strongly believe that you will.



Kind regards,



Pawel Smietanka