Representatives of the European Jewish Association (EJA) and the Rabbinical Centre of Europe (RCE) met yesterday with Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski on the issue of whether Jewish ritual slaughter would continue to exist in Poland. At the meeting, the minister told Jewish representatives that “the Polish government is determined to find a solution that would allow Jewish ritual slaughter to continue in the country. The government will operate on all levels to reach this solution as quickly as possible.”

Present at the meeting were Rabbi Menachem Margolin, director of the European Jewish Association, Mr Roman Giertych, former Polish education minister and currently the lawyer representing the EJA at a petition to the Polish Constitutional Tribunal regarding the legality of ritual slaughter, along with members of the Rabbinical Centre of Europe (RCE), Rabbi Yisrael Yaakov Lichtenstein, Rabbi of the UK Federation of Jewish Synagogues, and Rabbi Binyamin Jacobs, Chief Rabbi of the Interprovincial Chief Rabbinate (IPOR) in Holland. The foreign minister, who greeted the representatives warmly, told them that at the initial stage, he intends to submit a request to the court to judge the petition lodged by the European Jewish Association and receive a ruling on the issue as soon as possible. In the case of the court debate being delayed, the Polish government would submit a new law on the subject to Parliament. The minister added that the government will work to preserve the complete religious freedom of the Jews in Poland.

This meeting is one of a series held in the past month with Polish politicians and representatives at the European Union and with contacts that are liaising between the Polish government and the European Jewish Association through a committeeestablished for this purpose by the Polish Prime Minister and chaired by Minister Michal Boni. At the end of the meeting, Rabbi Margolin thanked the foreign minister for his own and his government’s commitment to the issue and expressed his hope that the desired solution would be found as soon as possible.