European Jewish Congress- The Jewish Community of Finland needs your support- Animal Welfare Bill
Dear Presidents,
Dear Friends,
As you know, Jewish religious rights are challenged across Europe. These developments threaten Jewish life on the continent.
Therefore, the EJC together with the Conference of European Rabbis (CER) and the WJC have decided to form a Coordination Committee on issues regarding Shechita and Brit Mila in Europe with the objective of working together to protect our ancient traditions.
The Coordination Committee is looking with great concern at the current situation of Jewish religious rights in Finland, as the government is proposing to pass an “Animal Welfare Bill” that would effectively ban Shehita throughout the country.
If the bill is passed, it will seriously harm Jewish life in Finland. The proposed bill is in complete violation of the spirit and goal of the EU Strategy on Combating Antisemitism and Fostering Jewish Life of 2021 and the international and national law instruments guaranteeing our religious freedoms.
In order to prevent the bill from being approved by the Finnish Parliament, we need to urge the Finnish government to consider the dangers of effectively banning religious slaughter in their country, not only for the local Jewish community but also for European Jewish communities as a whole.
We drafted a formal letter to be sent to Finnish embassies around Europe, explaining the grave consequences of the Animal Welfare Bill.
At the EJC, we strongly believe that to prevent the bill from banning Shehita, we need to work together to support the Central Council of Jewish Communities in Finland. Therefore, we kindly ask you to consider sending this letter as soon as possible under your letterhead to the Finnish Embassy in your respective country. We are hopeful that it will make a difference.
Kind Regards,
The EJC team