Poland Expected To Vote On Banning Kosher Slaughter Amid Holocaust Uproar

[TomSea]

Poland Expected To Vote On Banning Kosher Slaughter Amid Holocaust Uproar
J. Lester Feder, Marcin Krasnowolski

Poland’s parliament could soon vote to restrict kosher slaughter, potentially pushing its already strained relationship with Israel to the breaking point.

It is part of a broad package designed to protect animal welfare that’s been pending since November. But it could come up for a vote as soon as next week, opposition lawmakers and meat industry advocates tell BuzzFeed News. This could do permanent damage to Poland’s international reputation, said Rafał Trzaskowski, an MP from the opposition Platforma Obywatelska party and a candidate for Warsaw mayor.

Unless lawmakers can de-escalate the situation, Trzaskowski said, “This can really destroy our relation not only with Israel, but also the United States.”

Read more at: https://www.buzzfeed.com/lesterfeder/poland-expected-to-vote-on-banning-kosher-slaughter-amid?utm_term=.yuJloZy8Vy#.exVNxEolro

[LauraTXNM]

This is a really interesting article.

[Texas Yellow Rose]

Kaczynski seemed to acknowledge that anti-Semitism was gaining ground in the face of the criticism.

“Today the devil suggests a very bad solution, a very bad disease of the soul, the disease of the mind. This disease is anti-Semitism,” he said earlier this month. “We have to reject it, definitely reject it.”

But the kosher slaughter ban would be giving into that temptation, said one of the kosher meat exporters.

“If you touch the kosher, it’s like you kill the Jew,” he said.

I agree. It will be interesting to see how this develops.

[240B]

The title only mentions Kosher, but the article says Kosher and Halal. Halal is the Muslim kosher process. The two are very similar. For example, Muslims eat Kosher food.

However, Jews cannot eat Halal food because the requirements are different, meaning that Kosher food falls within Halal but not all Halal food is Kosher.

An example of this is Halal allows for the eating of camel meat. Whereas this is not allowed in the laws of Kashrut because camels do not have a cloven hoof.

This is going to affect both Muslims and Jews. But, it is nothing new. Jews will find some way to get Kosher food no matter what they have to do. Even if they have to start slaughtering their own chickens and sheep at home, they will do that.

All throughout the history of Europe Jews and Jewish customs have been banned at one time or another. The Jews got by.

I was told that during the inquisition some Jews would buy a carved ham for the table. They wouldn't actually eat it, god forbid. They just wanted it to be on the table in case they got a surprise inspection by the Catholic Church. So again, this ban is nothing new.

[roamer_1]

This is going to affect both Muslims and Jews. But, it is nothing new. Jews will find some way to get Kosher food no matter what the have to do. Even if they have to start slaughtering their own chickens and sheep at home, they will do that.

As one who is exploring a form of kosher, it is a dilemma. I am not to eat meat that was not humanely slaughtered, is properly bled out, and is only what it says it is. As my walk down this path has continued, I find myself more and more questioning as to whether those things are true in our food supply.

[LauraTXNM]

As one who is exploring a form of kosher, it is a dilemma. I am not to eat meat that was not humanely slaughtered, is properly bled out, and is only what it says it is. As my walk down this path has continued, I find myself more and more questioning as to whether those things are true in our food supply.

It is very difficult, I think especially depending on where you live.  If I can help in any way, please let me know. 

[roamer_1]

It is very difficult, I think especially depending on where you live.  If I can help in any way, please let me know. 

@LauraTXNM

It really is hard...  Like Italian Sausage... I have been buying turkey based italian sausage from a well known turkey brand (Jennie-O) for years... Only recently finding out that they are packed into a pork sausage casing!!!    How can you DO that????

[RoosGirl]

@LauraTXNM

It really is hard...  Like Italian Sausage... I have been buying turkey based italian sausage from a well known turkey brand (Jennie-O) for years... Only recently finding out that they are packed into a pork sausage casing!!!    How can you DO that????

I'm surprised you don't make your own, or ask your butcher to make some for you with beef.

[roamer_1]

I'm surprised you don't make your own, or ask your butcher to make some for you with beef.

I might get there someday.

I am alright making thuringer (summer sausage) in beef and venison, and I know how to make breakfast sausage, but that was always pork. anything else may not be beyond me, but is certainly out of my norm.
And nevermind the recipe - Just getting enough turkey to matter would be a chore. Not impossible - and I might start raising them for that purpose, but for now, too complex a problem for a limited result. 

All the meat I ever buy at the store anymore is sausage... a bit of burger when I get low, and the packaged rotisserie chicken from over at the Costco now and then...  Mostly I am eating on that Angus half, and deer and elk.

[RoosGirl]

I might get there someday.

I am alright making thuringer (summer sausage) in beef and venison, and I know how to make breakfast sausage, but that was always pork. anything else may not be beyond me, but is certainly out of my norm.
And nevermind the recipe - Just getting enough turkey to matter would be a chore. Not impossible - and I might start raising them for that purpose, but for now, too complex a problem for a limited result. 

All the meat I ever buy at the store anymore is sausage... a bit of burger when I get low, and the packaged rotisserie chicken from over at the Costco now and then...  Mostly I am eating on that Angus half, and deer and elk.

Best smoked sausage I've ever had was made from venison and came from some podunk store in podunk Alachua, FL

[roamer_1]

Best smoked sausage I've ever had was made from venison and came from some podunk store in podunk Alachua, FL

YEP. Putting anything to the smoke is always worth doing.

[LauraTXNM]

@LauraTXNM

It really is hard...  Like Italian Sausage... I have been buying turkey based italian sausage from a well known turkey brand (Jennie-O) for years... Only recently finding out that they are packed into a pork sausage casing!!!    How can you DO that????

I know, it can be really tricky!  Especially for some people who only recognize one Kosher label but not others.  Here, of course, there are a couple of "hoods" where you can actually shop at a Kosher butcher.

[roamer_1]

I know, it can be really tricky!  Especially for some people who only recognize one Kosher label but not others.  Here, of course, there are a couple of "hoods" where you can actually shop at a Kosher butcher.

@LauraTXNM
Not here. But since my diet is mostly forage, garden, wild fish and game, mostly by my own hand, or by hillbillies who know how to kill mercifully, it is easier for me than most, maybe. The hardest part of kosher for me is abstaining from eating other than ungulates from the wild.  Surviving the woods without all the other critters that could be in my belly will be a chore.

I do look with confidence for any kosher label I can find, as  the Jewish diet is inherently clean. But I am not keeping Rabbinic kosher.  I only follow Torah guidelines. But even with a substantially looser view on things, anything prepackaged is highly suspicious. It is truly an amazement how many packaged products  cannot meet kosher. Especially from the standpoint of chemical preservers that I don't know or understand.

[240B]

@LauraTXNM
It is truly an amazement how many packaged products  cannot meet kosher. Especially from the standpoint of chemical preservers that I don't know or understand.

@roamer_1

There is more to get a 'Kosher' stamp on something than simply whether or not it is actually kosher. A lot of packaged products are completely kosher but do not bear a stamp. And there are many products that were once marked 'Kosher' which have since lost the stamp even though no change was made to the ingredients or how it is produced.

The Kosher stamp is a different thing than whether or not a food is kosher. The stamp requires a fee and sometimes requires that Rabbis be present while it is being made and other expenses. What I mean is, there are a lot of products which are in every way kosher but simply cannot afford the expense of getting it stamped officially kosher.

My favorite example of this is a kosher bakery which had a big sign in the window with a certified kosher stamp. The bakery fell on hard times and could no longer afford the fee required to maintain the stamp. So, the Rabbi pulled the sign and declared, "This bakery is no longer Kosher." Ok, but what about the bread that was already made? Is that bread suddenly not kosher because of a sign? What about the bread I will make tomorrow exactly as I made it today? The point being, is the bread kosher because it is kosher, or is the bread kosher because a Rabbi says it is kosher?

I agree there is a difference between keeping the Torah and keeping with Rabbinic Law and Jewish traditions. Those are not the same thing. But I heard a Rabbi say that much of Jewish Law is about the effort you make. What you have in your mind and in your heart is as important as the details. In that case, you are doing great.

According the Rabbi, it is not so much about the tiny details of whether or not what you are doing is exactly right, as it is having the Law in your heart and in your soul and in your mind (Tefillin, Shema). Making the effort is as important as getting it exactly right.

[roamer_1]

There is more to get a 'Kosher' stamp on something than simply whether or not it is actually kosher.
[...]
The point being, is the bread kosher because it is kosher, or is the bread kosher because a Rabbi says it is kosher?

@240B

I am right with you on that.  I know there's politics involved with Rabbinic kosher, and I know there's a 'vig' to be paid. I get all that...  But I don't think the Rabbis have stooped so low as to compromise the standard itself... 

You will note that much of the politics of the thing are absent here, where I am - the entire Jewish section at any given grocery store is a 4' shelf, or even just an endcap. And the same in meats.  Very little to choose from at all,  and kosher restaurants are completely nonexistent.   I am 99% on my own, so any time there is a kosher stamp, I will certainly be happier taking their word on that, than trusting corporate Big Food, where I had best pay very close attention.

I agree there is a difference between keeping the Torah and keeping with Rabbinic Law and Jewish traditions. Those are not the same thing. But I heard a Rabbi say that much of Jewish Law is about the effort you make. What you have in your mind and in your heart is as important as the details. In that case, you are doing great.

According the Rabbi, it is not so much about the tiny details of whether or not what you are doing is exactly right, as it is having the Law in your heart and in your soul and in your mind (Tefillin, Shema). Making the effort is as important as getting it exactly right.

Well thanks for all that.  I sure hope that is true, because I am dead-on-point with that sense of things.  As a matter of full disclosure, I am one of those weirdo Christians that are trying to walk out Torah. So there is only one Rabbi I pay hard attention to, and that Rabbi is Yeshua.  He said to do and teach Torah, so as defined by being a disciple, that is what I am bound to do. That particular epiphany (read 2x4 upside my thick head) was hard won.

That has caused me to wholly reject most Christian traditions, and I am oh so very careful not to fall into Jewish traditions as a result either (no offense meant to anyone concerned).  No traditions. Just the Bible and following Yeshua. .. So your words are a comfort.