France: Le Pen vows to ban 'all religious symbols,' including Jewish skull caps

Via i24 News:

The leader of the far-right French party National Front, Marine Le Pen, said on Sunday she would ban "all religious symbols” including Jewish skull caps, if elected president, seeing it as a "sacrifice" necessary to fight against radical Islam.

"I will prohibit overt signs in the public space," Le Pen said in an interview Sunday with France’s BFMTV station. She said she would extend a 2004 law banning religious symbols in schools to all public spaces.

"I know it's a sacrifice, but I think the situation is too serious these days (...) I think every French person, including our Jewish compatriots, can understand that if we ask them for a sacrifice in order to help fight against the advance of this Islamic extremism (...) they will make the effort, they will understand, I am absolutely convinced because it will be in the best interests of the nation," she explained.

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Russia: Opponents of Chabad synagogue bury pig's head at site

Via CFCA:  In Perm, opponents to the new Chabad synagogue buried a pig's head on the site where the synagogue is to be built, and uploaded a clip of them doing so to youtube.

The clip claims that this Chabad center will serve like the Chabad center in Dnipropetrovsk, which was where the "head of Chabad in Ukraine", Ihor Kolomoyskyi, commanded the elimination of Russians in Novorossiya (ie, Ukraine).


See also: Synagogue vandalized with racist stickers, Opponents of Chabad synagogue say movement is anti-Christian, funding war in Ukraine, Protesters demand ban on Chabad movement

Op-Ed: Germany’s Hot New Party Thinks America Is ‘Run by Zionists’

Clemens Heni @ Tablet:

The reluctance of many German, French, or American anti-Islamist activists to frame parties like the AfD as right-wing-extremist, anti-Semitic, anti-Zionist, anti-feminist, and anti-Islamic is also striking—and increasingly disturbing. Some anti-Islamist authors in the U.K. or America, even praise and promote the founder and leader of PEGIDA (“Patriots against the Islamization of the Occident”), Lutz Bachmann, who once posed with a Hitler haircut on social media. In an interview with Bachmann by Raheem Kassam, Shillman-Ginsburg fellow at the Middle East Forum and editor-in-chief of Breitbart London, Bachmann agitates against circumcision. According to media reports, Bachmann called refugees and immigrants “animals” (“Viehzeug”). Currently, Bachmann faces a court trial in Dresden for racist agitation.

The links between these various “New Right” movements are not hard to spot. Agitators like Renaud Camus, the main thinker of the French National Front, is published in Germany by the Antaios publishing house, which is run by the New Right activist Götz Kubitschek, who has good connections to the neo-Nazi scene. Renaud is infamous for his take on immigration and Islam: He calls for “revolt against the big replacement.”

(...)

The lessons of the past should be particularly clear in Germany: Fighting Islamic fascism by collaborating with brown fascism will lead to the murder of leftists, Muslims, immigrants, antifascists, and Jews. In Europe, more “national identity” leads to more anti-Semitism, anti-Zionism, and racism. When will we learn that lesson?

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Belgium: Ritual slaughter ban would be unconstitutional, state body says

Via JTA:

A Belgian government advisory body determined that any legislation that would prohibit ritual slaughter in the kingdom would violate its constitution.

The legal notice issued Wednesday by the Belgian Council of State came amid recent debates and planned legislation to ban the practice. The animal welfare minister in the government of the Flemish Region said last month it should be outlawed.

(...)

In May, the Green Party of the Flemish Region — one of three entities that make up the federal kingdom of Belgium – filed a draft bill to the parliament commission on animal welfare. Amid opposition to the bill, the issue was brought to the review of the Council of State, which determined that if passed, a law banning the practice would be overturned by the country’s federal constitutional court because it would violate religious freedoms, the Jewish monthly Joods Actueel of Antwerp reported.

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UK: Objections to Eruv in North London

Via Daily Mail:

A six-mile perimeter could be created around an area of North London to help Orthodox Jews avoid restrictions on the Sabbath.

Fishing wire would be suspended from tall poles to create the boundary for what would become a huge eruv, acting as an extension of the walls of a home which would give Jews greater freedom.

But there are concerns the proposal to Camden Council by a group of synagogues could lead to ‘ghettoisation’ of the area, following similar fears raised in another application nearby in 2014.

(...)

But one objector, Adrienne Burgess, told the council planning department: 'Hampstead is a multi-faith and no faith community. No religious group should impose its structures on this community.'

And Karen Cramer added: 'We need to take in the views of the whole community rather than just a minority religious group. Going ahead with the eruv also increases the threat of religious encroachment on public spaces from any religious groups.'

Meanwhile Elena Moynihan said: 'Much as we want to preserve people's freedom to faith, this should not be taken as an excuse to override the rights and rules of everybody else. Nobody else is allowed to build in our common spaces so why should religious bodies be?'

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Belgium: Flemish minster calls for total ban on ritual slaughter

Via JTA:

Citing resistance by Muslims to a compromise on ritual slaughter of animals, a Belgian cabinet minister called for a blanket ban on the custom, a policy that would affect observant Jews and Muslims.

Ben Weyts, animal welfare minister in the government of the Flemish Region — one of three entities that make up the federal kingdom of Belgium – on Tuesday told Radio 1 that it had become necessary to outlaw in the region any slaughter of animals who have not been stunned prior to the act.

“Organizations within the Muslim community are just not open to any sort of compromise,” said Weyts, who is a member of the New Flemish Alliance, a center-right movement that the Flemish Region’s ruling party.

Religious laws in Islam and Judaism require animals be conscious when their necks are slit, though some religious leaders from both faiths allow stunning immediately after the cut.

Despite Weyts’s statement, Michael Freilich, the editor-in-chief of the Antwerp-based Joods Actueel Jewish monthly, told JTA that he foresees no ban in the near future, citing internal divisions on this subject within Weyts’s party and others.

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Germany: Right-wing AfD party to push for ban on religious slaughter, circumcision

Via Breitbart:

The Alternative for Germany (AfD) party has announced its intentions to legislate a minaret ban ahead of regional elections on Sunday. The move comes as broad support from the traditionally apolitical Russian-German community continues to grow.

The new proposed federal AfD manifesto will be put to a vote on April 30th with a number of potentially controversial policies, reports Bild. The party is looking to enforce the concept of the separation of faith and state with a number of initiatives directed at religious customs.

The party announced that it will seek a ban on minarets and the Islamic call to prayer which is traditionally sung and often played through loudspeakers throughout the day. Party strategists justify this saying that the minaret is a “symbol of Islamic rule,” and that current policies “contradict a tolerant coexistence of religions,” which they claim only Christian churches embrace in the modern age.

They also took aim at halal slaughter saying that they believe the special religious rules are contrary to the German Animal Protection Act. AfD would rather see animals slaughtered in the most humane way possible as halal slaughter would be regarded as cruel if it were not given a religious pass. Male circumcision was another related policy point that the party supports banning, stating that circumcision is contrary to human dignity and it disregards the fundamental rights to physical integrity and self-determination of affected children.

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Netherlands: Gov't to restrict kosher slaughter

Via Algemeiner (h/t Antisemitism Watch):

The Netherlands is moving to implement stricter rules overseeing the religious slaughter of animals for meat consumption by observant Jews and Muslims, the Dutch Economic Affairs Ministry announced this week.

Once implemented, the new Dutch rules will ban the export of kosher and halal meat outside of the Netherlands, and will require all domestic religious slaughterhouses to register with the government.

Additionally, religiously slaughtered meat will have to be clearly labeled and will not be able to be sold at regular supermarket chains, according to a letter written by Junior Economic Affairs Minister Martijn van Dam and posted on the Dutch government website.

“I find the current implementation unacceptable. Negative effects on animal welfare must be minimized,” wrote Van Dam. Additionally, the junior minister said he had spoken to the leaders of religious communities, who agreed to comply with the new guidelines.

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Germany: Jews shouldn't wear a kippah because "people don't need to provoke anyone"

 
Via DW:

Lena Stein lights a cigarette while she considers the question of whether she still feels safe as a Jew living in Germany. "I cannot answer that with yes or no," says the student from Frankfurt am Main, as she exhales a cloud of smoke into the icy winter air. "The subject is far too complex."

(...)

Lena Stein says she does not think that refugees pose a threat to the Jewish community in Germany. "These people have fled terror and civil war themselves, they want to live in peace and quiet without being oppressed by fundamentalists," says the 25-year-old. In any case, Lena does not feel threatened on the streets of Frankfurt, qualifying her answer by saying, "but I don't wear anything that says I am a Jew." Daniel Neumann also says, "as long as no one can see that we are Jewish we only have a very diffused feeling of concern, but not a feeling of fear."

Lena also has no worries about her own safety, or that of family and friends, when present in institutions within the Jewish community. "We are all very well protected there, we are really safe." Nevertheless, when asked about whether Jews should wear their yarmulkes on the street, she says no, adding that it could end up causing a radical to attack the yarmulke wearer - "People don't need to provoke anyone."

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France: Jewish pro-Palestinian activist says Kippah signals ‘allegiance to Israeli policies’

Via JTA:

French Jews condemned a prominent Jewish pro-Palestinian activist who said that the act of wearing a kippah is a sign of allegiance to the policies of the State of Israel.

Rony Brauman, a former president of Doctors Without Borders, made the statement last week during an interview on the Europe1 radio station about the Jan. 11 stabbing of a devout Jew in Marseille, allegedly by a 15-year-old boy who told police he assaulted the victim as part of the jihad of the Islamic State terrorist group.

“We have to wonder about the significance of wearing a kippah — not for that person,” Brauman said of the victim in Marseille, “as I have no reason to suspect him, but in society in general.” In addition to an affirmation of faith, Brauman said, wearing a kippah is “an affirmation of loyalty to the State of Israel, why not after all, but also, and this is much more problematic, a sign of a kind of allegiance to the policies of the state of Israel.”

According to the Tribune Juive daily, both CRIF, the umbrella group of French Jewish communities, and French Chief Rabbi Haim Korsia condemned this statement. André Mamou, the paper’s editor-in-chief, wrote in an op-ed that, “what made this left-wing physician venture so far into self-hatred is incomprehensible.”

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France: Jews in Marseille urged not to wear skullcaps

Via The Local:

The top Jewish leader in Marseille on Tuesday urged Jews in the southern French port city to refrain from wearing skullcaps "until better days" after a teacher was hurt in a machete attack by a Kurdish teenager.

The president of the Marseille Israelite Consistory, Zvi Ammar, said that it was an "exceptional decision".

"Life is more sacred than anything else. We are now forced to hide a little bit," he told the AFP, adding that the move made him "sick to the stomach".

 But shortly after the country's chief rabbi Haim Korsia, told Jews in France to ignore the call from Ammar and continue wearing the traditional headwear, also called the Kippah.

"We should not give an inch, we should continue wearing the kippah," Korsia said.

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Germany: Jewish man attacked by bar staff, held in headlock and has kippah ripped off, told “This is a religion-free zone”

Via Everyday Antisemitism, Amadeu Antonio Stiftung:

The Amadeu Antonio Foundation has reported that a Jewish man was attacked in a ‘left-wing and alternative’ bar in Bonn, Germany. As the man was ordering, a member of staff forced him into a headlock and ripped his kippah (Jewish skullcap) from his head.

When questioned, the member of staff replied, “I’d rip a headscarf off a Muslim, this is a religion-free zone!” The bar owner voiced his agreement and support of the member of staff.

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France: Jewish fashion boss fined for discriminating against other Jews

Via JTA:

The French-Jewish owner of a chain of clothing stores was found guilty of discriminating against a Jewish job seeker because he gave non-Jews, whom he could ask to work on Shabbat, preference over Jewish applicants.

The ruling Wednesday by a judge from the Correctional Tribunal of Paris against Dan Cohen, co-founder of the Eleven Paris chain, followed a lawsuit filed against Cohen in 2012 by a Jewish man in his 20s who briefly worked at one the chain’s stores before he was fired for being Jewish, the Le Parisien daily reported Thursday.

The court made Eleven Paris pay a total of $16,250 to the claimant in damages and another $8,000 to cover legal expenses.

The ruling was based on the claimant’s testimony about a conversation he had with another employee of Eleven Paris who told him, at the end of a 15-hour trial period as an Eleven Paris sales representative, that his Jewishness was the reason he was not hired. Cohen, the other employee told the claimant, “doesn’t want Jewish employees because he can’t have them work on Shabbat,” the Jewish day of rest, according to the testimony.

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UK: Scottish universities ignore harassment of Jewish students

Via Herald (h/t CFCA):

JEWISH students at universities are "denying or hiding" their identity because of discrimination, according to new claims.

The Scottish Council of Jewish Communities (Scojec) said it had evidence university staff had criticised student work on Israel because they did not agree with the point of view being expressed.

The council, which is the representative body for Jewish communities across Scotland, also said Jewish students had been "hounded" for not attending medical lectures on the Jewish Sabbath, which begins at nightfall on Friday evening.

One student told Scojec: "I was told by my university that either I sit exams on Shabbat or I fail."

In another case, a student said she no longer went to the business school or library and was worried about attending classes "due to fear of being harassed or attacked".
Scojec also accused universities of not taking action when concerns had been raised adding: "It is troubling that when the Jewish Student Chaplaincy Scotland has intervened with the support of Scojec to assist Jewish students who find themselves subject to abuse, our concerns have been dismissed by senior university staff who appear not to recognise that there have been failures."

Netherlands: Dutch Food Authority backs ban on kosher slaughter

Via Times of Israel:

The Netherlands Food and Consumer Product Safety Authority has advised the government to ban ritual slaughter of animals, citing pain and suffering caused to them in the process.

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The recommendation appeared in a report by the authority’s risk assessment bureau, the NRC Handelsblad daily reported Friday.

“Ban, from a point of view of animal welfare, the killing of conscious animals and especially cattle,” the daily quoted from the recommendation. “If the slaughter of conscious cattle continues anyway,” the recommendation’s authors wrote, then slaughtered animals must not be handled as long as they display signs of life.   more

Austria: Jailed author 'forced to prove' Jewishness

Via The Local:

A Jewish writer who is serving a year-long prison sentence in Vienna after being found guilty of defrauding the government over Nazi-looted property says he was initially denied kosher food in jail and had to prove to authorities that he is actually Jewish.

In a controversial trial, Stephan Templ was found guilty of defrauding Austria because a restitution application he filed on behalf of his mother omitted the name of his mother’s estranged sister, who would have been entitled to a share of the value of the property which was seized from his Jewish relatives in 1938.

Templ, 54, who began his sentence on Monday has said the case is “completely absurd” and borders on anti-Semitic persecution.

In the latest developments, he told the Kurier newspaper that he had been denied kosher food in prison and that he had to ask his girlfriend to contact the Jewish Community in Vienna to provide proof of his Jewishness.

The Kurier reports that under Austrian prison law you are only registered as Jewish if Austria’s Jewish Community has officially recognised you as a religious member. Templ’s main residence is in Prague.  more

Austria: Jews should be gassed because they are cruel to animals

Via FGA, CFCA:


A Jewish Adult Education institute in Vienna received an antisemitic letter against religious slaughter.  The letter claimed that Jews only make animals suffer and that the gas chambers should be reopened for Jews.

Belgium: Flemish Minister wants ban on kosher slaughter

Remember how last year Flemish Minister for Animal Welfare Ben Weyts promised the Jewish community that his proposed ban on slaughter without stunning will not affect religious slaughter?

Well, he lied.

In a recent interview he said that he would like such a ban, though he realizes that in today's current political climate, such a law won't pass.  But if he could ban it, he would, because "we should avoid any suffering of animals that we can".

Belgium, btw, allows hunting for pleasure, and is one of only five European countries to still produce foie gras by force-feeding geese.

UK: Shabbat-observant woman wins $25k from firm that wouldn’t hire her

Via Times of Israel:

A British Jewish woman won $25,000 in damages from a company that refused to hire her because she is Shabbat observant.

Aurelie Fhima applied to Travel Jigsaw in Manchester, but was rejected after she said at a job interview that her religious observance prevents her from working on Friday nights and Saturdays, the Telegraph reported.

Travel Jigsaw officials sent her a letter saying that they could not hire her, because “We are still looking for people who are flexible enough to work Saturdays.”

When the company refused to reconsider its decision, she sued for religious discrimination.

Netherlands: Party for Animals wants to ban ritual slaughter

Via De Telegraaf:

The Party for the Animals wants to again try and ban ritual slaughter.

Previously such a bill was rejected as it was found to limit freedom of religion.  The party thinks it can adapt their proposal so it would pass this time.