A Polish constitutional court has opened the door to a ban on religious slaughter methods in the country in a decision on Tuesday.
The ruling in a Warsaw court states that the current exemption for Jews and Muslims from stunning animals before they are killed, as kashrut laws require, is unconstitutional.
Kosher slaughter is currently carried out at 17 locations in Poland under an exemption announced by the Minister of Agriculture. The Polish Constitutional Tribunal has now ruled that in announcing this, the minister acted outside his powers.
However, Piotr Kadlcik, president of the Union of Jewish Communities in Poland told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency that shechitah is also allowed under the 1997 Law on Regulating the Relations between the State and the Union of Jewish Communities in Poland.
