Danger Zone Ahead

In October 2013, the European Council adopted a non-binding resolution stating that the ritual of bris milah “violates the physical integrity of children” and urged all European countries to ban the practice. In its wake, the Conference of European Rabbis, outraged at the resolution, created a public conference with the theme of “Is There a Future for Jews In Europe?”

Thorbjorn Jagland, then general secretary of the European Council, participated in the conference, where he announced that the resolution against bris milah had been reached due primarily to anti-Muslim sentiment, but more than anything, due to ignorance: “I would like to make one thing unequivocally clear to you right here and right now,” he stated. “In no way does the European Council want to ban the practice of male circumcision.”

And indeed it was not long afterward that the disgraceful resolution was revoked, due to pressure from the Conference of European Rabbis and other international Jewish organizations.

While that immediate threat to bris milah was avoided, the danger hasn’t passed. Only recently the European Court of Human Rights upheld the ban on halachic shechitah that had passed the two chambers of the Belgian parliament, on the grounds that it does not constitute an infringement of religious liberty.