Legal Aspects of Jewish Ritual Slaughter in Interwar and Contemporary Poland

The paper concerns legal aspects of Jewish ritual slaughter in interwar and contemporary Poland. The starting point for the research is the analysis of legal acts related to ritual slaughter. This concerns both binding statutory law and proposals that were designed to ban ritual slaughter. Also, judicial and administrative decisions are to be explored.

A very important element of the research is the analysis of the ongoing debate about the ban on ritual slaughter in interwar and contemporary Poland. These two debates will be investigated in search for arguments for and against ritual slaughter. There are four main arguments to be traced:

- antisemitism,

- freedom of religion,

- economy,

- animal protection.

Tracing of the debate will be based on examination of transcripts of parliamentary debates and documents of non-governmental organizations (institutions of animal protection, religious organizations), but also on the opinion-forming daily press. The major point will be the analysis of the recent decision of the Polish Constitutional Court on the protection of ritual slaughter by the freedom of religion under the Polish constitution.

The paper is intended to help to answer questions on how the discourse around the ritual slaughter was changed and what factors influenced these changes. Selected two points in the history of ritual slaughter, happening basically in two different countries, constitute a proper material to carry out such comparative research.