The Sejm today adopted a bill providing for complete prohibition of shechita, Jewish ritual method of slaughtering animals, by the end of 1942. The method has been under partial proscription since 1937. Passage of the measure, which had been recommended by a parliamentary commission on Feb. 28, was marked by a demonstration by the five Jewish deputies, who walked out of the Sejm in a body.
Government supporters of the bill opposed demands by radical anti-Semites for introduction of the complete ban on shechita before 1942, pointing out that dislocation of the meat industry could be avoided only by gradual imposition of the ban.
In the debate on the measure, Deputy Emil Sommerstein protested against its disregard of the Constitution and the Jewish religion. “An old religion and an old people,” he declared, “will not be broken by this new blow.”
Jews throughout Poland are refraining from use of meat for the period from March 14 to March 31 as a protest against the law.
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