A new big offensive has been started against the Jewish practice of slaughtering by the Austrian Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. A number of mass meetings have been held, and others are being arranged, and resolutions are being presented to the Government and to the-Parliamentary Parties demanding the immediate enactment of a law prohibiting the slaughtering of animals in Austria without previous stunning.
The resolutions also demand that until this is done christian butcher shops which sell any parts of animals slaughtered in Jewish fashion should have to display a sign to this effect, so that they can be boycotted.
THE BIG ANTI-SHECHITA MOVE AT THE VIENNA INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS OF SOCIETIES FOR PREVENTION OF CRUELTY TO ANIMALS
A big campaign against Shechita was launched in Vienna in May 1929 when the International Congress of Societies for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals was being held there. Before the Congress met, it was known that some of the delegates intended to force through a resolution against Shechita, and the Shechita Committee of the Board of Deputies of British Jews stated in its report to the Board a month previously that it had received information that “antisemitic agitators were seeking to make use of the opportunity provided by the Congress to stir up anti-Jewish prejudice against Shechita on the ground of its alleged cruelty to animals”. It was understood, it added, “that a faked film of Shechita made in 1913 would be exhibited.”
The Vienna Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals held a big anti-Shechita mass demonstration outside the meeting-place of the International Congress, and boards were carried bearing inscriptions demanding the prohibition of Shechita, by making it compulsory to stun all animals before slaughtering.
The faked film of Shechita made in 1913 was shown to the delegates at the Congress, and Dr. Klein, a Westphalian veterinary surgeon, and Professor Mueller, of Munich University., explained the film, dwelling on the alleged barbarism of Shechita The Jews must choose between war and peace, Professor Klein said. They must change their present method of slaughtering and stop leaving over for the Christians the treifa parts of the animal, which they reject as not being good enough for the Jewish palate.
Several Jewish participants protested against the false light in which Shechita was presented in the film. No shochet, they said, ever slaughtered an animal in the way in which the film depicted. Dr. Basel and Dr. Blachek, two German experts, who attempted to speak in defence of Shechita, were shouted down.
Rabbi Dr. Feuchtwang, the Acting Chief Rabbi of Vienna, however, was allowed to deliver an address, in which he emphasised the humane principles of the Jewish faith, showing how it is enjoined on Jews not to do wanton injury to any living creature, and urged that if stunning was made compulsory by law without taking regard of Jewish religious susceptibilities, it would constitute religious persecution.
Miss Lind-af-Hageby and the Duchess of Hamilton, of the British Animal Defence Society also spoke vigorously against shechita, and the Congress adopted a resolution condemning all slaughtering of animals without previous stunning, and calling on the Parliaments of all countries to enact legislation to make it illegal to slaughter animals without previous stunning. A more moderate resolution by a French delegate, M. Lespine, urging that slaughtering methods should be the most humane possible, was defeated.
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
