Shchitah Reaffirmed

BRUSSELS— New European Union rules to make slaughtering animals more humane also recognized the validity of religious slaughter methods. EU farm ministers agreed June 22 to tighten rules on slaughter to minimize animals’ suffering. The new regulations allow kosher meat to be traded and sold freely in every EU country. They also recognize that animals being slaughtered for kosher consumption can’t be pre-stunned, which violates shchitah laws. In addition, kosher meat won’t be labelled in a discriminatory way. The European Jewish Congress hailed the new rules, but it urged vigilance so “that individual governments do not seek to impose new requirements on religious slaughter.”

Jew Elected Speaker

LONDON — A Jewish MP has for the first time been elected speaker of the British House of Commons. Tory John Bercow, 46, was elected by his peers in a secret ballot. His faith has not played a role in his political life. However, when Prime Minister Gordon Brown congratulated him, he noted that Bercow was the first-ever Jewish speaker.

Lawyer Disbarred

NEW YORK — A lawyer who won reparations for Holocaust survivors in the 1990s was disbarred in New Jersey after he swindled some of the very survivors he helped. The New Jersey Supreme Court found June 23 that Edward Fagan had taken $350,000 from the accounts of survivors Gizelle Weisshaus, Estelle Sapir and others without their permission to pay his bills. The court also froze his assets. Fagan also was disbarred last year in New York on an unrelated case. Fagan took part in class-action suits in the 1990s against Swiss banks, German firms and other entities on behalf of survivors, helping win more than $1 billion (US) for more than 30,000 survivors. He earned millions in fees, but told the court he used the money to pay debts and fulfil the terms of a $2.6-million divorce settlement. Fagan said hadn’t intended to betray his clients, but that his bookkeeping was disorderly.

Bones Reburied

MADRID—  The bones of about 100 people exhumed from a medieval Jewish cemetery in Spain during construction work were reburied. A spokesperson for the Conference of European Rabbis said the bones were reinterred June 21 in their original graves. The reburial was the result of “protracted negotiations,” the spokesperson said. Earlier this year, the Spanish government halted construction on the site after protests, including by Jews outside Spanish embassies in other countries. The site was being developed for the expansion of a school that already occupies part of the cemetery land. Local authorities offered to hand over the bones for reburial at another site, but the local Jewish federation, backed by the Conference of European Rabbis and the Committee for the Preservation of Jewish Cemeteries in Europe, demanded that they be returned to their original resting place. Construction will continue, but building will only take place around the cemetery.

Union Moves Rapped

LONDON — Britain’s foreign secretary expressed dismay that British unions are discussing motions calling for boycotts of Israel. “The government is dismayed that motions calling for boycotts of Israel are being discussed at trade union congresses and conferences this summer,” David Miliband said June 23. He said that Ivan Lewis, a Jewish MP and the minister responsible for the Middle East, was to meet with union leaders last week “to make clear the government’s firm belief that calls for boycotts of Israel cannot and do not contribute to peace.” Miliband said economic, academic and cultural boycotts “obstruct opportunities for co-operation and dialogue and serve only to polarize debate further.”

Boycott Fizzles

LOS ANGELES — A call to boycott Israeli products sold at a U.S. grocery chain backfired. Organizers of “Don’t Buy into Apartheid Day,” also known as “Day of Deshelving Israeli Products,” sent a letter to Trader Joe’s asking it not to sell Israeli products and for members to hand out anti-Israel leaflets in front of stores across the United States on June 20. The Los Angeles Jewish Journal reported the demonstrations failed to take place, and that Israel supporters visited the stores to buy Israeli products.

Canada Joins Shoah Education Task Force

OSLO — Canada is now a full member of the Task Force for International Cooperation on Holocaust Education, Remembrance and Research (ITF), Citizenship, Immigration and Multiculturalism Minister Jason Kenney announced last week.
Canada’s application for full membership was accepted during the ITF’s plenary session in Oslo.
“Membership in this important body provides Canada with an opportunity to work internationally to combat racism and anti-Semitism,” Kenney said. “This government believes it is critically important to be engaged in efforts to teach future generations the lessons of the Holocaust and help prevent future acts of genocide.”
To become a full member, Canada had to complete a study on the state of Shoah education, remembrance and research in Canada, as well as a project with ITF members.
For its project, Citizenship and Immigration Canada and B’nai Brith Canada, in partnership with the U.S. State Department, the French foreign ministry, the U.S. Holocaust Museum and the Memorial de la Shoah, hosted a recent conference in Toronto that examined Canada’s actions and attitudes before and during World War II, including the refusal in 1939 to accept passengers of the MS St. Louis, some of whom later died in the Holocaust.
At the conference, Kenney announced funding for a new National Task Force on Holocaust Research, Remembrance and Education.
As a full ITF member, Canada commits to promoting the Declaration of the Stockholm International Forum on the Holocaust through remembrance, research and education. The ITF, which now has 27 member countries, works to get political and social leaders to support Shoah education and research nationally and internationally.