SWC Urges Norway to Rescind Longstanding Ban on Shechita – (Kosher Slaughter of Animals)

Jerusalem,

The Simon Wiesenthal Center, a leading Jewish human rights NGO, is calling on the government of Norway to go on record that the 1929 anti-Semitic lawbanning shechita (kosher ritual slaughter) be immediately rescinded.

In a meeting with Norway's Ambassador to Israel, Svein Sevje (pictured), at the Norwegian Embassy, Rabbi Abraham Cooper, the AssociateDean of the Center, and Mark Weitzman, the Center's Director of Government Affairs called on the Norwegian government to lead a Parliamentary coalition to overturn the law, which waspassed during the rise of Nazism in Europe. Center officials charged, "This law is a stain on Norway. During the Parliamentary debate preceding the 1929 vote, Jens Hunseid, a futureNorwegian Prime Minister, said, "We have no obligation to deliver our domestic animals to the cruelties of the Jews, we have not invited the Jews to this country, and we have noobligation to provide the Jews animals to their religious orgies."

"Only the removal of this anti-Semitic law would restore to Norway's Jews their full rights as citizens," Center officials added. "It would also help world Jewry in its struggle againstrenewed efforts to ban core Jewish practices of shechita (kosher slaughter) and brit mila (circumcision) in other European countries," they concluded.

The Wiesenthal Center officials are currently in Jerusalem for the Global Forum on a
Anti-Semitism.

For more information contact Rabbi Abraham Cooper at 972(0)524316448 or +1310 210 9750 or Mark Weitzman 0526047620 or 1-917 8645133,

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The Simon Wiesenthal Center is one of the largest international Jewish human rights organizations with over 400,000 member families in the United States. It is an NGO at internationalagencies including the United Nations, UNESCO, the OSCE, the OAS, the Council of Europe and the Latin American Parliament (Parlatino).