Jews would have to register with the authorities to buy kosher meat under plans being pushed by a far-right regional minister in Austria.
Gottfried Waldhausl, of the Freedom Party (FP), who is responsible for animal welfare in the state of Lower Austria, is considering the step as part of a drive to curb ritual butchering without anaesthesia, which he said was cruel.
Members of a religious community would have to be registered as eligible for meat provided by kosher slaughtering, Mr Waldhausl said.
The plan has caused outrage. “This registration is a reminder of the darkest chapter of our history,” said Christian Kern, a former chancellor, referring to the registering of Austria’s Jewish population shortly after the 1938 annexation by Nazi Germany. All but 2,000 of the approximately 195,000 Jews in Austria were killed in concentration camps. An estimated 10,000 to 12,000 Jews live in Austria today, mostly in Vienna.
Mr Kern, of the Social Democratic Party, accused the FP, which is the junior coalition party in Vienna’s government, of assaulting the Austrian republic, and called on Sebastian Kurz, the chancellor, to intervene.
Mr Waldhausl said he was merely reworking a rule that was introduced by his Social Democratic predecessor Maurice Androsch, who imposed restrictions on ritual butchering last September.
Read the article by David Crossland in The Australian (from The Times).