Following the decision by the highest court in Greece to ban kosher slaughter, Chief Rabbi Pinchas Goldschmidt, president of the Conference of European Rabbis (CER), issued the following statement:
“The decision by the highest court in Greece to ban shechita (kosher slaughter) will send a shudder down the spine of Jews throughout Europe. As we have said throughout, the justices of the ECJ (Court of Justice of the European Union) and the European Commission’s claim that the ruling that upheld the bans on shechita in two Belgian regions was a pipe dream."
Rabbi Goldschmidt added: "They have given an exit notice to Europe’s Jews as Greece has now followed the Brussels region of Belgium demonstrating the dangerous precedent set by the ECJ. The EU and its member states have a decision to make. Do they want Jews in Europe or will they allow their Jewish communities to be stigmatized and hounded out?”