http://www.presseurop.eu/en The best of the European press in 10 languages enhttp://www.presseurop.eu/en/content/news-brief/597261-european-rabbis-defend-ritual-slaughter“Rabbis worried over ban on ritual slaughter,” headlines De Volkskrant. On 12 April, a group of senior rabbis from several European countries organised a press conference in Schiphol (near Amsterdam) to express their opposition to a proposed ban on ritual slaughter that will be debated by the Dutch parliament on 13 April. As it stands, abattoirs are obliged to anaesthetise animals before slaughtering them, but an exception is made for ritual slaughter, used by Jews and Muslims, which forbids the use of anesthetics. For this reason that a number of political parties are arguing that ritual slaughter causes unnecessary suffering. The newspaper reports that in the Netherlands, approximately two million animals are slaughtered without anesthetics every year. Several European countries, including Sweden, Norway, Austria, Estonia and Switzerland, have already introduced similar bans. 

(News in brief)]]>Wed, 13 Apr 2011 12:25:24 +0100597261 http://www.presseurop.eu/en/content/article/186261-jewish-and-german-new-generationTue, 09 Feb 2010 14:19:50 +0100186261 http://www.presseurop.eu/en/content/news-brief/173441-name-rosentsFaced with the lingering menace of anti-Semitism and to ease their integration, many French Jewish families opted to Frenchify their family names in the aftermath of World War II. So Rubinsteins Gallicised to Raimbauds, Rozenkopfs became Rosents, Wolkowiczes Volcots and so on. “Now, many of their children are searching for their roots and trying to ‘recover’ their original name,” reports Libération. In a class action brought by an association called La force du nom (The Power of the Name), they have just stated their case before the Council of State, the highest administrative court in the land. “Though any foreigner can Frenchify his name, the reverse is prohibited,” observes the paper. In the US, in contrast, the right to reclaim one’s name has been in force “for several decades now”. 

(News in brief)]]>Wed, 20 Jan 2010 15:51:50 +0100173441