Norway's new Foreign Minister Børge Brende assured senior
officials of the Simon Wiesenthal Center (SWC) that "the Norwegian
Government recognizes the importance of ritual male circumcision for the Jewish
community in Norway…[and] it will not propose a ban on ritual
circumcision."
The Wiesenthal Center raised concerns over Norway's proposed
ban on ritual circumcision (brit milah). The concerns prompted Brende to send his
assurances by letter last Friday to Rabbi Abraham Cooper, the Center's
Associate Dean and Mark Weitzman, its Director of Government Affairs.
In response to the Foreign Minister's words, Cooper and
Weitzman commended "the Government of Norway for declaring their
commitment not to ban brit milah and for reaffirming their commitment to
protecting 'religious freedom as enshrined in international law.'"
Norway has not been the only country talking about banning
the Jewish ritual.
The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe in early
October passed a resolution calling for the banning of ritual circumcision. The
head of the Council of Europe, Thorbjorn Jagland, urged the council to
reconsider the resolution and confirmed there was no binding law banning brit
milah.
Furthermore, European calls to ban ritual circumcision were
echoed this month by politicians in Quebec.
Regarding proposed bans, the Wiesenthal Center said
"the Jewish world is for the first time confronted with efforts in
numerous countries to ban Jewish rituals. Historically, such draconian actions
were taken by tyrants, dictators and mass murderers.
Today we are confronted
with such initiatives being proposed and passed in democracies...We urge all
European democracies who currently criminalize or are seeking to criminalize
core Judaic practices to recognize that such laws and initiatives stand in
direct defiance of international laws protecting religious freedom."
The Wiesenthal Center has also been vocal in calling for
Norway to rescind its longstanding anti-Semitic ban on Jewish ritual slaughter
(shechita) which has been law since 1929.
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