The Ban on "Jewish Slaughtering" in Hungary and Its Consequences in the Light of Archival and Rabbinic Sources.

This paper discusses the consequences of the decree requiring the compulsory stunning of animals for slaughtering (april 1938) in Hungary and in the territories re-annexed to it by the two Vienna awards. the decree banning Jewish ritual slaughtering had anti-Jewish motives, following the German example; it opened a long series of further anti-Jewish laws. Both the Ministry of agriculture's archival documents and the rabbinic sources in Hebrew show that the decree could not be enforced in all provinces, nor was its violation sanc tioned with equal determination everywhere: enforcing the Ministry's will depended on local circumstances. Since the decree was unenforceable in transcarpathia and northern tran - sylvania, due to the high number of Orthodox, religiously observant Jews, a new decree (of January 1940) exempted the slaughterhouses there from observing it. the compulsory stunning of animals had a severe impact on the Jewish religious communities in Hungary, both economically and spiritually. the economic situation of the poorer, typically Orthodox Jewish communities was substantially worsened by the non-payment of the tax on meat. in addition, the decree sent a clear message to the Jewish community: the Hungarian State interfered in religious practices, even when the interests of the country dictated otherwise. according to archival documents, the drastic reduction in the number of ritual slaughterings not only made it impossible for Jewish communities to survive, but also threatened the livelihoods of all those involved in the meat industry. in 1938, the Hungarian administration put the "humanization" of animal slaughtering before the economic interests of the country. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]