Are Europe’s Restrictions on Jewish and Muslim Ritual Due to Christianity’s Influence or Absence?

Jews are leaving Europe at an increasing rate. Between 1970 and 2020, the Jewish population of the European Union declined by 16 percent, with emigration playing a significant role. From 2015 to 2019, the number of immigrants to Israel from Belgium, the Netherlands, and the Nordic countries was 50 percent higher than it had been fifteen years before, according to a study from the Institute for Jewish Policy Research. In France, Germany, Austria, and Greece, it was 2.5 times higher. In Italy and Spain, five times higher.

Given this grim trend, one would think that European leaders would do everything possible to guarantee the rights and well-being of the continent’s Jewish population. But in important respects, the opposite has been the case. In recent years, shechita, the method of slaughter prescribed by Jewish law, has come under threat—not just from popular majorities, but from the rulings of judges who see themselves as upholding European values and minority rights.

What stands behind these moves? As Eric Mechoulan suggests, they reflect in part a longstanding hostility to Jewish practice, informed by the historic legacy of Christianity. Yet the most immediate cause may be something very different: the continent’s loss of its Christian identity. For as Christianity has receded, a movement has grown to invest culinary life with a moral meaning that runs counter to Christianity as well as Judaism.