Hungary is home to Europe’s two producers of kosher foie gras, JTA recently wrote. The news agency delved into the reasons why the country of only 10 million—and some 100,000 Jews—has taken the lead in the market for the delicacy produced according to the laws of kashrut.
The EU has made the rise of Hungarian kosher producers somewhat easier since the European Court of Justice, the EU’s top court, upheld a ban on both kosher and halal slaughter in Belgium.
Never one to miss an opportunity to decry human rights violations by his liberal opponents, PM Orbán swooped in, writing to Israeli President Isaac Herzog that this was
“not just an attack on religious freedom, but an attack on our Judeo-Christian heritage and the Jewish communities in Europe.”
In the wake of this, one poultry slaughterhouse closed up shop in Antwerp entirely, moving its operations to Hungary. Aside from the absence of laws banning kashrut, the Hungarian government has provided subsidies and concessions to kosher slaughterhouses, helping increase the production of kosher foods—something that was sorely needed when COVID hit.
“The subsidies, combined with the animal-slaughter policies elsewhere in Europe and the supply chain interruptions induced by the COVID-19 pandemic, has turned Hungary into an unlikely major producer of kosher meat for consumption in Europe and Israel,” JTA notes, including two slaughterhouses solely dedicated to kosher geese, the only ones in Europe.
Shlomo Köves, the chief rabbi of the Association of Hungarian Jewish Communities (EMIH), which oversees the adherence to kashrut at Kosher Poultry, told JTA that England and France have been loyal customers of their kosher foods and
“now it is our turn to look after them.”
During their tour of the factory, JTA was told that “hundreds of thousands of birds are slaughtered there annually.” Rabbi Jacob Werchow, Kosher Poultry’s head shochet made an important point for all the activists claiming that animals slaughtered per kosher law suffer due to not first being stunned: “Done well, the sudden blood loss shuts down the nervous system.”
The rabbi further clarified the actual sensation an animal may feel when slaughtered per kashrut:
“As for the cut — it is its own anesthesia. It’s too swift and sharp to cause pain and the animal is made unconscious by the drop in blood pressure. They’re out before they actually die.”
Geese livers from Kosher Poultry typically weigh about 28 ounces and are worth about $100 in France. All kosher foie gras sold in France comes from Hungary.
There are presently groups actively seeking to institute a ban in Hungary against kosher slaughter and the force feeding of geese; this latter has already been banned in countries such as Israel, the United Kingdom, Finland and Poland, JTA notes.
Rabbi Werchow, however, disagrees with the charge of cruelty. He told JTA that “force feeding nowadays is painless because the food is transferred to the geeses’ stomachs using flexible silicone sleeves that cause much less discomfort and injuries than the metal ones they replaced in recent years.”
Kalman Szalai, the secretary-general of Hungary’s Action and Protection Foundation, told JTA that Orbán “cares about Hungarian Jews and freedom of worship,” plus, allowing for kosher production
“makes sense politically, because it shows up the EU as intolerant, and it’s financially beneficial, providing jobs. So that’s a double win.”
Chief Rabbi Köves followed up on this by stating that
“the issue does show the hypocrisy of a body that accuses Hungary of human rights violations even as they commit them against Jewish communities and Muslim ones.”
Those living locally can order EMIH’s kosher foie gras at „Kóser Piac” in Budapest (Dohány Street 36, 1074 Budapest), or, when supply allows, at koserhus.com.
Hungary, particularly Budapest, also has a nice offering of kosher restaurants and cafés, including the following: