Shimon Cohen, at The Blogs

Dec 17, 2020, 6:23 PM

Court’s absurd bid to define Shechita for Jewish communities in Europe

Cow (Photo by Garrett Butler on Unsplash via Jewish News)

The European Court of Justice’s verdict on the legality of the bans on Shechita in the Wallonia and Flanders regions of Belgium was always going to be a landmark ruling. Unfortunately, it did not go the way we wanted, and it will make future legal...

Oct 23, 2020, 11:33 AM

Ofsted is not following the law – it is a law unto itself

Screenshot from preview video with Amanda Spielman and Eli Spitzer (Via Jewish News)

Eli Spitzer’s podcast interview with HMCI, Amanda Spielman, proved to be another insight into the agenda-led thinking of Ofsted. The difficulties between Ofsted and the Orthodox Jewish community have been well publicised over the last few years and this was an opportunity for Ms Spielman...

Jul 30, 2020, 4:00 PM

Think this is all a fuss over nothing? Just look at Belgium

Over the last few months, the news agenda has been dominated by COVID-19. Nevertheless, behind the scenes, many of the issues posed by Brexit continue to cause challenges to our community, not least the future of Shechita. These last weeks have seen increased scrutiny for...

Jul 2, 2018, 4:59 PM

British values have become a fundamentalist doctrine

David Brown’s Jewish News article last week does not reflect the ethos of Jewish schools or how the ‘British values’ agenda has been enforced. As Orthodox Jews, our community is proud to demonstrate two fundamental values: respect and tolerance. These are fundamental British values and...

Jun 29, 2016, 7:20 PM

After Brexit, we’ll have our work cut out to protect shechita

Speculation for a future outside of the European Union has dominated conversation for the last few months and intensified following last week’s shock result. Whilst we will all be affected individually, it is also important that we contemplate the consequences for the community as a...

Jan 8, 2015, 1:43 AM

Britain is a wonderful home for Jews

As a PR man, my job is to take a long hard look at a business, organisation, country or situation and find the positive in it. Then it’s a matter of encouraging others to focus on the positives that define the entity in question rather...

Jul 24, 2013, 8:23 PM

Why are we not talking about animal welfare?

The news that the Polish Government recently lost in the Sejm while attempting to introduce measures to protect the right of faith communities to carry out religious slaughter of animals for food (Shechita) has thrown up a range of interesting debates. Many have pointed to...

Apr 18, 2012, 8:00 AM

Leibler’s Britain is a fiction

The columnist would have us believe that life is impossible for Jews in the the UK. The truth, however, is that British Jewish life is experiencing something of a resurgence

About Me

Shimon Cohen is the founder and chairman of The PR Office a Public Relations Consultancy that specialises in the Jewish community and non-profit sector. He is the Campaign Director of Shechita UK