A Dutch appeals court has upheld a $90 fine against an Orthodox Jew who refused to show police an identity card, citing religious reasons.
The Hague Appeals Court ruled that a law which makes it mandatory for all people older than 14 to carry ID cards and show them to police upon request does not have a religious exemption.
The man, whose name was not released due to privacy laws, had argued it was against his religious beliefs to carry anything but his clothing on the Jewish Sabbath.
The ruling didn’t say why police approached the man.
The law was introduced in 2005 amid a wave of anti-immigrant and anti-Muslim sentiment. Carrying ID cards hadn’t previously been mandatory in the Netherlands since the Nazi occupation in World War II.
(AP)
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10 Responses
The rabbonim in the Netherlands should carefully consider whether it might be appropriate to grant a heter in this case to carry a simple card since its purpose is national security and creating a “religious exception” for frum yidden and would open the door for others to seek special exemptions and weaken the anti-terrorist framework they have adopted. There are times to balance competing interests and paskin accordingly.
Yet another sign that “Jew-friendly” Holland is no longer that.
Gadolhadorah, this is not a Conservative site. If something is assur, it is assur. And you are not a Talmud Chocham.
When you step out of your ethno-only daled amos Imanonoiv, you might consider:
1. The Dutch Law is a uniformly applied security measure aimed in part at furthering objectives we share with the Dutch…and in no-way can resonably decried as anti-Yidden;
2. Rabbanim might permit allowing the carrying of an ID card if fashioned into a begged or jewely accessorie; and
3. The beauty of the religious protections that are virtually unique to the United States.
As Freud said…sometimes a cigar is just a cigar.
Perhaps the design of the ID card would allow for one or two holes on the card. Then under proper rabbinic supervision, it can be turned into a link of a belt.
Search the internet for “shabbos belt”.
Stay within the eruv and there is no problem/
No eruv? build one.
To MDD (no3)…this has nothing to do with MO, Conservtive etc…if there is some way within halacha to facilitate compliance with the rule such as making the id card into some type of decorative item worn on a lanyard around the neck on shabbos, sewing it into the liner of an outergarmet or whatever (my point being that this is somthing for a rav or posek to decide) than the armchair poskim such as yourself who tell us “its halacha” and therefor assur…..
P.S. and if the Dutch can surround themselves with a series of billion dollar seawalls, maybe our landsmen can build a eruv
1. This isn’t the final decision in the matter. This was only the equivalent of the Appellate Division in Brooklyn.
2. If the ID card is not in itself muksteh, it might be possible to wear it as jewelry. There are lots of local solutions possible. One shouldn’t jump to conclusions. The likelihood is no one realized there was a problem until very recently (since we didn’t hear of protests when the law was being considered).
#3:
+1
#7
Reasonable ideas, but it was your original wording that upset people. You don’t “grant” a heter. You find one.