European Jewish Association (EJA) Chairman Rabbi Menachem Margolin said that his organization would begin legal proceedings in Poland’s Constitutional Court following Polish President Duda’s decision to sign the contested Holocaust Bill.

Rabbi Margolin had previously challenged and overturned Polish legislation affecting kosher slaughter at the Court.

In a statement Rabbi Margolin said, “It is with deep regret that the President of Poland, clearly ignoring the concerns of European Jewry and the international community, has decided to sign this deeply flawed bill. We had urged President Duda to defer any final decision on ratifying the legislation until at least having met with a delegation of Jewish leaders. He has decided, bizarrely, that this is not necessary.

“As a consequence, the EJA will – as we successfully did in the past on efforts to ban kosher slaughter – challenge this matter in Poland’s Constitutional court.”

“I have also written to the heads of all the EU Institutions asking them to reprimand the Polish government. It seems inconceivable that an EU Member State can be permitted to whitewash history by imposing draconian legislation that can imprison people for holding an alternative view on what happened during Europe’s darkest days.

“The bill, as presently worded, represents the worst kind of historical revisionism, is an assault and an insult to the memory of those murdered during the holocaust and is a direct attack on free speech and freedom of opinion. This cannot stand”, concluded Margolin.

(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)