Passover Brexit food shortages force Irish people to work together

Since 2016, he has become a keystay of British-Irish political scrutiny saying the tight Brexit trade arrangements will push Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland closer together. Ultimately, it could lead to a United Ireland, some analysts say.

“Such dynamics are certainly playing out among the Jewish communities,” said Maurice Cohen, head of the Jewish Representative Council of Ireland. – if anything. “

Britain is generally the main kosher and kosher supplier for Passover products for both Irish and Northern Irish Jewish communities. But as part of the UK’s withdrawal from the European Union, new regulatory reviews were introduced on trade between Britain and the EU, raising the cost of exporting British goods to members of the European single market, such as Ireland.

Cohen said buying kosher food from the UK has become “a big quagmire,” logically and financially.

As part of the UK, Northern Ireland would be expected to have maintained its ability to supply freely from England and elsewhere. But under the title “Northern Ireland Protocol,” part of the Brexit Agreement, Northern Ireland is to remain within the EU’s single market for goods as part of an effort to close its border with the Republic of Ireland. keep it open.

So Belfast’s research has run into the same hurdles as their top southern experts.

“It’s a nightmare,” said Michael Black, chairman of Belfast’s Jewish community group. “It took me from January to be able to get a supply of kosher meat from England – and even then, it took a very controversial settlement that would only happen once.”

London has introduced a temporary grace period in an effort to reduce disputes by suspending some inspections of imports into Northern Ireland, but the underlying problems have remained.

The fortunes of the Jewish communities in Belfast and Dublin have declined in recent years. After decades of emigration, the Belfast community has shrunk to less than 100 members, most of them older.

Across the border, Dublin has benefited from people coming to work in the republic’s thriving technology sector. For the first time since the 1950s, when Ireland was an unlikely source of kosher meat imports to Israel, the community is growing again. Current estimates put the number of people in Dublin at around 2,000.

Belfast would receive a supply from a kosher butcher in Manchester every eight to 10 weeks. From January, even with a butcher offering to “drive over himself” to make sure he arrived, the mountains of new papers and extra expenses demanded a reassessment.

“No one is going to starve, but it looks strange that we came to this crisis,” Black said. “It’s either a change of religion or going vegetarian.”

Black – who had written to European commissioners, ministers and Northern Ireland politicians in a bid to find a solution – was able to secure a mass package delivery following an intervention by Britain’s secretary of state for Northern Ireland.

A spokesman for the British government told the Jewish Telegraph Group that it recognized “the importance of ensuring that the Jewish community in Northern Ireland can continue to have access to kosher meat and that the process to get those products as smoothly as possible for traders. “

The spokesman said: “We have been made aware of an issue with one provider and have been working proactively and positively with those involved to ensure that another GB provider is now in place. . “

This is not what Black understood. He says the compromise was a “one-off” settlement that would have a full impact on the community but did not resolve the issue in the long term.

“When the grace period comes to an end, we will be back to square one and need to work out what we will do next,” he said.

“I’m fascinated by all of this because we are a small community,” he said with a sigh. “Getting those sources in has become a principle for me. – and principles are expensive. “

Belfast pays 15 euros for one hen, he said, while the incoming butchers – expected for a dozen families – had added 400 euros to the its total cost, all of which came from a shrinking community budget.

While Jewish communities continue to decline and consolidate across the UK as numbers flock to major cities such as London and Manchester, co-operation may seem inevitable.

“Certainly we have come together in the last two years, especially what they have been before. It’s something that has come to the fore, ”Cohen said, adding with a cuckle:“ We’ll see where it ends. “