Where the evidence leads, principled advocacy follows.
Across the world, core Jewish practices are being challenged, restricted, and in some cases banned — often under the banner of humanitarianism and animal welfare. The Praxis Institute meets these challenges with rigorous science, advocating for fairness and truth on the legal, scientific, and political fronts.
Science first.
Advocacy follows.
The Praxis Institute was established to defend core Jewish practices at the source — as ethically sound, scientifically defensible, and worthy of protection. Defending these practices on the basis of religious freedom alone has proven insufficient. What is required is a rigorous, evidence-led response.
Our method is consistent across every front on which we work: original peer-reviewed research, principled legal advocacy, and direct engagement with the institutions that shape policy. Two active fronts demand that response today.
Safeguarding shechita.
Active proceedingsActively restricted in eight countries. New restrictions advancing in Canada; federal injunction secured while the case proceeds. Pressure now surfacing in the United States.
Read the brief → Front II · Bris MilahSafeguarding bris milah.
Immediate threatBelgian pre-trial chamber to rule 18 June 2026 on criminal referral of two practicing mohelim. Formal complaints filed in Austria; an active case ongoing in Switzerland.
Read the brief →Safeguarding
shechita.
For more than six decades, a body of largely unchallenged scientific literature has characterized Shechita as inherently inhumane. That narrative is now embedded in the guidance of major regulatory bodies — including the World Organization for Animal Health and the European Food Safety Authority — and has shaped restrictions across Europe.
What began in Europe is no longer confined there. The question is no longer whether Shechita will be challenged, but whether the response will be adequate to the scale of the challenge.
Three coordinated fronts.
Science leads. Where the evidence leads, advocacy follows — across legal, scientific, and regulatory venues, simultaneously and in concert.
Original physiological modeling
Peer-reviewed publication in leading veterinary journals. Systematic reviews exposing the methodological gaps in six decades of prior literature. The foundation on which everything else stands.
Standing up for the truth
Federal litigation in Canada. Monitoring and intervention against restrictive proposals in the United States and Europe. Principled defense grounded in the scientific record.
Direct dialogue with regulators
Direct engagement with WOAH, EFSA, USDA, and EU institutions. Collaboration with industry partners and animal-welfare stakeholders to reshape the broader policy framework on the basis of evidence.
The science.
Recent peer-reviewed publications, each closing a specific gap in the prior literature.
Additional papers published in 2025; further publications planned for 2026, alongside new original research at the Université de Montréal.
Antwerp is
the front line.
On 18 June 2026, a Belgian pre-trial chamber will decide whether to refer Rabbi Moses Landau and Rabbi Aharon Eckstein — practicing mohelim — to criminal court on charges of intentionally inflicting injuries on minors and unlawful practice of medicine.
If this case proceeds, Bris Milah — performed continuously for more than three thousand years and protected under religious-freedom regimes across the Western world — will be tried as a criminal act of bodily harm against a child. A conviction in Antwerp does not stay in Antwerp.
Three coordinated fronts.
The same principle holds: science leads, and advocacy follows. Standing up for the truth means establishing the evidence record first, then bringing it to the venues where it matters.
The evidence record
Building on the Shechita scientific working group. The 2026 Morris et al. systematic review establishes a benefit-to-risk ratio greater than 200:1. Working group includes pediatric urologists, infectious-disease specialists, and bioethicists.
Principled defense
Led by Luis Moreno Ocampo (former ICC Chief Prosecutor) with Alan Dershowitz advising on the U.S. dimension. Direct representation of Rabbis Landau and Eckstein in Antwerp; preparatory work for ECtHR and U.S.-based ICERD intervention.
Human-rights venues
Ludovic Hennebel (UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights; Aix-Marseille University) leads engagement with UN treaty bodies and the Council of Europe. ICERD pathway under development.
The people
behind the work.
A coordinated team of thirty-plus physicians, veterinarians, legal scholars, and policy professionals working across nine jurisdictions. Leading counsel includes the former Chief Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court and the Felix Frankfurter Professor of Law Emeritus at Harvard.
Leadership
Senior Counsel
Scientific Working Group · 30+ Members
Physicians and veterinarians spanning neurology, cardiovascular medicine, electrophysiology, hemodynamics, bio-modeling, and cognitive sciences. Drawn from leading academic and clinical institutions across North America, Europe, and Israel.
- Stephane Beaudoin
- Asher Benchimol
- Raoul Bonan
- Bruno CozziUniversità di Padova
- Andre DesrochersUniversité de Montréal
- Franco FalconeJustus Liebig Universität Giessen
- Yoram Finkelstein
- Robert FisherStanford University
- Simon Freilich
- Élie Girsowicz
- Jacob Hascalovici
- Sheryl Haut
- Nofal KhalilNHS
- Steven Laureys
- Jeffrey MogilMcGill University
- Thomas J. Morrison
- Emmanuel MossMcGill University
- Stanley Nattel
- Joane ParentUniversité de Montréal
- Thomas ParmentierUniversité de Montréal
- Paolo Pozzi
- Simon RabkinUniversity of British Columbia
- Joe Mac RegensteinCornell University
- Stuart RosenImperial College London
- Hyman SchipperMcGill University
- Ronald SchondorfMcGill University
- Guy St-JeanUniversité de Montréal
- Giustino Varrassi
- David VidalPolytechnique Montréal
- Ruth WoiwodeUniversity of Nebraska–Lincoln
- Kathleen Yvorchuk
- Ari ZivotofskyBar-Ilan University
Legal Counsel · By Jurisdiction
World Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH) · European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) · Istituto Zooprofilattico Sperimentale (IZS) · United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) · European Commission.
Canada · France · Italy · Hungary · Israel · Australia · Bahrain · Belgium · Qatar · Azerbaijan · United Kingdom · United States.
Stand with this work.
Contributions can be directed through the following partner federations and organizations. Your partnership at this moment is both impactful and deeply meaningful to the wellbeing of the Jewish people worldwide.
For inquiries and contributions.
To learn more about the work of the Praxis Institute, to be connected with one of our partner organizations, or to discuss a contribution, please send a note. We will respond personally.