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With Yom Kippur coming up this Monday, South Williamsburg will be the stage for many a sacrificial chicken slaughter on Sunday. The Jewish ritual known as kapparot raises eyebrows each year, and now Dr. Allan Kornberg, Executive Director for Farm Sanctuary, has released a statement.
He says that while this ritual can be done 100% chicken-free, many are still "swinging the chickens over their heads and then slicing their throats with razors." The belief is that their sins will be transferred into the chicken’s body and disappear just like the bird's life. But what about the blood on their hands? Some rabbis say the cruel act "violates both kosher food standards and the Torah’s teachings on cultivating compassion for animals. In fact, an Israeli court ruled in 2007 that killing chickens for kapparot violates the country’s animal welfare laws, codifying in modern law what these sages have been saying for centuries."
Maybe someone should stage a sexy bike ride protest that night.
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FYI from http://forums.manhattanbirdclub.com/post?id=3678000
The raw footage is on my YouTube page (I didn't get any of them killing the birds, because, in each case I got kicked out before I had a chance ... one slaughterer stopped himself right before he made impact): http://www.youtube.com/user/rrrina
Through the years, I've done one-person demos outside these places. My grandfather, a kosher butcher (who, in his final year of life was so revolted by what he witnessed when he had occasion to visit a slaughterhouse that he gave up his business and went vegetarian), was opposed to Kapparot. He was known throughout the neighborhood as a Tzadik (righteous man), who rescued abandoned cats, dogs, and even injured birds, gave free food away to the poor, and allowed homeless people to sleep in his store.
Growing up, I remember a series of "borders," as he called them, homeless people whom he would allow to stay in a room on the top floor of his home,until he was able to help find them jobs so they could afford to live in an SRO (single room occupancy).My grandfather denounced the practice of Kapparot as cruel, unnecessary, and, in fact, un-Jewish. He said that it was not in the Torah or the Talmud, and that for those who felt the need to do the ritual, it could be done with an inanimate object (money).Kapparot takes place during the week between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur.Being around the places where they do this obscene sacrifice is bone-chilling. The stench of fear and blood permeates the entire neighborhood. The birds are left, packed tightly in crates, with no food and no water for the entire week. The "unused" birds are often left in the crates in the heat and cold, starving amid the excrement, until they can be picked up. Some, in desperation, pluck each others' eyes out. About a year ago, some orthodox rabbis had a meeting about the practice
It was decided that there needs to be closer monitoring and regulation of Kapparot. Until last year, I used to see some of the slaughterers throw the birds into garbage bags (contradicting their claim that the meat is donated to the poor). This year, while I didn't get to film it, I found one place actually taking the dead birds, plucking them, and preparing them for donation... certainly not ideal, but an improvement over discarding them. Still this is a heinous practice that needs to be abolished.Yesterday, I called the ASPCA to report that the animals had no food or water and were packed tightly in crates (stacked on top of each other), left in the hot sun.
Please call and complain... they WILL come. The more people who call, the more seriously they will take the complaints.The ASPCA cruelty division number is: 212-876-7700, ext. 4450.
So far, I found three places where it is being done in Boro Park, Brooklyn:- 43rd Street, between 13th and 14th Ave., closer to 13th, next to a synagogue.- 50th Street, bet 13th and 14th Ave, closer to 14th, outside a school.- corner of 49th Street and 14th Ave, next to the YM-YWHA.
Please call and complain that these animals have no food and water.
Also call Ernie Anastos, his chicken fetishes are much more humane.
much win.
Got a thing for knifing cocks, guys?
I thought you were a dude...
OH NO NOT A CHICKEN! THAT IS A TYPE OF FOOOOOOOOOD!
How about a nice bowl of matzoh ball soup instead?
good idea! will help my mom make some when I visit home this sunday : )
Amanda Harlach - this one has got your name AWWWWWWWWLLLL over it...
Dog Fighting is illegal. Voodoo rituals are illegal. This should be illegal. And if any idiot Hasid claims anti-semitism, they're full of shit, especially since the practice is illegal in fucking ISRAEL.
Thank you.
ugh religious people are so fucking creepy
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dLZfkjxD1Xg
http://www.youtube.com/user/rrrina
Her Channel has video of this so called ritual
Kapparot rituals used to be held throughout the city.
I remember, in the mid and late-60s, my grandmother and grandfather going to a live poultry market with members of their shul to purchase chickens for that purpose.
I also remember a live carp in grandma's bathtub before the holidays. She would take a wooden mallet and strike it right between the eyes. Later that day, we had some of the finest gefilte fish in the Bronx.
If any zealous gothamist readers criticize my late grandparents, I'll put a klog on your kleine kopf.
cartman was right.
Eh. People eat chicken everyday. How is this different?
farm sanctuary is the most amazing organization!! go visit the farm, it will change your life.
Compared to how chickens are normally handled and slaughtered, this doesn't sound particularly cruel. I've killed quite a few chickens myself, and it is not a pleasant process. You chase one around, grab it by its feet, force it head first down into the killing funnel, and then slice its head off. It definitely is a few minutes of terror for the chicken, but I can't really think of a much more humane way.
I'm not saying the ceremony isn't cruel or wrong, but if you're actually concerned with animal welfare there are much more worthwhile targets. Singling this ceremony makes it seem like these are unusually abused chickens, whereas they aren't suffering a fate much worse than the chicken in your coq au vin or bucket of KFC. Outrage over this but not the chicken on the plate is symptomatic of how removed people are from the realities of meat production.
whenever superstition is a excuse for senseless acts, of course I'll say it is bullshit! We have actually refined, and improved systems of justice, governments, but when it comes to religion, the more barbaric the better!
How is this different from boodoo killing of goats, or eating tiger's penis soup to get some viagra action, or virgins in heaven!
Same old BS.
Religion IS BULLSHIT!
-But when is practiced by females, is called witchcraft!
But yeah let's make a war in the name of BULLSHIT.
I hear Moses swung a mean chicken...
Mosaic Law #573:
Kill sinful chickens at Yom Kippur. Failure to do so may result in immediate hemorrhoids. Hemorroids may be cured with an offering of gold to temple priests who...
Murder most fowl.
kapparot is evil. those who participate in this ritual are savages ... they are barbarians.
and of course, the nypd probably stand guard and prevent these chickens from being rescued by people who actually care.