Annual Protests Of Annual Jewish Chicken Ritual On Schedule

You don't see the protesters against Wall Street putting ads up in Times Square (via).

Rosh Hashanah is here which means Yom Kippur is around the corner and you know what that means? Time for the annual protests of the annual chicken swinging ritual known as kapparot. The generally fatal chicken "swinging" and slaughtering most often performed on the day before Yom Kippur (but can be held anytime between Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur) and has some very vocal adversaries. Opponents, who this year advertised briefly in Times Square, aren't against the ritual so much as they're against the chicken killing.

To get their message of peace for poultry out, The Alliance To End Chickens as Kaporos is going to host not one, not two, but THREE two-hour protest/demonstrations in Brooklyn this year. The group argues their side like this:

The use of chickens in Kaporos rituals is cruel and contrary to Jewish teachings. It is not a mitzvah but a custom that originated in the middle ages. Most observers give money to charity which they express symbolically by swinging coins while reciting prayers for mercy and peace. Swinging and slaughtering chickens as Kaporos violates tsa’ar ba’alei chaim, the Jewish mandate not only to avoid needlessly hurting animals, but to show them compassion.

For an example of what a Kaporos ritual looks like, here you go:

The Alliance advocates swinging money rather than chickens, quoting Rabbi Shlomo Segal, Rabbi of Beth Shalom of Kings Bay in Brooklyn: “The pain caused to the chickens in the process of performing Kapparot is absolutely unnecessary. Giving money is a more humane method.”

This year's Kaporos protests will be held on the following dates:

Tuesday evening Oct 4: Ocean Parkway and Ave. P in Midwood from 6-8pm.
Wednesday evening Oct 5: Pupa Kosher Butcher store at 118 Division Ave (between Bedford & Driggs Avenues) in Williamsburg from 6-8pm.
Thursday evening Oct 6: 792 Eastern Parkway between Kingston & Albany Avenues in Crown Heights from 6-8pm.

Contact the author of this article or email tips@gothamist.com with further questions, comments or tips.

By Garth Johnston in News on September 29, 2011 6:23 PM

Comments [rss]

Chaim Orent

I don't do kapparos but the tradition is to give the slaughtered chicken away as charity.

robingee

You can't swing a chicken around here without hitting a Jew.

Berakhiah

Palestinian people are a bunch of peasant good for nothing fools. Israel>palestine
it is our right to have this land Israel.

pendejito

I think all these people from the Alliance to End Chickens as Kaporos should focus on the inhumane treatment of Palestinians instead, in occupied Palestine.

They care about chickens in transport cages, but not of the thousands of Palestinians prisoners locked up for throwing rocks in Israel.

Just sayin'

Rina Deych

Frankly, you don't know us, therefore you don't know what we do or don't care about. That is another discussion.

CurmudgeonNYC

"Occupied Palestine"? Oh give it a rest. And what do you think Israel should do with the little miscreants who throw rocks? Send them back to their doting cant-wait-for-my-son-to-become-a-martyr parents?

pendejito

Yes, Occupied, the word used by the rest of the world to describe the situation, except of course, by Israel and the US.

Judging from your belief that stone throwing youth deserve lenghty jail terms, I fret to even mention international and humanitarian law.

But hey, its ok, you have your beliefs. Just know that you're in the minority and everyone else (minus Israel and the US) knows that Israel is fucked up.

pendejito

Not to mention the treatment of women in these Hasidic communities.

When was the last time anyone saw an hasidic woman drive or do anything other than be a domesticated house wife?

Rina Deych

I live in the heart of Boro Park and know quite a few Hasidic women who have jobs. In fact, as a seasoned nurse of 32 years, I've worked with quite a few Hasidic nurses.

pendejito

Then they must have missed these signs.
http://gothamist.com/2011/10/0...

robingee

Man, you love those signs!

thornsandroses

Hi Pendijito,

Thank you for your concern about Hasidic women. I am a hasidic woman and I respectfully request that you transfer your concern to those who truly need it as we, Hasidic women, truly do not.

For starters, I work in a field that I love and I certainly drive. True, I am also a house wife, but mind you, with a devoted wonderful husband, and raising my lovely children and I enjoy that more than anything else in the world
. Most of us, hasidic women, are proud and happy to be housewives, no matter how negative being a housewife is portrayed in Western Society. Our community respects us, our husband respects us and we lead solid, happy, fulfilling lives. For those who don't find being a housewife fulfilling they have many other options.

Please do not worry about us and spare people like Robingee from coming to our rescue ;-). You are very mistaken in your view about us and I would be glad to show you what our lives are really like. I will post my email address if you are interested.
Enjoy the rest of your weekend

Richard Rabinowitz

well, people should try to be what they want to be. If you want to be a good housewife, you should try to be one. If you want to be a doctor or a hot dog seller or a taxi driver or a CEO or (G-d forbid, lol) a politician, then you should try to be one. So I agree with you.

pendejito

As an Hasidic woman, what are you doing about the signs going up in your neighborhood? Is this your "community respecting you"? I mean, is this the norm, please explain. Or am I just too "westernized" in my views on equality?
http://gothamist.com/2011/10/0...

robingee

What can we do, race in there and "rescue" these women?

pendejito

Read the signs.................
http://gothamist.com/2011/10/0...

robingee

Yeah yeah we know all about that. Old news.

rnrnys

How come activists always defend and promote the rights and customs of "indiginous" or other ethnic groups over the larger society, except when those customs offend their activist sensibilities?

Hypocritical bastards.

And I always thought "choking the chicken" meant jerking off. How goi is that?

hashedz

"And I always thought "choking the chicken" meant jerking off. How goi is that?"

It does, and it's not. Religion has nothing on masturbation. Folks from every denomination do it, and if they tell you otherwise they are just yanking your chain!

hashedz

Slow news day. It's time to get back to choking the chicken.

chickenadvocate

If Jewish teachings mandate compassion for animals and the avoidance of inflicting cruel and unnecessary pain and suffering upon them, then using chickens as kaporos violates this mandate. If there is no requirement to force these birds (or any living creature) to sit for days in transport crates without food, water or shelter, to be held and "swung" painfully and injuriously by their wings, and to have their throats cut in a degrading mass slaughter ceremony, then chicken kaporos is wrong. It is contrary to the compassionate and merciful spirit that the best of Jewish teachings calls for. Replacing chickens in the ceremony with money or other non-animal symbols of atonement would bring more peace to the world and to our fellow creatures. How can anyone object to this simple act of kindness? Karen Davis, President, United Poultry Concerns and member of the Alliance to End Chickens as Kaporos.

Richard Rabinowitz

Do the chickens and the poor a favor. Transfer your sins to your bicycle wheels and thus to the street.

Miles Bader

Wait, you're concerned that it's degrading?!

They're chickens...

Rina Deych

And during slavery, they were "only blacks," and during the Holocaust they were "only Jews" or "only homosexuals" or "only gypsies, " and on and on.

chickenadvocate

Mr. Bader,

Chickens and all creatures possess native dignity, a point made in the Hebrew Bible and elsewhere where spiritual values and insights prevail. G-d created the earth and declared it Good. Subjecting birds and other animals to mistreatment and bewildering cruelty (like being swung over people's heads and stuffed in transport crates for days on city streets) is degrading to all concerned. Degrading and unnecessary.

Treating creatures in this heartless way defiles our spiritual and moral values of mercy and respect for the life we share. Please remember that chickens evolved in the tropical forests of Southeast Asia and India where their wild relatives live harmoniously with nature to this day. Although chickens used in kaporos rituals and confined in industrial confinement facilities are far removed from their natural habitat and family life, that habitat and familial instinct is embedded in their genes. Having kept chickens for 25 years, I've witnessed their ancestral heritage firsthand, and I respect it.

Karen Davis

dd7

I agree, and even if their teachings do advocate this practice, it is still not justified. No religion should advocate animal cruelty.

Ragingsemi

"The Alliance advocates swinging money rather than chickens"

For some reason I don't think Jews would be that careless with money...

Alana Roberts

shows how little you know about judaism as tzedakah is considered one of the greatest mitzvotz. To translate (roughly) giving money to charity (in one form or another) is considered one of the greatest kindly acts & obligations.

Ragingsemi

I guess tipping isn't considered a "charity" then...

pendejito

Really? Because my landlord has never given me a break.

Rina Deych

Do you know of any landlord of any faith who DOES?

darkdrseuss

I think I asked this before, but I'm not sure if I got a response. Does anyone know if they eat the chicken afterwards. Because fi they do, then, go for it.

Rina Deych

They "claim" to donate them to the poor. But in the twenty years I have been following this ritual and doing one person demos around Brooklyn, I have found they OFTEN discard the chickens, both dead and dying, in dumpsters. Try to walk up Eastern Parkway, between Kingston and Albany after Yom Kippur without a face mask, and see for yourself. There was a dumpster filled with garbage bags, filled with dead chickens, leaking blood into the street. The stench was so bad, people were vomiting.

Richard Rabinowitz

Seriously, isn't this more of a sin than a mitzvah (good deed)?

Richard Rabinowitz

...I read somewhere that Oscar the Grouch is tired of having other people's grouchiness dumped on him. Normally he likes it, but of course people on certain holidays go too far. ;-)

Barry O'toole

they donate it to be fed to the poor

dd7

That still does not justify animal cruelty.

Heatherbk

Whether it is swinging a chicken or a bundle of coins both seems absurd to me.

Rina Deych

But at least swinging a bag of money and then donating it to charity doesn't hurt anyone.

shocktheday

As opposed to what ? Pouring holy water on a baby's head ?

Heatherbk

No matter how absurd religious rituals are, theists will follow.

Sulayman

Well it looks a bit ridiculous to wave a chicken over someone's head while they recite a prayer, but I don't see anything inhumane in that video. I say let 'em do it.

aldarase

you
understand there are live chickens packed into every single one of those
crates...

how
long do you suppose they were there for?

Sulayman

No different than any slaughterhouse I've seen.

Bronxalien2013

Ritual slaughter, wow thats really progressive.

dd7

Uh ... this is not a subject for joking. It's a cruel, barbaric practice that is totally unnecessary. Why is this not being prosecuted as animal cruelty?

Moshe Jakob

Because that would be anti-semitic. Jews have a right to their rituals.

HughGass

do you eat live chicken?

dd7

I don't eat chicken at all.
And anyway, this is a very cruel method of slaughter that imposes unnecessary suffering on the chickens.

Ajay Paul

jews are barbaric; what do you expect?

Richard Rabinowitz

Funny, I didn't know I was barbaric. Should I now go dressing up in various clothes of all sorts and swinging a club or something?

robingee

Paula!

Rina Deych

That is a disgustingly prejudice remark. Most Jews do not do this ritual. It is only certain sects. I'll bet you're a carnivore. It's mainly carnivores who harbor such hatred and rage. I protest the use of chickens in this ritual (and, by the way, I'm Jewish), but I detest hateful, stereotypical attitudes like yours.

Rina Deych, RN
Vegan Nurse
Member
Alliance to End Chickens as Kaporos

Ajay Paul

actually, I don't eat meat. i am a vegetarian.
however, i do detest sensitive cry babies like you.
if it were my so called race doing such, i'd be quick to make a stereotypical remark as well; regardless, we all come from the same place.
someone cry anti-semitism..