Text Size

Email Post

Print Post

Comments (48)

Save Article

Brooklyn, NY - JTA is reporting  that PETA An animal rights group is calling for a New York state investigation into kapporos in Brooklyn.

For the second year, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals has complained about the High Holidays ritual of swinging a chicken over one’s head, a sin transference ceremony.

In a letter sent Monday to the state agriculture department’s Kosher Law Enforcement division, PETA alleges that thousands of dead chickens were thrown away in dumpsters after the ritual last year in one Brooklyn center. The letter singles out the kapporos center run in Crown Heights by Rabbi Shea Hecht, and asks the state to investigate whether consumer fraud occurred. Jews who bought chickens for the ritual expected the birds “to be processed for meat that would be distributed as tzedakah,” or charity, the letter states.

New PETA video showing chickens handled inhumanly at Kapparot ritual

Last summer’s complaint to the state and city was more wide ranging, alleging a variety of health and safety violations as well as animal cruelty. It spurred a meeting of more than a dozen rabbis in Brooklyn, and they sent out directives to kapporos centers saying they needed full-time rabbinic supervision.

A related letter was submitted to the Kashrus Information Center, an independent association of more than 100 rabbis that monitors kosher affairs in Brooklyn.Rabbi Moshe Weiner, the Kashrus center’s rabbinic administrator, told JTA that Hecht’s site and others operated by communal organizations are well run. While there have been problems in the past from “fly-by-night” kapporos centers, Weiner said proactive steps taken by rabbis last year significantly cut down on such problems.

Below is the letter PETA just submitted to Rabbi Luzer Weiss:

August 22, 2008

Rabbi Luzer Weiss, Director
Kosher Law Enforcement Division
Brooklyn Office
NYS Department of Agriculture and Markets
55 Hanson Pl.
Brooklyn, NY 11217-1583

Re: Consumer Fraud Alert

Dear Rabbi Weiss:

In advance of this year’s kapporos events, we request that the Kosher Law Enforcement Division investigate possible consumer fraud committed annually by Rabbi Shea Hecht of the National Committee for the Furtherance of Jewish Education (NCFJE).

On September 20, 2007, NCFJE disposed of approximately two-thirds of the thousands of slaughtered chickens at its kapporos operation. These are chickens consumers expected to be processed for meat and distributed as tzedakah. The two-thirds figure was confirmed by NCFJE’s Yosef Moya in a meeting that I had with him and Rabbi Hecht on December 31, 2007, at NCFJE’s head office in Crown Heights. Furthermore, at the NCFJE’s September 20, 2007, kapporos event, PETA videotaped XXXX -who was responsible for ticket sales-as he stated that most of the slaughtered chickens would not be processed and would just be thrown in the garbage.
He attempted to justify this by adding that the money used to purchase the thousands of discarded slaughtered chickens may then be used to buy replacement chickens to feed the poor. PETA has enclosed a DVD of this conversation and additional footage of the hundreds of bags of slaughtered chickens that would be left for trash. These bags were subsequently placed inside a rented container labeled #12, which was picked up by Greg’s Express at approximately 7 a.m. on September 21, 2007.

The deceptive practice conducted by NCFJE of selling such a huge number of chickens for kapporos-while fully aware that there was no logistical plan in place to process even one-third of them-constitutes a fundamental violation of the principle of bal tashchit (wasteful, wanton destruction). This disposal of the slaughtered chickens demonstrates a shameless violation of the intent and practice of the kapporos ritual.
As such, we request that this be investigated as a legal matter of possible deceptive advertising and consumer fraud.

Such types of deceptive practices have been documented for the past several years throughout different kapporos centers in Brooklyn. Rabbi Gershon Tannenbaum of The Jewish Press wrote:

KIS [Kashrus Information Service] found that, in addition to chickens being reused repeatedly (literally deceiving the paying public) they were not provided enough room, not fed properly, if at all, were being schechted by unqualified and unsupervised shochtim and improperly disposed of. . . .

The hashgachah must oversee that no tza’ar ba’alei chaim (abuse) of chickens takes place ... and that the ultimate disposition of the slaughtered chickens are to poor families or religious institutions.

Participants at NCFJE clearly did not expect the chickens they made kapporos with-in such an intimate and solemn ritual-to be disposed of as trash. Nor did they expect the money that they paid to be so deliberately squandered. Had they known that their chickens would be bagged as garbage, requiring the purchase of replacement chickens, they might have opted for another location that gave the full percentage of their fee to charity. Or they might have opted to use the religiously sanctioned alternative of doing kapporos with money, thus ensuring that 100 percent of their tzedakah would go directly to the needy.

In the private December 31, 2007, meeting in Crown Heights and in subsequent correspondence, Rabbi Hecht has made it clear that he sees no problem with these methods. He has brazenly asserted that he does not intend to change anything.

At this meeting, I also brought up other issues that we documented on video as part of NCFJE’s kapporos in 2007, including the following:

*Abandoned chickens in cardboard boxes on the street *Abusive mishandling of birds by adult and juvenile participants and workers *Seven full crates of dead chickens who died in transport in crowded cages or died while waiting for hours without any food or water *Still-conscious birds who were put in garbage bags following ineffective shechita *Numerous health violations

Rabbi Tannenbaum also wrote:

A continuation of kapparos kashrus abuses cannot be allowed to continue.
The kosher consuming public must become sensitive to this issue and register its outrage. . . .

Reviewing the entire current kapparos situation, using alternatives to chickens such as money to tzedakah, might be a desirable option.

We will be releasing footage of all these abuses (please see the second enclosed DVD) and submitting a full report to the Kashrus Information Service detailing all these serious problems. In every step of the process, it is clear that Rabbi Hecht is intentionally operating at a volume well beyond the capabilities of NCFJE, and he makes no effort to ensure that the birds are treated according to the principle of tsa’ar ba’alei chayim.

Since kapporos in 2007, PETA has tried to work quietly behind the scenes with NCFJE to help the organization recognize and resolve these issues.
However, it is evident that Rabbi Hecht takes no responsibility for any of these problems and expresses no regret or remorse for the flagrant cruelty or the gratuitous slaughter that has misled participants and wasted lives and money. In addition, Rabbi Hecht will not entertain any measures to abate this waste and suffering. On April 1, 2008, Rabbi Hecht informed us that he was ending all correspondence with PETA on this issue.

For all the reasons outlined above, we respectfully request that the Kosher Law Enforcement Division investigate whether deceptive advertising and fraud were committed by Rabbi Hecht. We also ask the Kosher Law Enforcement Division to take all necessary measures to ensure that this disgraceful conduct is not repeated by NCFJE this year.

Sincerely,
Philip Schein
Policy Department
PETA

More of today's headlines

“Brooklyn, NY - Kings County Supreme Court Judge Ambrosio denied motion in the Satmar split between the two groups of Rabbi Aaron and his younger brother Rabbi Zalman...” Brooklyn, NY - NY Judge: Court Cannot Get Involved In Satmar Dispute “Houston, TX - Last week, the Orthodox Jewish day schools in Houston were notified by the Department of External Funding of the Houston Independent School District of a...” Houston, TX - Orthodox Jewish Day Schools to Receive Federal Funding