Traditional Yom Kippur Chicken Slaughter In Orthodox Community Causes Controversy (VIDEO)

Yom Kippur, the most sacred day on the Jewish calendar, kicks off at sundown Friday and lasts until nightfall Saturday.

Synagogues across the country enjoy their highest attendance rate on the this Day of Atonement, when worshippers fast for the sins of the past year and take a spiritual inventory of their lives.

In New York, the Long Island Railroad will be running nine extra trains from Penn Station Friday afternoon to accommodate passengers traveling for the holiday.

In the Lower East Side, there's an hour-long wait at Russ & Daughters to get lox for the post-fast feast.

And further downtown, according to CBS News, “the ground zero synagogue” will pay tribute to “the heroic firemen of Engine Six” at its Yom Kippur services. Nearby, a group of Jewish activists at Occupy Wall Street will hold Kol Nidre prayer services at 7PM.

Meanwhile today in Brooklyn, the Orthodox Satmar community practiced the controversial Kaporos ritual— the waving of live chickens three times above the head before slitting their throats in honor of the High Holy Day.

The tradition dates back almost 800 years and congregation members usually donate the meat to charities. However, Jewish leaders, animal activists, and protestors have long called for an end to the ritual.

A group called An Alliance to End Chickens as Kaporos told CBS News that religious leaders should stop the slaughterings and instead adopt what many others in the Jewish community have done: substituting the chickens for bags of coins:

There is a perfectly acceptable Kaporos practice that not only avoids animal cruelty, but can help reduce hunger and show compassion to all. The chickens need mercy from us. We ask Kaporos observers to show mercy and use money instead of chickens.

Gothamist captured the scene in Brooklyn Friday. There were no protesters present. Another onlooker, who asked that the videographer turn off the camera, explained that the slaughtered chickens would be given to the poor.

An Alliance to End Chicken as Kaporos protests:

Comments

[Stephen Rifkin]

06:40 PM on 10/13/2011

Yeah kipporot is fairly exotic. But talking about religion on leftist secular American blog is bit like talking about affirmative action with the KKK.

[rrrina]

04:00 PM on 10/10/2011

This ritual is not mandated in the Torah. It is only a custom that came about during the Middle Ages and is believed to be taken from Pagan customs. It wasn't until 1563 that it was written down in Shulchan Aruch, where it is mentioned that money can be used, instead of a chicken. It's a controversial custom, that many great sages opposed on multiple grounds. My grandfather, an ultra-orthodox kosher butcher (one of the first in Boro Park, Brooklyn, in the 1920s) was opposed to using chickens in the ritual because he said it had nothing to do with Judaism. Rina Deych, RN

[jetle25]

01:02 PM on 10/10/2011

I think there are bigger fish to fry then to protest a Jewish tradition of killing a chicken. In fact I would rather see an end to CAFO's then seeing an end to this tradition. I find it just another side of the pendulum of dogmatic thinking when people come about pushing their beliefs onto other people.

[outgrowingfear1]

06:50 AM on 10/10/2011

Life depends on life for continued existence as we know it here, but to kill because of a ritual and doing all sorts of ridiculous things to the animal in question shows nothing but the ignorance of man.
Not only do we eat them we also sensilessly use them in a ritual to 'cleanse' our sins. Tell man to change his ways, he cries INSENSITIVITY and play the victim.

[Mrsbean54]

04:54 AM on 10/10/2011

Slicing the throat of a chiken is not animal cruelty...it's a quick kill and it's how people have been killing chickens forever. If you're against killing chickens under every single circumstance, then you're still going to be upset by that, but most of us eat chicken.

For those that are comparing it to human sacrifices and things like that, it's not the same. These chickens are going to be used to feed the poor, not left on an altar for the gods to "enjoy".

People always get upset at stuff like this, and then go home and eat meat. Just be thankful that there are people who do this for you, and allow you to not have to kill the animals yourselves. Either that or quit eating meat, but don't expect everyone else to do the same. Humans ARE omnivores....

[Matt12]

08:00 PM on 10/09/2011

"....Orthodox Satmar community practiced the controversial Kaporos ritual— the waving of live chickens three times above the head before slitting their throats in honor of the High Holy Day. "

Once the game of chicken is done, the fraudsters are renewed and ready for a new year full of adventure and profi!

[binarystar]

05:35 PM on 10/09/2011

So.. we still doing animal sacrifice in 2011? in New York City?

Ok then.

[holyghostie]

04:48 PM on 10/09/2011

I'm glad they stopped human sacrificing years ago....

[KIVPossum]

03:51 PM on 10/09/2011

What's the deal? The chicken industry kills million every day. Every farm boy had chopped off a few heads.

When I was a kid I liked to hand them by their feet from the clothes line and use garden shears.

[Gadgetman]

02:49 PM on 10/09/2011

Now they can atone for abusing animals.

[Gadgetman]

02:48 PM on 10/09/2011

Sorry but as a Jew I find these archaic practices barbaric and repulsive. Regardless of the religion, the more extreme the sects, the more dysfunctional - period. This is an inarguable fact.

[BBLOND]

12:51 PM on 10/09/2011

Why is HP running a story like this? So what they killed a few chickens. It's a fast kill probably better than KFC.I like chicken.It's food. Why dosne't HP write a story about MUSLIMS? Focus on how they treat women and homosexuals.It woild be an interesting read.

[GZLives]

02:33 PM on 10/09/2011

Run a story about Muslim radicals?
Never - they may be attacked or HP firebombed

[marluz]

10:11 AM on 10/23/2011

Remember when Sarah Palin was giving an interview and somebody behind her was decapitating a turkey? How come nobody complained? How do you think chickens, turkeys, cows, etc... are slaughtered?

[Ossit]

11:10 AM on 10/09/2011

For a species who wars against itself without any problem, for a species that rationalizes human torture against our so-called enemies, for a species that fights dogs for sport, for a species that watches Boxing, Wrestling, Ultimate Fighter, who pit men against each other like Gladiators and we call that entertainment as the bash each other in the head, for a species who bought and sold people during Slavery using them as beasts of burden and thought it normal, for a species who buys and sells children and calls it adoption, for a species who can't go long without warring against each other, for a species that murders, robs, rapes, commits arson, commits identity fraud upon each other, for a species who dropped nuclear bombs on it's own kind and pats itself on the back saying it stopped a war only to have another war come up shortly after, for a species who keeps nuclear tipped missiles in silos as a threat, the self-righteousness about these chickens makes me gag.

[marluz]

10:13 AM on 10/23/2011

Thanks for your post. F&F!

[Ossit]

10:58 AM on 10/23/2011

You're welcome, marluz. Thanks for the F&F.

[nirvana101]

08:28 AM on 10/09/2011

Whether this custom is barbaric or not is not the question. Should it have been allowed in a public street with onlookers of all ages watching or in the privacy of another location with just the followers attending. Mayor Bloomberg and city administrators who gave them a permit should be held responsible. This is sort of like a pagan sacrificial rite from ages ago.

[marluz]

10:23 AM on 10/23/2011

All of those who are complaining about this ritual, how come none of you raised cain when Palin was interviewed, and we watched as the man behind her was decapitating a turkey? check this site:http://allthingsd.com/20081124/sarah-palins-dead-turkey-interview/

[marluz]

10:33 AM on 10/23/2011

I don't agree with the custom, but I call the people who are voicing their outrage "hypocrites",also, I would like to know how many of those are vegetarians.

[Ossit]

10:47 AM on 10/09/2011

Are these people animals because they're Jewish or are they animals because they do this once a year? Tell me V7SNU, do you ever ask your butcher how your meat is killed? Do you eat meat? Do you look at your leather wallet and wonder about that 'poor' 'poor' cow that made your wallet? Do you wonder how the cow was killed to give you your nice leather dress shoes? These people are animals? I'm assuming you're Christian. Early Christians were extremely barbaric in their rituals in order to convert. Inquisition. Crusades, Evangelical Christians are animals in that they shovel their morality down' people's throats and they're bigots. If these people are animals, V7SNU then I suggest you stop being an animal killing ants, swatting flies, pulling up weeds who have the right to invade your lawn, eating fruits and vegetables picked by human labor that's not yours that you buy at the store. How human of you to call these people animals too. Yeah so much better you are!

[V7SNU]

11:17 PM on 10/09/2011

I'm a vegetarian. I don't participate in the pain infliction and killing of other animals. I am not a Christian. It's not a real religion. This is the extent that I'll acknowledge your message because the rest is just stupid and nonsensical.

[BBLOND]

12:54 PM on 10/09/2011

you my friend know nothing of the kosher way of killing animals.There are procedures to be followed.Very sharp knife , as quick and painless as possible. I'm not knowledgable in this area.Look it up if your interested.