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Gothamist: Crown Heights Kaporos Chickens Discarded

On Yom Kippur morning, New York News blog The Gothamist published several photos and videos captured by an anti-Kaporos activist that purportedly show chickens – which were slaughtered for Kaporos the night before – being tossed into a garbage truck.

The footage was captured at the site of the Kaporos run by ‘Eishel-Hachnosas Orchim’ – one of the organizations caring for the needs of the thousands of Tishrei guests – on President Street near the corner of Kingston Avenue.

While a few chickens can indeed be seen being thrown into the garbage truck, The Gothamist makes no effort to inquire as to whether these chickens were among the inevitable few that either died before or during the Kaporos, or were deemed unkosher after being slaughtered.

Instead, The Gothamist, which has recently been strongly pandering to anti-Hasidic agitators in the city with headline after headline attacking Brooklyn’s Hasidic Jews, proclaimed this as evidence that the Kaporos organizers lied about donating the slaughtered chickens to the poor.

The article quotes an anti- Kaporos activist who readily admits that in Williamsburg, “some chickens do make it to food-processing locations,” but then asserts – without a shred of evidence – that “a majority of those slaughtered are thrown away.”

In case you assumed that had they obtained evidence that a majority of the chickens are indeed donated to the poor – their withering criticism would wane, you’d be mistaken. The article quotes a lawyer for the activists who says that donating the chickens to the poor would be illegal and wrong. “Alliance attorney Nora Marino made the point that if chicken carcasses are being donated for human consumption, many more federal, state, and local food-handling laws come into play, including the Federal Meat Inspection Act.”

The Gothamist also makes a point of feigning concern over the state of cleanliness and smell of the street in the heart of Jewish Crown Heights, despite the fact that neither they, nor most of their readers, have any reason to walk there.

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39 Comments

  • dovid

    A – this was not hecht who were the ones in the lawsuit, the paper should know that and they should stop making as if this was done by all

    B – 95% of the chickens were given sent and done properly this was only about 500 chickens out of 15,000

    C – this is obviously a huge chillul hashem and aishel should not be doing kaporos next year.

    • Milhouse

      What chilul hashem? What makes you think that Aishel had a higher than expected rate of neveilos? You have to expect some, and of course those would be thrown out.

  • K

    This is a REAL concern from a halacha perspective!

    The brocha on shchita for a chicken that will intentionally be thrown away is a bracha l’vatalla!

    The poskim of yesteryear were concerned about the mass shchita of kaporos that result in many nevailos.

    I was told that some Chabad House do kaporos just for the “ceremony” and later throw away the chicken.

    Aside for the “fraud” of kaporos, the shechita is also a bracha l’vatalleh. In such cases, it is MUCH better that money (or live fish) be used (since that is a FULLY acceptable option).

    • @k

      A Shochet makes 1 beracha on many many many shecitos.. Most of which are completely Kosher and move on to being consumed.

      There is no question of Beracha Le’vatala.

    • Milhouse

      Narishkeiten.

      Nobody shechts with the intention of throwing the meat away! It doesn’t happen, so there is no room for your concern. The only places that deliberately throw away all the kaporos chickens are those who are not able to arrange shechitah, so there is obviously no bracha levatala.

      The poskim were concerned about unsupervised shechita, by shochtim who were not necessarily yir’ei shomayim, and who had been up all night shechting under great pressure in order to make a few groschen for their families. That doesn’t happen today in well-run places, where first of all the shochtim are yir’ei shomayim and watch themselves, and also there are rabbonim checking the chalofim regularly.

  • Mendy

    Shochtim don’t make a brocho before every chicken. They make one at the beginning of their shift. Hence if a few end up being thrown out it is not a bracha levatal. Obviously if it ends up being treif it would be a bracha levatala anyways

  • Anonymous

    First of all why is this article printed here. It causes so much aggravation for us to see the nonsense of these groups who are antisemetic. obviously not every chicken is kosher so it would have to be tossed. If people see what goes behind a typical slaughterhouse. it is much more dirty and very cruel to animals. Instead a better article would have been about the positive aspect of people who dont know about the mitsvah to see the mitsvah in a positive way. This article dosent portray that. Poor choice hope to see better in the future.

  • Community member

    They can say what they want! I personally, with my own two hands packed over 250 chicken so that students in our mosdos should have food!
    Amalek will always seek to put doubt in the hearts of those who follow what shulchan aruch says!
    Amalek is not a new problem – Torah tells us how to deal with it! Timche es Zecher amalek! IGNORE IT!

  • Pedant

    k scratch a misnaged sniff an apikores there is concerted effort that has reached the press and the courts to stamp out a jewish minhag (contentious as it may be) and the misnaged babbles incoherently bout imagined brochos levatalla, BH russian Jewry didn’t depend at all on lita vedal

  • commnt

    ok, we can always do better, and we should….the conditions should be improved.
    however, I would like to give a list of hospitals and nursing homes (etc) where these hateful people are using this as an easy way to feel purposeful. Let them visit and help people and stop picking on half issues.
    GET A LIFE.

  • PETA = ANTISEMITES

    What would PETA say about The Scapegoat
    ritual in the Holly Temple ?
    and all you PETA sympathizers
    Jew Haters go to h***

  • dov

    5 is correct. See simla chadasha siman yud gimel . One makes a bracha even if it’s not eaten

  • 770 friends

    Please let’s all stop this stupid act !! It’s not on your block and so plz let’s all together stop, today money is very accceptable from our Torah
    PETA is right !! And yes the cleaning conditions should be improved!

    • Milhouse

      It’s not on your block either. And what do you mean “Today money is very accceptable from our Torah”? That is not true. The Torah does not change, and what was not acceptable 100 years ago is not acceptable now. Money is an inadequate substitute to be used only when for some reason one can’t use anything else. Even using a goldfish and then flushing it down the toilet is better than using money.

  • antisemitic or chilul hashem ????

    this is completely and utterly disgraceful.
    i belive they knew that there would be a whole stink,
    so why did they have to shove it on their faces???

  • smart vs. messianic !!!!!!!

    why is it, that the other kapporos organizations were able to wait for the media to subside, b4 preforming the ritual??
    but 1414 and the mitzvah men, managed to play the wrong card.
    unfortunately, its once again displayed on a silver platter that this species live to bicker and wrangle.

  • Not a kosher chicken, and??

    “Gothamist makes no effort to inquire as to whether these chickens were among the inevitable few that either died before or during the Kaporos, or were deemed unkosher after being slaughtered.”

    Just because a chicken is deemed not kosher, does that mean it should be flung and thrown? It should be kept in sanitary conditions and donated to the poor that does not eat kosher.

    There may have been thousand chickens that were slaughtered appropriately according, but there is no way it was done in a sanitary manner for anyone to eat.

    This is a real embarrassment for the jewish community. I grew up with learning Tzar Balle Chaim..This does not follow those teachings at all.

    • Milhouse

      You did not grow up learning anything at all. You are a fake.

      Yes, if it not kosher then it is garbage and what else do you do with garbage but throw it out? Where exactly can it be donated? Do you know of any place that will accept it? No, you don’t, so keep your mouth shut.

      And yes, the kosher chickens will be eaten. Every one of them.

    • Awacs

      Er, how does throwing a chicken away constitute tzaar baalei chaim? Once it’s dead, do you imagine it continues to suffer?

    • Even the treif ones can be "used"

      IF KAPAROS BECOMES ILLEGAL WE CAN THANK THE PRESIDENT STREET KAPRAOS BY EISHEL!!!

      This is not only about if the ones thrown out were kosher or not. It is ILLEGAL to throw the chickens in the garbage!!
      The Eishel Kaparos throw out many of the chickens because they cant be bothered to clean and kosher them!

      The treif chickens can be sent to a company that uses them for animal food ect.

  • replying...

    To milhouse: we just finished yom kippur- please we careful the way you respond to your fellow jew.

    • replying...

      Your believe is incorrect. every jew has a part of his neshama that belongs to Hashem which makes them a jew. just by this fact which no one can take a jew’s neshama away from them -(even with a goy btw) there is a way to speak.

    • replying...

      The person to whom you responded to “not a kosher chicken and?” above my comment, is jewish. and as mentioned even to a goy, Hashem doesn’t allow us to speak to them harshly which will lead to chilul Hashem. state your point but stay polite.

  • let it go

    It is clear this yellow journalism rag is on a crusade. Take no notice – but yes, it probably wasn’t done right. As long as the Aishel schochet screamed Yechi before & after every schechita, all is good.

  • why not donate

    why couldn’t they just donate these “trief” chickens to salvation army, soup kitchens , neighboring churches food panty. I am sure they would have taken it with open arms. and that would have given us good brownie points!

    • Milhouse

      You are sure, are you? What makes you so sure? Did you ever ask them? I challenge you to find such a place who would accept such donations.

  • Good Citizen

    It is interesting to note how in responding to the nutty rant of “PETA = ANTISEMITES,” Milhouse disagrees, but remains calm and unperturbed, and saves his nut insult for PETA – “They are not antisemites. They’re equal opportunity nuts,” and “There are many nuts who are not antisemitic. There are even Jewish nuts. And there are even non-antisemitic Jews on the far left.”

    Contrast that with how Milhouse responds to the very sensible comment of “Not a kosher chicken, and??.” All of a sudden Milhouse lashes out with uncalled for vitriol, “You did not grow up learning anything at all. You are a fake.”

    These comments shed light on who really is a nut and who really is a fake. Milhouse please grow up.

    • Milhouse

      The person making that comment is a fake, and I am calling him/her on it. I don’t believe a word that person says.