Anti-Semitism among kaparot protesters

Police apprehend activists for bribing workers to release chickens

"If these animal rights activists wanted to protest the egregious violence our culture does to animals, they should stand outside not synagogues, but restaurants and grocery stores, that mainstream which facilitates the industrial suffering and slaughter of chicken."- Jay Michaelson in The Forward

In "Animal-activists confront orthodox Jewish sin-offering ritual - but lacking any Halal protests, how much is anti-Semitism?" JewTube showed our complete video of a leftist 2013 protest against kaparos/kaparot in Los Angeles. This condensed version shows the counter-protestors, led by Rabbi Moshe Parry, challenging the protestors, led by progressive activists Rabbi Jonathan Klein, executive director at the progressive advocacy group CLUE-LA (Clergy & Laity United for Economic Justice) and Iranian-Muslim-born, Ms. Niloo Khodadadeh.

Rabbi Parry argues that their conduct reveals a number of the activists to be hateful of Jews. The movement discriminates by protesting solely against Jews- who conduct this kosher ritual only one week a year, and disregard the more inhumane Halal slaughter which is conducted 52-weeks per year. Rabbi Parry calls for Jews to develop physical vigilance to deter future anti-Jewish protests and confrontations.


In the Jewish Journal, (The battle over kapparot goest to court, Sept 8) writer Edmon Rodman reports that on Aug. 26, a group of attorneys (led by David Simon) representing seven plaintiffs seeking to stop public kapparot ceremonies in Los Angeles filed suit in Los Angeles County Superior Court. 

When asked whether he believes Jews are being singled out unfairly, especially by animal rights activists, Simon said he has seen “some evidence” of this. For some “fringe people,” there “may be some anti-Semitic component to their perspective on this,” he said.

Protestor gets the finger from Hasid for antagonizing outdoor kaparot in B'klyn

Recently in Williamsburg, Brooklyn a Hasid 'flipped-off' a protestor photographing him performing kaparos. Jay Michaelson took-up his cause in The Forward "Why This Hasid WAS RIGHT to Flip the Bird to Kaparot Protestor"

I can imagine it (kaparot) being more cathartic – and thus more worthwhile – than most Yom Kippur services that will be held later this week. ... So why are the protesters protesting?  ... I can’t imagine any of the mostly-white English-speaking protesters standing outside carnicerias and protesting traditional Latin American methods of animal husbandry and slaughter. But the Jews – well, they’re just right. Easy to mock, yet safe to mock.

If it seems I’m playing the anti-semitism card too casually here, read the comments and tweets accompanying the picture. “Omg… their hair!” “Finger to you, ugly Jewish loser.” These are not from the activists themselves – in fact, one of them registered her horror at the anti-Semitic comments on a thread I saw.

... I’d like to join this (Hasid) kid, who I’ll probably never meet, in giving the finger to that whole thicket of ignorance and condescension: the assumptions that liberal ethics are the only ethics, the delusions of what religious people are supposed to be like, and, most of all, the huge self-delusion that a few dizzy chickens in Brooklyn represent a significant part of the effort to secure justice and compassion for non-human animals.    Read more.

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