Banning Kosher Slaughter isn't Anti-Semitic: A Reply to Shira Feder

In the spirit of Socratic dialogue between anti-Semite and philo-Semite I thought I’d reply Shira Feder’s article in the Jewish Daily Forward arguing that the Polish move to ban shechita – the jewish ritual slaughter of animals – is ‘anti-Semitic’. (1)

To wit:

‘A new Polish bill proposes to limit kosher slaughter, in a move that has been internationally interpreted by Jews as anti-Semitic.’

However just because some jews interpret something as ‘anti-Semitic’ does not make it so.

She continues:

‘But kosher slaughter is evil, you protest. Surely the world is better off free from the scourge of cruel, old-fashioned, unnecessary ruthless murder and torment that haunts Eastern Europe? Not so fast.

Poland has an antagonistic history with kosher slaughter. In 2013 it banned the practice, a decision that was overturned by the high court in 2014. Now the matter is being publicly re-litigated again.

As per the European Jewish Association, the bill would be set on creating “restrictions on exporting kosher meat from Poland, which would affect a very large part of the Jewish communities in Europe.”

This new law would prohibit the killing of animals when they are “in an unnatural state.” Those breaking this law would find themselves potentially facing four years in jail.

“The Jewish people’s trust in the Polish leadership is deteriorating,” said EJA Chairman Rabbi Menachem Margolin. “I don’t want to imagine what the next stage will be after legislating the Holocaust Law and putting limits on kosher slaughter in the country.”’

Notice Feder’s attempt to link ‘anti-Semitism’ with an argument against shechita based upon animal rights legislation and despite the alleged impact. Jews can simply go vegetarian if they wish to keep kosher as this permitted and even encouraged by various famous rabbis such as the former Chief Rabbi of Israel Avraham Isaak Kook.

‘After engaging in some heavy Holocaust revisionism with its newest bill that criminalizes blaming Poland for the Holocaust, Poland’s quest to utterly alienate its minority populations continues.’

Except the Poles aren’t engaging in ‘Holocaust Revisionism’, but are rather focusing simply challenging the nonsense that only jews suffered during the Second World War.

‘Kosher is a complicated subject that comes replete with its own mythology and urban legends. Many of these are rife with anti-Semitism, a way of enforcing the anti-Semitic notion that Jews are separate, insular and inhuman.’

So how does that work?

Kashruth’s mythology is ‘rife with anti-Semitism’ and is ‘a way of enforcing the anti-Semitic notion that Jews are separate, insult and inhuman’, but yet it was created and approved of by a very long and highly esteemed line of rabbis and community for keeping the ‘jews separate’, reinforce the difference between jew and gentile (2) and to inculcate a hatred of the goyim. (3)

Yet it is the fault of ‘anti-Semites’ and their ‘urban legends’ apparently, because we know jews never do anything wrong.

‘A common misconception about kosher slaughter is that the animal is not stunned before it is killed.’

This actually quite true and it isn’t a ‘misconception’.

To quote Rivkah Teitz Blau:

‘Jewish law requires the animal to be conscious and in perfect health; it therefore prohibits stunning which can injure the animal or cause its muscles to jerk, making it impossible to perform the “no nicks” cut.’ (4)

Nor is she alone as reading a history of the many controversies regarding kashruth would have told Feder. (5)

‘People are left to picture cattle hanging upside down, shackled by their hooves, throat slit, left to bleed out. Picture poultry with broken wings, covered in dried blood, suffering through excruciating pains before the sweet relief of death, just to make itto someone’s Shabbat table. Now picture an anti-Semitic canard.’

Except it is not ‘anti-Semitic’ but anti-Judaism – not the same thing – nor a canard.

On the latter then I need but quote the Shamayim V’Aretz Institute:

‘Today, much of the kosher meat in America (estimated between ⅓ and ½) comes from herds raised on the pampas of Argentina and Uruguay. Unfortunately, in South American slaughterhouses, shackling and hoisting is the dominant kosher slaughter method. In spite of promises from leading kosher authorities to reform practices after a 2008 video exposed this abuse, a second video from the Frigorifico Las Piedras slaughterhouse in Uruguay in 2010 documented that shackle and hoist slaughter for kosher animals is still the standard method for kosher slaughter in South America including kosher slaughter.’ (6)

‘There is a rabbinic concept which is native to Judaism of “tza’ar ba’aeli chayim”, which bans causing animals unnecessary suffering. It is a specifically Jewish value which mandates the ethical treatment of defenseless creatures. According to tradition, Jews are only permitted to kill animals when they are needed for food.’

Indeed which is why jews have long been opposed to the very goyische habit of hunting for food and pleasure. (7)

‘Under Jewish law, animals are afforded many of the same rights as people.’

So when will Feder be dating a Pitbull?

‘They rest on Shabbat, just like Jews do. They cannot be muzzled in a field. They cannot be killed on the same day as their young.

The idea that Jews are unusually cruel to animals when it comes to slaughter is inherently anti-Semitic, furthering the notion that Jews are foreign, inhuman, other, and unable to comprehend the pain of those who aren’t Jews.’

Well jews are unusually cruel towards animals in respect of shechita, because it is a religious choice and not an obligation – as before stated jews are quite able to go vegetarian or eat fish without shechita coming into play – to eat kosher meat per se.

They choose to do so and are upset when the majority of the population object to their inhumane, religious-based practices.

‘So what does kosher slaughter, the kind that Poland wants to ban, actually entail? “Shehitah must be done by means of a swift, smooth cut of a sharp knife whose blade is free of any dent or imperfection,” according to MyJewishLearning.com. The sharpness of the knife is to make the animal’s death as quick and painless as possible.

According to the Mishna, Jewish oral law, the slaughterer must sever the trachea and the esophagus, avoiding five techniques that would render the meat non-kosher.

“They are (a) hesitation or delay while drawing the knife, (b) excessive pressure or chopping, (c) burrowing the knife between the trachea and the esophagus or under the skin, (d) making the incision outside the specified area, and (e) laceration or tearing of the trachea or esophagus, which would result from an imperfect blade.”

This is all designed to limit the animal’s suffering.'

Indeed, but then – given that animals have ‘many of the same rights as people’ – it therefore follows that if they are so beloved by Judaism. Then why eat meat at all as jews simply don’t have to.

Incidentally the sharpness of the knife is irrelevant. The relevant point is that kashruth don’t allow for pre-stunning despite what Feder wants to claim.

‘The meat industry does terrible things to animals. And Jews are not exempt from this, but nor are they the only people guiltyof this. To pin mistreatment of animals entirely on Jews reeks of anti-Semitism; kosher is a complex, constantly changing issue that has evolved and developed with the times.’

However this isn’t relevant, because the meat industry in general has more safeguards in place than the kosher meat industry. Since the latter will not for example use pre-stunning under any circumstances and the meat industry in general is governing by what is the quickest and most humane way to slaughter animals. The kosher meat industry by contrast is only bound by these rules unless they explicitly do not breach archaic religious laws created not by modern vets, but rather dreamed up by religious nutters residing in tiny mud brick hovels on the banks of the Jordan and the Tigris two to three thousand years ago.

‘And many people are doing incredible things to end inhumane practices in kosher meat manufacturers: Here’s an ever-expanding list of humanely sourced kosher poultry and meat manufacturers. Here’s Chabad’s opinion. Here’s PETA admitting Jews are no more or less guilty for animal mistreatment than any other factory farm, kosher or not (not exactly encouraging, but still worthy of note).’

None of which deals with the salient point: jews do not take all the possible precautions to ensure ethical and humane meat production, because of obscure pointless religious rules like ensuring that a cow’s liver doesn’t have any blemishes on it. (8)

‘Poland’s new law is a blow to its diminishing minority populations.’

So? The jews can eat fish and plant-based foods if it really means that much to them.

‘Many Muslims rely on kosher meat to keep the laws of halal, while Jews rely on kosher meat to keep the laws of kosher. It’s hard to feel safe in a country that is doing everything in its power to curtail its residents’ religious freedoms.’

So if I declare that I want to sacrifice a live chicken to Moloch and the Polish government objects then does that mean they are ‘infringing my religious liberties’?

No: it means they are upholding the standard of ethical and humane meat production that should be universal.

‘To limit kosher slaughter, a practice that is entirely humane in its ideal practice, is to limit the freedom of Jews, Muslims, and anyone else concerned with growing spread of fascism in the world.’

Legislating for animal rights and against barbaric religious practices is helping ‘spread fascism in the world’?

Whatever next?

Is promoting Kashruth and Halal equivalent to promoting Communism then?

References

(1) https://forward.com/food/394791/polands-proposed-new-law-limiting-kosher-slaughter-is-anti-semitic-heres-wh/

(2) John Cooper, 1993, ‘Eat and Be Satisfied: A Social History of Jewish Food’, 1st Edition, Jason Aronson: Northvale, pp. 17-36

(3) David Freidenreich, 2011, ‘Foreigners and Their Food: Constructing Otherness in Jewish, Christian, and Islamic Law’, 1st Edition, University of California Press: Berkeley, pp. 17-64

(4) Rivkah Teitz Blau, 2001, ‘Learn Torah, Love Torah, Live Torah: HaRav Mordechai Pinchas Teitz: The Quintessential Rabbi’, 1st Edition, Ktav: Hoboken, p. 204 also see https://oukosher.org/blog/kosher-in-the-factory/jewish-ritual-slaughter-a-three-thousand-year-old-method-that-respects-animal-suffering/ and https://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/222246/jewish/Whats-Wrong-with-Stunning.htm

(5) See Robin Judd, 2007, ‘Contested Rituals: Circumcision, Kosher Butchering, and Jewish Political Life in Germany 1843-1933’, 1st Edition, Cornell University Press: Ithaca, pp. 154-189

(6) http://www.shamayimvaretz.org/shackle-and-hoist-information.html

(7) Richard Schwartz, 2001, ‘Judaism and Vegetarianism’, 2nd Edition, Lantern: New York, pp. 12; 25

(8) Ibid., pp. 17-39