{"id":253,"date":"2010-09-13T13:19:00","date_gmt":"2010-09-13T13:19:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/beliefbeat\/2010\/09\/chickens-as-jewish-scapegoats.html"},"modified":"2010-09-13T13:19:00","modified_gmt":"2010-09-13T13:19:00","slug":"chickens-as-jewish-scapegoats","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beliefbeat\/2010\/09\/chickens-as-jewish-scapegoats.html","title":{"rendered":"Chickens as Yom Kippur Scapegoats? Jewish Kaparot Controversy Continues"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>It&#8217;s the week between Rosh Hashana, the Jewish New Year,&nbsp;and Yom Kippur, the fasting Day of Atonement. This period of introspection, called the Days of Awe, includes another observance&nbsp;for ultra-Orthodox Jews (also known as Hasidic or Haredi Jews): sacrificing chickens.<\/p>\n<p>This kaparot ceremony (also spelled kaparos and several other ways) has caused a lot of controversy in recent&nbsp;years, with objections raised by animal rights groups like PETA and local health officials who say the large gatherings leave feces, feathers and blood everywhere. (The Alliance to End Chickens as Kaporos, organized by <a href=\"http:\/\/www.upc-online.org\/kaparos\/\">United Poultry Concerns<\/a>, held some protests in Brooklyn&nbsp;yesterday.) In <a href=\"http:\/\/newsok.com\/activists-cry-foul-over-ultra-orthodox-chicken-ritual\/article\/feed\/189277\">my own Religion News Service reporting,<\/a> I also found&nbsp;Jews disgusted by&nbsp;the actions of this small subset of their faith, arguing that this tradition is not theologically required,&nbsp;wasn&#8217;t meant to be conducted in&nbsp;large urban and suburban settings,&nbsp;and&nbsp;could be performed by saying a prayer over a donation of money, rather than a doomed chicken.<\/p>\n<p>Some other links:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.jta.org\/news\/article\/2010\/09\/13\/2740878\/leading-rabbi-comes-out-against-kaparot#When:13:56:00Z\">Kapparot rite is foul, leading rabbi says <\/a>(JTA)<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.lohud.com\/article\/20100909\/NEWS03\/9090391\/-1\/newsfront\/Rockland-checks-on-chicken-rituals\">Rockland checks on chicken rituals <\/a>(The Journal News)<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/failedmessiah.typepad.com\/failed_messiahcom\/2010\/09\/kapparot-opponents-protest-in-crown-heights-234.html\">Kapparot opponents protest in Crown Heights <\/a>(Failed Messiah)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Then again, as Avi Shafran, an ultra-Orthodox Jewish community leader said in&nbsp;my RNS story, &#8220;I think that the religious freedom our Constitution affords its citizens well covers the choice to use a chicken in a ceremony.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>What do you think? Share your thoughts in the Comments section below.<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"Apple-style-span\"><span class=\"Apple-style-span\">*<a href=\"http:\/\/feedburner.google.com\/fb\/a\/mailverify?uri=beliefnet\/beliefbeat\">Click here to<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">&nbsp;<\/span><strong>subscribe to Belief Beat<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">&nbsp;<\/span><\/strong><\/a>and<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">&nbsp;<\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.twitter.com\/beliefbeat\">click here to<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">&nbsp;<\/span><strong>follow Belief Beat on Twitter.<\/strong><\/a><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It&#8217;s the week between Rosh Hashana, the Jewish New Year,&nbsp;and Yom Kippur, the fasting Day of Atonement. This period of introspection, called the Days of Awe, includes another observance&nbsp;for ultra-Orthodox Jews (also known as Hasidic or Haredi Jews): sacrificing chickens. This kaparot ceremony (also spelled kaparos and several other ways) has caused a lot of&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-253","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Chickens as Yom Kippur Scapegoats? Jewish Kaparot Controversy Continues - Belief Beat<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beliefbeat\/2010\/09\/chickens-as-jewish-scapegoats.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Chickens as Yom Kippur Scapegoats? Jewish Kaparot Controversy Continues - Belief Beat\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"It&#8217;s the week between Rosh Hashana, the Jewish New Year,&nbsp;and Yom Kippur, the fasting Day of Atonement. This period of introspection, called the Days of Awe, includes another observance&nbsp;for ultra-Orthodox Jews (also known as Hasidic or Haredi Jews): sacrificing chickens. This kaparot ceremony (also spelled kaparos and several other ways) has caused a lot of&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beliefbeat\/2010\/09\/chickens-as-jewish-scapegoats.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Belief Beat\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2010-09-13T13:19:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Nicole Neroulias\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Chickens as Yom Kippur Scapegoats? Jewish Kaparot Controversy Continues - Belief Beat","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beliefbeat\/2010\/09\/chickens-as-jewish-scapegoats.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Chickens as Yom Kippur Scapegoats? Jewish Kaparot Controversy Continues - Belief Beat","og_description":"It&#8217;s the week between Rosh Hashana, the Jewish New Year,&nbsp;and Yom Kippur, the fasting Day of Atonement. This period of introspection, called the Days of Awe, includes another observance&nbsp;for ultra-Orthodox Jews (also known as Hasidic or Haredi Jews): sacrificing chickens. This kaparot ceremony (also spelled kaparos and several other ways) has caused a lot of&hellip;","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beliefbeat\/2010\/09\/chickens-as-jewish-scapegoats.html","og_site_name":"Belief Beat","article_published_time":"2010-09-13T13:19:00+00:00","author":"Nicole Neroulias","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beliefbeat\/2010\/09\/chickens-as-jewish-scapegoats.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beliefbeat\/2010\/09\/chickens-as-jewish-scapegoats.html","name":"Chickens as Yom Kippur Scapegoats? 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Jewish Kaparot Controversy Continues"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beliefbeat\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beliefbeat\/","name":"Belief Beat","description":"BeliefBeat - Nicole Neroulias","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beliefbeat\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beliefbeat\/#\/schema\/person\/42dac2ebd149a02dfe91f0f93e36761b","name":"Nicole Neroulias","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beliefbeat\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beliefbeat\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/caf\/caf1ad99f5fc2a063b8e935cf82f65fdx96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beliefbeat\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/caf\/caf1ad99f5fc2a063b8e935cf82f65fdx96.jpg","caption":"Nicole Neroulias"},"description":"Nicole Neroulias is a correspondent for Religion News Service, a secular news and photo service devoted to unbiased coverage of religion and ethics. A graduate of Cornell University and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, she has previously written for The New York Times and other media outlets. She and her family live in Seattle.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beliefbeat\/author\/nneroulias"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beliefbeat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/253","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beliefbeat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beliefbeat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beliefbeat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beliefbeat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=253"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beliefbeat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/253\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beliefbeat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=253"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beliefbeat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=253"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beliefbeat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=253"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}