Kapparot Using Chickens Gains Attention This Year

UPC News Release Urging “Money - Not Chickens”- Published Widely in the U.S.

Two Synagogues Switch to Money in Los Angeles and New York

United Poultry Concerns is grateful to everyone who contacted The Rabbinical Council of America and distributed our brochure “A Wing & A Prayer: The Kapparot Chicken-Swinging Ritual,” urging Orthodox kapparot observers to use money instead of chickens in kapparot ceremonies held this year from September 17 to 21.

On August 16, UPC sent a letter to the Rabbinical Council of America asking the Council to advocate the use of money, in keeping with the many Jewish teachings that encourage compassion and sensitivity during the Rosh Hashanah-Yom Kippur period. On September 11, we published a national news release in hundreds of media outlets, via PR Newswire, including The Jerusalem Post, Houston Chronicle, Earth Times, and RCR Wireless News. To read our release and letter to the Rabbinical Council of America, please visit www.upc-online.org/kaparos/81607letter.html and www.upc online.org/nr/91107kapparot.html.

This year, UPC posted comments about kapparot on the websites of The Yeshiva World and Forward.com, and activists in Los Angeles and New York City reported the good news that in each of these cities a synagogue that had used chickens last year switched to money in 2007. Our special thanks to UPC members Nazila Mahgerefteh and Colin Walkeen in Los Angeles, David Rosenfeld and Sam Schloss in Brooklyn, and Dr. Richard Schwartz, President of Jewish Vegetarians of North America in Staten Island, along with our two “Wing & A Prayer brochure cosponsors, Jews for Animal Rights and Concern for Helping Animals in Israel (CHAI), and Stephanie Bell of PETA for photo assistance. Together, we are making a difference!