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“Not Your Zayde’s Shekhita Business”

by · May 25th, 2007
Animal Care, Kosher, Notable Press

I was priviledged to work at New Voices magazine, the only national magazine written by and for Jewish college students, and truly support their work — the magazine is free free free so suscribe yourself or your synagogue’s students today — getting the voices of the next generation of Jewish writers, editors and thinkers out into the community. This month’s excellent issue — The Body Issue — contains a superb wrap-up by Michael Croland (read his blog here) of the controversies facing the kosher industry and a humane treatment of its animals:

“The kosher meat industry of today is not the perfect, painless slaughter that is alluded to in the ideals of shekhita. The industry’s future success and its treatment of animals may depend upon how consumers react now that the spotlight is shining.”

Read the full article.

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One Response to ““Not Your Zayde’s Shekhita Business””

  1. Rabbi Shmuel Says:
    May 27th, 2007 at 6:41 pm

    Ho hum – more of last week’s leftovers rewarmed? How much time did Croland spend in Iowa? I thought so. Let him go to Postville, ask Sholom Rubashkin if he can tour the plant w/o any restrictions, like I did last summer and draw his own conclusions.(Mine are markedly different than his by the way) To simply regurgitate yesterday’s lunch and innuendo and “allegations” endlessly is hardly cutting edge journalism by any standard.

    Shechita is never pretty – there’s simply no way to sever a carotid artery of an 1100 pound animal and have an animal bleed out in a way that a society which has minimal contacts with the natural world would find palatable, let alone appealing. It’s not for the squeamish or the faint at heart. Perhaps Michael Pollen was right when he said you should never eat anything unless you are prepared to look it in the eye.

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