Shechita Crisis: Poland’s Chief Rabbinate Lies To Government About Kosher Slaughter Causing National Scandal

In November, Michael Alper, a senior aide to the Chief Rabbi of Poland, wrote a letter to the Polish veterinarians who oversee animal slaughter asking for permission to slaughter 250 cows Alper promised would first be stunned with electricity in accordance with Polish law. But Alper's letter was a lie and no animals were stunned before slaughter. And now that news has caused a national scandal.

Chief Rabbi of Poland Michael Schudrich

Shechita Crisis: Poland’s Chief Rabbinate Lies To Government About Kosher Slaughter Causing National Scandal
Shmarya Rosenberg • FailedMessiah.com

They lied and they got caught.

In November, Michael Alper, a senior aide to the Chief Rabbi of Poland, wrote a letter to the Polish veterinarians who oversee animal slaughter asking for permission to slaughter 250 cows Alper promised would first be stunned with electricity in accordance with Polish law.

“I am writing to request to carry out the slaughter of 250 heads of cattle on Nov. 23, 2013, with use of electric current to render the animals unconscious,” Alper wrote in the letter, which was obtained by JTA.

The letter listed Alper’s official title as “Rabbinate coordinator for Kosher production in Poland” and his job was to act as the chief rabbi’s representative to slaughterhouses and the Polish agriculture ministry.

But the letter was a lie. The animals were kosher slaughtered without prior stunning – a violation of Polish law and a current flashpoint in relations between the Polish government and the Polish Jewish community.

According to all normative halakhic opinions currently followed, animals cannot be stunned before kosher slaughter slaughter. If they are, their meat is deemed to be non-kosher, and this is the opinion of Poland’s Poland’s chief rabbi, Michael Schudrich, as well.

“Stunning cannot be used in shechita (kosher slaughter), and saying it was used is a very serious mistake. What he [Alper] has written is completely unacceptable and he has been suspended from his position pending an investigation,” Schudrich told the JTA.

But although the JTA does not report this, it is very unlikely Shudrich, who has smicha (ordination) from Rabbi Dr. Moshe Tendler of Yeshiva University's rabbinical school, was unaware of Alper’s deception while it was taking place.

Alper’s November letter was leaked to media along with claims that kosher slaughter illegally continued in Poland despite a court ruling that went into effect in January 2013 that prohibited un-stunned slaughter.

The JTA now has pictures of meat labeled as kosher and produced in Poland after the law requiring stunning went into effect. One of those meat packages “appeared to carry certification from Rabbi Yehuda Osher Steiner of the Manchester Beth Din in Britain,” the JTA reported.

Poland’s Channel 1 ran commercials for a program, scheduled to be aired February 4, that would have reported that kosher slaughter was being illegally conducted in Poland.

While the show has been postponed, a source involved in the show’s production told the JTA on condition of anonymity that the report documents three slaughterhouses where animals were kosher slaughtered without stunning. But in each of those three cases Alper reported the slaughter to the government as stunned before slaughter in conformity with Polish law, which was a lie.

Schudrich suspended Alper pending an investigation – but apparently only after he found out Alper’s letter was about to become public.

Alper reportedly declined to answer questions from the JTA.

Schudrich refused to confirm or deny that commercial kosher slaughter had taken place in Poland after January 2013.

But Schudrich did reportedly say that “the court’s ruling in 2012 is not a ban. It is a case of conflicting rulings that is being reviewed by the Constitutional Court.”

But that, too, is a lie.

Until the Constitutional Court renders its decision, the law of land is that all animals must be stunned before slaughter.

The haredi Manchester Beth Din also did not answer the JTA’s questions regarding its role in certifying the illegally slaughtered kosher meat.

Comments

[Jeff]

Well, that's okay. If there's any group that's been shown to have a charitable attitude toward Jews, it's the Poles.

Does every yeshiva now have a course entitled, "Lying to Goyim"?

[David]

There are a few issues here.

1) Jews must obey the law of the land.
2) Stunning is not permitted by Halacha therefore no kosher slaughter can happen in Poland.
3) Why are Jews even living in Poland given their centuries of antisemitism, what are they trying to prove?
4) The frumma have become used to lying.
5) There is nothing wrong with shecita ***when done correctly*** not treif slaughter as per Agriprocessors.
6) Jews should not lie. If Jews must live in Poland they either need to eat fish and veg or import kosher meat or lobby the antisemitic authorities to allow shechita and demonstrate a willingness to do it correctly.
7) Don't give the largely antisemitic Polish a reason to hate us even more.

[Alter Kocker]

Jeff
That is just it, they assume that non-jews are a lower form of life and therefore it is permissable to tell lies and half-truths. I hope that the Polish government hits these bastards with all kinds of fines if not imprisonment. When will these idiots stop? Probably never. The day is coming in Europe where they will ban Kosher slaughter, circumcision and a number of issues that are deadly important to the frumma. There will be a mass exodus. Unfortunately there is only one country that will take them, Israel. Too bad Israel can't afford any more of them.

[Jeff]

"Too bad Israel can't afford any more of them."

And therein lies another problem.

[ah-pee-chorus]

conversation from polish chief rabbinate office:

"these anti-semite bastards slaughtered jews with the nazis without a care. Now all of a sudden they're concerned with humane treatment of animals? Screw them! We'll just lie to them. These stupid polacks will never know."

[ah-pee-chorus]

conversation from polish chief rabbinate office:

"these anti-semite bastards slaughtered jews with the nazis without a care. Now all of a sudden they're concerned with humane treatment of animals? Screw them! We'll just lie to them. These stupid polacks will never know."

[state of disgust]

Alter Kocker: They could all move from Poland to Russia. I'm sure Putin would like them to come and they would fit right in. Just look at all the graft that occurred in Sochi.

[Yosef ben Matitya]

ah-pee-chorus | February 13, 2014 at 09:16 AM

I don't know, apc. I think that r' shudrich is an honest man -my subjective gut feeling- & that he has nothing to do with this. must be a problem with the head shouchect. (maybe).

[Barry]

It is certainly possible that the Polish constitution allows for shechita provided that such meat is intended for LOCAL Jews in Poland. What is certain is that nothing in the Polish constitution would bar legislation prohibiting shechita intended for export purposes.

The Jewish population in Poland who eat kosher is far too small to make it economical to maintain local shechita. It would make as much sense as setting up a kosher slaughterhouse in say, some rundown town in Iowa with the intention to supply only the Jewish communities in the Mid-West.

The shechita business in Poland is intended to supply Jews outside Poland and it is run mainly by and for the benefit of Hareidim in Western Europe and Israel taking advantage of Poland's ascension to full membership of the European Union in 2004. That is why the outcry against Poland comes from Western European Hareidi rabbis rather than the local largly unorthodox Jewish community for which the supply of kosher meat locally produced is largely irrelevant

[S M L]

" "Too bad Israel can't afford any more of them."

And therein lies another problem"

The problem with them is that they consider themselves above the law which makes them unassimilable by/in any country governed along lines of anything other than a Jewish theocracy which means it's Israel or noplace. We certainly don't need them in the US. We're breeding too many of our own here already.

[Bob]

Being upset about this is tantamount to being upset about the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. While it is important to follow the laws of the land the recent bans on Bris and Shechita are blatant attacks against religious freedoms under the guise of "animal cruelty" and "child abuse". A little civil disobedience is definitely in order.

[seymour]

why is stunning not allowed

[Allan]

@Bob- Are you seriously trying to compare a rabbinical dispute over how cattle are slaughtered to the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising where Jews themselves were slaughtered ???

If any “civil disobedience” is in order it should be on behalf of animals’ rights to a humane slaughter that includes stunning – and on behalf of boys’ rights to give informed consent to surgery done on their genitals.
Anyway, this scandal will probably put the final nail in the coffin of the kosher slaughter industry in Poland.

[ah-pee-chorus]

: Yosef ben Matitya -

while you may be right, i'd bet the other way.

how could the chief rabbi ever agree to having the animals stunned prior while still deeming them kosher?

Bob -

religious freedom ends (or should) where another living thing is affected. i'm sure you wouldn't make the same claim of religious freedom if a muslim insisted he had the right to genitally mutilate his daughter or to kill non-muslim infidels.

[Bob]

Allan, at what point and by whose decree is "pushing back" deemed appropriate? Are we to wait until we are being lead to the slaughter without being "stunned".

The animal rights groups are really angling for no slaughter in the same vain as the Christian right is angling for no abortions even in the case of rape or the mother health. These are gateway rulings. Auschwitz wasn't built in a day.

[Jeff]

Really, Bob? So, Muslims should be able to perform female genital mutilation in violation of the law and all human decency?

[rocky]

The Jewish population of Poland is down to about 3,200 according to the Virtual Jewish Library. It makes sense that the kosher meat would be exported to Western Europe for consumption by religious Jews in places like Antwerp. Labor costs less in Poland than in Western Europe.

[Alter Kocker]

There comes a time when practices of other centuries and times must be forgotten. It is necessary evolution. People no longer own slaves. Slavery was time honoured, but no longer. That is evolution.

The time is coming where cattle and chickens will have to be stunned before slaughter. This is a trend in all countries. The orthodox will have very little say in this matter. There may be a meat industry in Israel, but will people, already on the fringes economically, pay a premium to eat shected meat imported from Israel? Countries will likely ban imports of inhumanely slaughtered meat. Will all kosher observant people move to Israel? Probably not. Time is coming where circumcision is banned for small children. Will people be circumcising their sons in secret? Will they have to move to Israel or visit Israel to have the procedure performed by the 8th day? Also, more than likely not.

It is time for the frumma to start making progress toward change instead of protesting it. Change is inevitable.

[seymour]

It is time for the frumma to start making progress toward change instead of protesting it. Change is inevitable.

Posted by: Alter Kocker | February 13, 2014 at 02:21 PM

they cannot change since then they will be admitting that the previous generations of rebbeis did not know everything and then everything can be questioned

[Jeff]

I may be wrong, but I don't think stunning before shechita is one of those things for which they'll be able to find a halakhic workaround.

I don't know what the upshot will be. They must change, but they can't change.

[ah-pee-chorus]

jeff-

it would definitely require a workaround, but it could be done. since the main problem is a defect (which theoretically might make the animal unsafe to it), it could be ruled that any 'defect' caused by the stunning wouldn't count. After all, the animal didn't have this defect until it was stunned. it could be viewed like the cut to the neck itself, which doesn't render it not kosher since it's part of the necessary shechita process.
the real impediments are that prior rabbis have ruled it treif , so as seymour wrote, it requires an overrule, which is anathema to orthos for many reasons. also, it would imply that shechita wasn't the most humane method of slaughter all along which is something quite difficult for them to admit.
but from a purely halachic angle a workaround could definitely be found.

[Jeff]

I suppose you're right. In any case, that entire world has got to go.