The Forward has a report on the Israeli chief Rabbis' 'promise' to stop shackle and hoist slaughter. The report is based on this earlier Jerusalem Post report, which in turn was based on this report by the Forward.
The money quote comes from Rabbi Menachem Genack of the OU. Rabbi Genack has been trying for a very long time to get the Israeli chief rabbis to end shackle and hoist slaughter:
Given the earlier assurances made by [Ashkenazi chief rabbi Yona] Metzger, Genack told the Forward that he is not expecting any immediate change in “shackle and hoist” slaughter.
“They made a conceptual decision to do this, but the implementation is something different, something that is going to take a long time,” Genack said.
The chief rabbi's 'plan' seems destined to take years of meetings and 'studies,' rather than any type of rapid change:
Metzger’s letter to Genack came after the chief rabbis met [at the urging of Rabbi Genack] with kosher authorities in Israel, including a leading veterinarian, Rabbi I.M. Levinger. Levinger told the Forward that at that meeting the chief rabbis talked about doing away with “shackle and hoist,” but without a definite timetable.
“I came to the meeting, and I was ready to do something, but they didn’t move in between,” Levinger said.
“They said they wanted to get the feedback from the field,” Levinger added. “If you give the feedback to the slaughterhouses, it’s not so easy to get the right answers, because the slaughterhouses are interested in the business and not in the treatment of animals.”
If Rabbi Levinger – who allowed himself to be used by Rubashkin (and this) a few years ago and who is the leading haredi academic expert on shechita is suspicious of the hareedi-controlled chief rabbis' intentions, then it seems reasonable for all of us to be at least as suspicious.
Change will only come through economic pressure. Hamayvin yavin.
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