Monsey Kapparot Operator Fined $6,250 By Health Board

T his is the third consecutive year Moshe Lefkowitz, of Monsey, has been fined for not properly cleaning up chicken entrails, feces, carcasses, feet and blood in kapparot ceremonies in Monsey.

Rockland Health Board fines Monsey chicken ritual organizer $6,250
KHURRAM SAEED • LOHUD.COM

RAMAPO — The Rockland Board of Health today fined the organizer of a Jewish ritual that involves live chickens $6,250 for violating the county's sanitary code.

This is the third consecutive year Moshe Lefkowitz, of Monsey, has been fined for not properly cleaning up chicken entrails, feces, carcasses, feet and blood in kapparot ceremonies in Monsey.

Lefkowitz has paid $1,400 of the $3,000 fine issued against him for the 2007 ceremony and none of the $6,500 levied against him and Congregation Birchos Yosef, owner of the property where the ceremony was held, in 2008.

The Jewish boys school was not included in this year's fine.

Neither Lefkowitz nor his representative attended the meeting.

Board members said Lefkowitz was clearly flouting county law, and David Kraushaar was outraged that two of Lefkowitz' family members, including his son, had accused the health department of "blatant anti-Semitism" in a letter following a formal hearing in early December. Lefkowitz did not attend the Dec. 3 hearing, after asking for it to be rescheduled.