This October, Chickens Need Your Help.

SHAMAYIM: Jewish Animal Advocacy

Every year around Yom Kippur, certain Jewish communities participate in a ritual called Kaporos, originating in the medieval times where on the day before Yom Kippur a live chicken is swung over a person’s head three times before the chicken is slaughtered.

However, this practice is unnecessary. Kaporos can also be performed using coins instead of a chicken and then donating the money.

If you're near Brooklyn or Los Angeles, please look into the opportunities listed below to stand up for chickens used for Kaporos.

We encourage you to take action for chickens by participating in the NYC Kaporos Week of Action with Alliance to End Chickens as Kaporos, Jewish Veg, The Save Movement, In Defense of Animals, and Interfaith Vegan Coalition.

We're happy to collaborate with these organizations to bring the Jewish community together to help chickens used for this ritual. We hope to make this the largest and most impactful presence of compassion that we have ever seen in NYC streets at Kaporos. Join the Kaporos Action Committee with Jewish Veg to get looped in on the details. You can also join the Facebook event for updates. There will be an orientation on September 15th from 4 pm - 6 pm at 21 Snyde Ave, Brooklyn, New York 11226.

Join the Kaporos Action Committee

We are happy to share that Faith Action for Animals is hosting a compassionate Kaporos ceremony in Los Angeles at the corner of Pico and Robertson on October 6th at noon.

"Join us! We will hold a Compassionate Kapparot ceremony in the Pico/Robertson neighborhood. Our participating rabbis will be using coins rather than hens. We invite all – Jewish and non-Jewish alike - to join us! All of us can learn to take personal account for our failings and grow in our resolve to do better, the spiritual rationale behind Kapparot. Though synagogues and rabbis throughout the LA region are asking that money be used instead of chickens, there are holdouts. As people committed to compassion for all life, we aim to highlight the fact that Kapparot can be performed with money instead of with these chickens, who live and die under such cruel, unconscionable conditions. Those selling the ritual to penitents are driven in no small part by the profits, as demonstrated by the wanton killing and dumping of chicken carcasses in our LA neighborhoods, a direct violation of Jewish law."

If you're in the area, please show your support and attend this compassionate Kaporos ceremony. It's so important that people know this ritual can be performed without causing harm to chickens.

Tza'ar baalei chayim, or preventing unnecessary suffering to animals, is a value that we must protect. If you're near Brooklyn or Los Angeles, we encourage you to take advantage of these opportunities to promote compassion to all for beings for Kaporos.