PETA jungle

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) has issued a press release accusing Postville, Iowa-based Agriprocessors Inc., the largest glatt kosher slaughterhouse in the world, of violating the federal Humane Methods of Livestock Slaughter Act. The HMLSA requires that cattle be "rendered insensible to pain" before they are killed, but recognizes properly performed kosher slaughter as humane.

PETA has filed a formal complaint with the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture; a videotape, viewable at GoVeg.com, purportedly shows Agriprocessors workers shocking cows in the face with electric prods and ripping the animals' tracheas out of their throats while they are conscious.

There will be those who call the PETA complaint anti-Semitic. But if in fact Agriprocessors is failing to adhere to kosher law or federal law, the problem needs fixing, and fast. And it should be noted that some within the Jewish community support PETA's claims and accuse Agriprocessors of violating kosher law. Rabbi Barry Schwartz, who sits on the Central Conference of American Rabbis' Task Force on Kashrut, is quoted in the PETA press release as saying, "The suffering of these animals during slaughter is sickening. Death is neither quick nor merciful."

Oy dreidel dreidel dreidel

Religious tolerance is one thing. Religious paranoia is another, as evidenced by a news story out of Maplewood, N.J., that details a public school's struggle over the issue of holiday music.

In a recent memo, the music director at Columbia High School wrote, "We will avoid any selection which is considered to represent any religious holiday, be it Christmas, Chanukah, etc." That extends to instrumental numbers. According to the New Jersey Jewish News, the mandate follows a policy on "religion in the schools" written in 1994 and revised in 2001, which states that "religious music, like any other music, can only be used if it achieves specific goals of the music curriculum" and "shall not have a religious orientation or focus on religious holidays."

Huh?

Rabbi Mark Cooper of Oheb Shalom Congregation, a Conservative synagogue in South Orange, N.J., voiced the reasonable suggestion that the ban on instrumental carols may have been unhelpful. "I think there are far more important issues to be discussed," he said, "such as teaching tolerance and inclusiveness and respect. When I was in school, I sang in a choir and we performed some of the most Christian-sounding songs you can think of. Look what happened. I became a rabbi."

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