Orthodox Rabbinic Discourse on Kosher Meat Slaughtering

• In Event: Ethical Standards and the Kosher Meat Industry

Abstract

This presentation will analyze the different modes of discussing and defending SHECHITA (kosher meat slaughtering) by American Orthodox rabbis, from the immediate post-World War II era until the present. Beginning in the late 19th century, kosher slaughter came under attack by animal welfare activists. Genuine concern for animal welfare became enmeshed with antisemitism and became enshrined in European legislation prohibiting kosher animal slaughter. Post-World War II American Orthodox rabbis who defend SHECHITA are very much aware of the previous European historical context of the debate. Their responses to questions about SHECHITA are also shaped by suspicion of non-Jews, governmental power, and science; and ambivalence toward secular or other religions' ethics.

Based on my ethnographic and textual research, I describe four modes of rabbinic discourse from the post-World War II era to the present: halakhic responsa, discussions between Orthodox adults, statements made to congressional committees, and educational material written for outreach to less-observant Jews or to Orthodox teenagers. Ethical reasoning plays a different role in each of these discourses; it is virtually absent in the first and second modes but it takes a central role in the third and fourth. Yet, there are internal, Orthodox critiques of the kosher meat industry across all varieties of Orthodoxy which offer alternate approaches to responding to challenges posed by industrial slaughter and modern culture. The discourse as a whole sheds light on the many ways that Jewish food practices create group boundaries and multiple ways of dealing with outsiders.

author

• Jody Myers, California State University at Northridge