Kaporos, October 7, Israel, Gaza, antisemitism & the animal rights movement

Days that live in infamy

NEW YORK,  N.Y.––Kaporos,  the chicken-swinging ritual practiced annually by the men of about 130,000 Hassidic Jewish households worldwide,  mostly members of the evangelical Chabad sect,  will occur during the early morning hours from September 20,  2025 to October 1, 2025,  the day immediately preceding Yom Kippur.

A week after that will come the second anniversary of October 7,  2023,  a date which will live in infamy––at least among Jews––for as long or longer than Pearl Harbor Day,  December 7,  1941,  and September 11,  2001,  when Islamist suicide bombers killed 2,977 people by hijacking and crashing airliners into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.

Cruelty & death inflicted on innocent victims

All three of those infamous dates are remembered for atrocities causing many deaths of victims who had no idea why they were targeted,  leading to wars causing tens of thousands more deaths in national efforts to stop even further and greater atrocities,  including the Holocaust,  the Nazi massacre of six million Jews that led to the creation of modern Israel to ensure that nothing of the sort could ever happen again.

Kaporos practitioners swinging chickens around their heads while reciting a prayer during the Ten Days of Repentance,  between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur,  is believed by those who do it to transfer their sins to the unfortunate chickens.

Kaporos is scarcely an atrocity comparable to war,  any war,  but it is nonetheless an atrocity,  inflicting cruelty and death upon innocent victims.

Routine cruelty does not excuse ritual cruelty

To be sure,  the lives and deaths of the chickens killed in Kaporos rituals are likely no more miserable than the lives and deaths of the 25 million factory-farmed chickens per day who are slaughtered for human consumption.

But that does not excuse the practice.  Small cruelties at some point add up to larger cruelties.  Routine cruelty toward animals,  whether ritualized or merely practiced in food production,  almost always comes early in the long chains of events that culminate in either warfare,  or genocide.

About half of the chickens killed for Kaporos will die on the streets of New York City,  with lesser numbers in Chicago and Los Angeles.

Few Israelis practice Kaporos

Surprisingly few Israelis practice Kaporos,  a tradition mostly unknown to the 15.8 million non-Chabadi Jews.  Within Judaism,  Kaporos has approximately the same prominence and participation ratio as snake-handling among some of the more benighted evangelical Christian sects:  most Christians will never see snake-handling,  if indeed they ever hear of it.

Perhaps as many Jews as participate in Kaporos actively disapprove of it,  especially in New York City,  where anti-Kaporos protests and chicken rescues led by Jewish activists including Rina Deysch and Donny Moss have become almost a tradition in themselves.

(See Would Moses have practiced Kaporos? Did Jesus handle snakes?,  Kaporos: chicken soup for the soulless?,  and Kaporos chicken rescue brings New York City a smile on 9-11-2021.)

Two Jews,  three opinions

This year,  unfortunately,  there may be a substantial risk that both Kaporos and anti-Kaporos protest could become targets for expressions of generalized antisemitism,  veiled as “animal rights” advocacy.

This would be much as protest against Israeli military tactics in Gaza,  in response to the atrocities of October 7,  2023,   has been hijacked in service of antisemitism more often than not.

One need only read any given online edition of the Israeli daily newspaper Haaretz,  founded in 1918,  long the leading voice of Jewish political liberalism,  and of Israeli opposition to the conservative government led by three-time prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu,  to see how many Jews are deeply conflicted about the war in Gaza.

There is an old Yiddish saying that “Where you have two Jews,  you have three opinions.”  This may be nowhere more true than in discussing the Gaza war.

Survival at stake

But one of those three opinions is always that Jewish survival as a people and Israeli survival as a nation are at stake,  as they have been through war after war,  none of which Israel has started,  for as long as Israel has existed.

As former Israeli prime minister Golda Meir (1898-1978) put it,  “If the Palestinians put down their weapons,  there would be peace.  If Israelis put down our weapons,  there will be genocide.”

Golda Meir also said,  “Peace will come when the Arabs love their children more than they hate us.”

This is nowhere more obvious right now than in Gaza,  where the Israeli response to the overtly genocidal attack of October 7,  2023 is often misleadingly described as “genocide”––sometimes by people who just plain do not know what “genocide” is,  often by people who do know,  but choose to tar and feather Israel in specific and Jews in general with as offensive a term as can be thrown around in nominally polite public discourse.

What is genocide?

The definition of genocide in international law was codified in 1948 to distinguish the Nazi extermination of six million Jewish civilians from ordinary war crimes,  in which civilians are caught in the line of fire and grievously harmed or killed,  whether deliberately or accidentally,  simply because they happen to be there.

Genocide is defined as acts “committed with intent to destroy,  in whole or in part,  a national, ethnic,  racial or religious group,”  for instance by transporting two-thirds of the Jews in Europe in cattle cars to death camps,  most of them using slaughterhouse technology.

In view that 21% of the legal citizens of Israel are Palestinian, & that no effort has been made or is being made to drive them out,  the allegation that the war in Gaza is “genocide” is as much libelous nonsense as would be an allegation that either Kaporos or routine animal slaughter is “genocide” against poultry,  pigs,  or cattle.

Feeding the enemy

Whatever either Kaporos or routine animal slaughter are,  including in acknowledgement that they are atrocities in the long chain of human atrocities to animals,  they are not “committed with intent to destroy,  in whole or in part” the victim populations.

And neither is the war in Gaza,  which may be distinguished from practically every other war in human history by the widespread perspective,  among Jews as much as among anyone else,  that an invading fighting force responding to a genocidal atrocity somehow has a moral obligation to feed the civilian population whose sons and leaders committed the atrocity.

The U.S. after World War II,  for instance,  did feed the German,  Japanese,  and Italian survivors,  but only after their leaders surrendered and fighting ceased.  Food packets were not dropped over Dresden and Tokyo along with the incendiary bombs that helped to bring about the defeat of the Nazis and the Japanese Imperial Army.

All atrocities are not equal,  except to the victims

Authentic genocide has nothing to do with collateral damage in waging warfare;  high civilian casualties (60%-67% in World War II,  for instance, exclusive of the Holocaust) are a part of every war.

Each civilian death,  and indeed war itself,  may be considered an atrocity.  So might be every animal death caused by humans seeking human ends.

Yet all atrocities are not equal,  except to the suffering and dying victims.

In perspective,  some atrocities require a forceful response to prevent further and worse,  especially those atrocities which,  like those of December 7,  1941,  September 11,  2001,  and October 7,  2023,  are committed with deliberate intent to provoke further and worse.

Acts of revenge

Pearl Harbor,  for instance,  was an attack meant to dissuade the U.S. from intervening against the Japanese invasion of China,  an invasion which cost from 15 million to 20 million Chinese civilian lives.

The terrorist attacks of September 11,  2001 might be described as generalized acts of revenge against U.S. influence in upsetting the socio-political status quo in the Middle East,  in which regard,  one must note,  the gradual education and emancipation of women has accomplished much more,  albeit with many setbacks,  than any or all U.S. military actions.

“My peers in animal rights were largely silent”

And then there was October 7,  2023.

Wrote Donny Moss,  self-introduced as “a campaign organizer and leader in the animal rights movement for the past 19 years,”  the same Donny Moss who has long helped to lead actions against Kaporos,  in the August 29,  2025 edition of Jewish Journal,  “In the hours and days after Hamas broke a ceasefire [in effect since 2005] and attacked Israel— raping,  burning,  mutilating,  kidnapping and murdering their victims — I noticed that my peers in the animal rights movement were largely silent.  Why weren’t they posting the typical expressions of support and compassion for the victims of tragedy?  Something was amiss.

“Subtle at first”

“The antisemitism in the movement was subtle at first,”  Moss observed,  “depriving the victims and their families of the compassion afforded to others;  citing ‘resistance’ to justify acts of terror;  and denying that the atrocities occurred at all.

“But it quickly became more odious,  even before Israel launched a military operation in Gaza to retrieve the hostages and disarm Hamas to prevent future terrorist attacks.

“Animal rights activists who had never posted about the Arab/Israeli conflict and,  in some cases, privately admitted to knowing nothing about its history,  joined Palestine affinity groups in accusing Israel of being a white colonizer state that has committed 75 years of genocide.

Jihadist calls

“They also mimicked the Jihadist calls to destroy Israel ‘from the river to the sea’  and to rise up violently against Jews in a ‘global intifada.’

“Even after their Jewish peers explained why this rhetoric is hurtful and dangerous, many of the Free Palestine – or anti-Zionist – activists in the animal rights movement,”  Moss recalled,  “continued to use it.

“Free Palestine activists are also attacking the estimated 95% of us who identify as Zionist — accusing us of being racists;  publishing blacklists with our names;  calling for boycotts of Jewish-owned vegan businesses and pressuring community leaders to publicly condemn us online and at animal rights events,”  Moss observed.

“Redefining  Zionism”

‘They are also redefining Zionism as colonialism or racism and weaponizing the slur against Jews,  using ‘Zionist’ or ‘Zio’ as a stand-in for ‘Jew.’

“Jewish animal rights activists who are sounding the alarm about antisemitism are being targeted on our own social media pages,  with some Free Palestine activists conflating our concerns about antisemitism with support of,  and complicity in, ‘genocide’ and a lack of compassion for the victims of war.

“If accusing us of being inhuman isn’t cruel enough, they are also charging us with misusing and weaponizing ‘antisemitism’ in response to their hateful rhetoric,  telling Jews what is and is not antisemitism—which is akin to telling people of color what constitutes racism.

“Three AR groups accused Israel of genocide”

“In addition to individual activists,”  Moss continued,  “three global animal rights groups which had never,  to the best of my knowledge,  taken a stand on geopolitical issues made posts on Instagram accusing Israel of committing genocide.

“In the posts,  Direct Action Everywhere,  the Save Movement,  and Generation V made no mention of the actual ethnic cleansing of Jews on October 7,  2023,  and of the textbook genocides taking place in other countries,”  targeting only Israel.

Another purported animal rights group,  Apex Advocacy,  on July 4,  2024 issued a rabidly antisemitic manifesto,  claiming endorsements from prominent animal advocates,  one of whom subsequently told ANIMALS 24-7 she had nothing whatever to do with it.

(See “Food fight over veganism” becomes fight over anti-Israel statement.)  

“Everyone loses when hate-mongers co-opt a social justice movement”

“Jews are not the only victims of antisemitism in the animal rights movement,”  Moss noted.

“As Jewish activists spend our time responding to ‘anti-Zionist’ attacks online,  or altogether withdraw from a community where we no longer feel welcome,  the animals for whom we should be advocating continue to suffer.

“Everyone loses,”  Moss pointed out,  “when people or groups fomenting hate co-opt and compromise a social justice movement.”

This is especially true when the co-option serves people and causes whose goals are actually opposite to those of the movement.

Not helping the people of Gaza

As our friend,  lifelong animal advocate,  and retired animal welfare executive Gini Barrett recently pointed out,  “The Western nations and people who coddle Hamas and condemn Israel are not helping the people of Gaza.

“The more screaming and crying about Israel,”  Barrett explained,  “the more Hamas believes they can win––which for them is the complete destruction of Israel and a genocide of Jews worldwide.  And they are totally okay with sacrificing more and more of their people to whip up the West to help them win.”

That is the real bottom line in any accurate analysis of October 7,  2023:  Hamas,  a totalitarian entity which long since liquidated all political and cultural opponents within Gaza,  unleashed a deliberately atrocious attack on defenseless civilians to intentionally provoke a counterattack which could then be exploited through social media,  especially to gullible and under-informed young people worldwide,  toward the end of leaving Hamas in control of an independent state which could continue to wage war on Israel,  now with global support.

Rebuilding plans

It is Hamas,  not Israel,  which has sacrificed more than 60,000 Gazans in an ongoing war that Hamas could end immediately through surrender,  much as the Nazis surrendered in 1945,  abandoning ambitions of establishing a “Third Reich” after Adolf Hitler committed suicide,  and much as Japan surrendered three months later,  abandoning ambitions of militarily establishing a Japanese empire.

To be noted is that the 22-member nations of the Arab League,  as well as the U.S.,  have already offered rebuilding plans for Gaza comparable to the Marshall Plan that rebuilt western Europe,  especially Germany,  after World War II ended.  The only Gazans who would not benefit would be Hamas.

The first humane laws

But somewhat more must be pointed out,  with specific reference to animals and animal rights advocacy.

The very first humane laws in the written historical record were provisions for humane slaughter and care of work animals proclaimed by the Hebrew prophet Moses circa 1300 B.C.

Isaiah,  the most prominent of the several Hebrew vegetarian prophets,  and the prophet who most emphasized opposition to animal sacrifice,  lived circa 740 B.C.

This was more than a century before Siddhartha Gautama,  remembered as the Buddha,  and Mahavir,  the last of the 24 great teachers of Jainism,  sought to reform Hinduism by teaching vegetarianism and compassion for all beings.

Jesus,  James,  & Mohammed

Jesus of Nazareth,  a Jew born circa 34 B.C.,  in accurate historical appears to have been the most militant leader of his time of Jewish opposition to animal sacrifice,  which was then still practiced–in very high volume–at the Jerusalem temple.

Jesus built directly upon the teachings of the vegetarian prophet Isaiah, and his direct predecessor in advocacy,  the vegetarian John the Baptist.

The Jerusalem Christian church,  founded by Jesus’ brother James,  self-regarded as a reform movement within Judaism,  taught and practiced vegetarianism.

More than five centuries later,  circa 570-622 A.D.,  Mohammed included strong pro-animal teachings in building Islam.  In particular,  Mohammed incorporated stronger versions of the laws proclaimed by Moses pertaining to humane slaughter and care of work animals.

But antisemitism has a tradition in animal advocacy

Despite the long,  strong,  deeply influential contributions of Judaism to humane teachings,  antisemitism unfortunately has a tradition in animal advocacy almost as old as the organized humane movement.

The most influential purported humane histories published during the 20th centuries almost completely omitted any mention of the substantial contributions of both Jews and African-Americans during the first 100 years of the U.S. humane movement.

Sydney Coleman,  for instance,  whose 1924 volume Humane Society Leaders in America was the prototype for all,  made only one passing mention of David and Diana Belais, the Jewish couple who were arguably as influential as the consequently much better known Henry Bergh,  George Angell,  and Carolyn Earle White,  whom Coleman profiled at length.

Jews & African-Americans both excluded

William Alan Swallow,  in Quality of Mercy (1963),  completely excised David and Diana Belais from the written history of the humane movement.

Earlier,  with his consort Eric Hansen,  who then headed the Massachusetts SPCA and the American Humane Education Society,  Swallow in 1940-1942 participated in actively purging African-Americans from the organized humane movement,  notably Seymour Carroll and Rivers Barnwell.

The humane movement thereby became the most antisemitic and self-segregated of American mass movements at the very time the rest of society was opening up.

(See How “Quality of Mercy” Swallowed the humane movement,  part 1,  and  How “Quality of Mercy” Swallowed the humane movement,  part 2;  and Black humane history found in great grandpa’s attic near a town called Ark.)

Jewish leaders built the animal rights movement

Finding no welcome within the existing humane movement,  Jewish leaders including Krystalnacht survivor and Animal Rights International founder Henry Spira,  Holocaust survivor and Farm Animal Rights Movement founder Alex Hershaft,  Animal Liberation author Peter Singer,  In Defense of Animals founder Elliot Katz,  Humane Farming Association founder Brad Miller,  Farm Sanctuary founder Gene Bauer,  and a legion of others built the animal rights movement as we know it today,  conspicuously including concern for farmed animals as well as the traditional humane movement emphasis on kindness toward dogs,  cats,  and horses.

In a sense,  therefore,  the animal rights movement exists because of antisemitism.

But antisemitism cannot carry the animal rights movement forward.  No exclusionary ideology could,  but especially not an exclusionary ideology denying the ethical origins of the cause.

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