The Ministry of Agriculture today issued an order, under the law curbing practice of shechita, Jewish ritual slaughter of animals, decreasing by approximately 50 per cent the kosher meat quota allowed Jewish butchers.
Illustrative of the many complications arising from enforcement of the law, the order is the result of sale by Jewish butchers to Christians of the cattle’s hind quarters, which are proscribed for Jews.
The order, it is understood, aims to compel the Jewish butchers to “purge” the hind quarters, thus making them kosher in a way permitted by the dietary laws. Rabbis, however, are opposed to the idea, declaring it is impossible for the time being. (Deputy Joshua Gottlieb, Jewish member of the Sejm, recently asked rabbis not to prohibit “purging.”)
Issuance of the order followed a demand by non-Jewish butchers, who complain of the competition resulting from the sale of the non-kosher parts to Christians, that the shechita law be amended so as to make the sale impossible.
According to the Jewish Encyclopedia, many Jewish communities have, since the 17th century, not used the lower part or sirloin of the animal, the butcher selling that part to non-Jewish customers. In the Orient, however, and in several cities such as Wilno, Poland, and Kaunas, Lithuania, where non-Jewish consumers of meat were few, the sirloin is “purged” and sold to Jews. “Purging,” a complicated process, is believed to have been discarded largely as a result of the scarcity of competent operators.
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