The prohibition of Schechita in the Union of Socialist Soviet Republies is a matter which is being discussed in various Soviet government departments, it is learned by the correspondent of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency on the basis of reliable information. The basis for the contemplated prohibition is not the alleged prevention of cruelty to animals the excuse employed by anti-Semites in other countries, but “efficiency.”
Various government departments hold different opinions concerning the question. It is stated that the Commissariat of Trade is supporting the plan to prohibit Schechita. It holds that the convulsions of the animal after the schechita delay the skinning and the cutting of the meat, increasing the labor and expenses by about 40 per cent.
On the other hand, other Soviet government officials advise caution in promulgating an anti-Schechita law. Such a prohibition may increase the superstition still alive in the Russian peasant masses regarding the Jewish ritual murder fable and may tend to increase anti-Semitism. The promul-
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gation of such a prohibition at present would be dangerous, they declare.
The correspondent of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency has seen two texts of anti-schechita bills which are now being discussed.
In the memorandum accompanying the projects for the bills, anti-Semitism is apparent. One memorandum declares that although many nations live under the Soviet regime, “none has so barbarous a slaughtering method as the Jews.” The author of the memorandum therefore urges not only to abolish the Schechita but to “organize public opinion against it.” The opponents of the prohibition point to these utterances in the memoranda of those who favor it. The opponents of the prohibition by the Soviet government pointed out that the Czarist government tried to abolish the schechita thirty years ago under the same pretext of barbarism, but failed when scientists proved by experiments that the schechita does not inflict greater pain on the animals than other methods employed for slaugter.
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
