Sign an online petition:
http://www.change.org/petitions/urge-kaporos-practitioners-to-use-money-instead-of-chickens

AND/OR make direct contact:

1. Please contact the Rabbinical Council of America and ask them to advocate that kapparot be carried out with money rather than chickens:
   
   Rabbi Shlomo Hochberg
   President Rabbinical Council of America
   305 Seventh Avenue, 12th Floor
   New York NY 10001
   phone (212) 807-7888
   fax (212) 727-8452
   office@rabbis.org
    
2. Write letters to your local Jewish newspapers expressing your objection to the use of chickens for kapparot. Ask them to do an article about kapparot that examines the ceremony from the standpoint of Jewish teachings that encourage compassion for animals.

INFORMATION / TALKING POINTS

What is kapparot?

Kapparot or kaparos, meaning “atonements,” is a custom in which a chicken or money may be used. Kapparot using chickens is practiced by some Jews shortly before Yom Kippur, the Jewish Day of Atonement. First, selections from Isaiah 11:9, Psalms 107:10, 14, and 17-21, and Job 33:23-24 are recited. Then a rooster (for a man) or a hen (for a woman) is held above the person’s head and swung in a circle three times, while the following is spoken: “This is my exchange, my substitute, my atonement; this rooster (or hen) shall go to its death, but I shall go to a good, long life, and to peace.” The chicken is then slaughtered and may or may not be given to the poor for food.

Chemers, a baby rooster, was rescued from Kaporos rituals in 2010. This photograph is one of 12 winning photos published in the 2011 Chicken Run Rescue calendar.
Photo by Greg Straight Edge.

Thank you for everything you do for animals!