LA Judge Blocks Jewish Ceremony Involving Chicken Killing
LOS ANGELES (AP) — A federal court judge has issued a temporary restraining order banning a Southern California synagogue from carrying out a religious ceremony involving the slaughter of a chicken.
The Orange County Register reports U.S. District Judge Andre Birrote Jr. granted the order Friday.
Birrote scheduled a hearing Thursday at which Chabad Irvine may contest his ruling.
A call Saturday to Chabad was answered by a recording.
Birrote issued the order after the Virginia-based group Universal Poultry Concerns sued to stop the Orange County synagogue from carrying out the 2,000-year-old ceremony Kapparot.
The ceremony, which means atonement in Hebrew, is practiced in some traditional Orthodox Jewish communities between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, which ends Wednesday.
It involves swinging a chicken over a person's head before slaughtering the bird kosher style.
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