Hakol Chai, CHAI's sister charity in Israel, holds regular demonstrations and staffs information tables to educate the public about the cruelties of the gambling on horse racing industry. For more information, see Against the Expansion of Horse Racing in Israel.

Hakol Chai continues its campaign to make annual licensing and inspection of horses and donkeys mandatory to prevent their abuse, and to see that existing regulations are enforced. Posters throughout Jaffa, the old part of Tel Aviv where these animals are used as beasts of burden, urge people to open their eyes to their abuse and report it to the municipality. For more information, see Cart Horses and Donkeys: Abuse and Rescue.

Puppies rescued in the war between Israel and Hezbollah and brought to the U.S. to find homes here celebrate their one year anniversary. Thank you for enabling CHAI and its sister charity in Israel, Hakol Chai, to be a lifeline to hundreds of animals in desperate emergency situations.
To see their photos, go to New Beginnings: Puppies at Home.

  Kapparot — Please Write!

The ceremony of Kapparot (atonement) occurs between Rosh Hashanah (the Jewish New Year) and Yom Kippur (a day of repentance). This year, it falls between Monday, September 17 and Friday, September 21. Performed mainly by members of the ultra-Orthodox Hasidic Jewish Community, the ceremony consists of swinging chickens, by the legs, over people’s heads, symbolically transferring their sins to the bird. The chickens are then slaughtered and may or may not be given to the poor.

In NYC, Chicago, and Los Angeles, eyewitness accounts and videos have shown that for six days before the ceremony, the chickens are crammed in crates in their own excrement, without food, water, or shelter. With partially cut necks, they are stuffed into garbage bags. Many are abandoned to die. These and other cruelties take place in front of children, traumatizing and de-sensitizing them.

Kapparot is not mentioned in the Torah or Talmud, the Jewish books of learning, and many Modern Orthodox Jews swing money over their heads instead of chickens, and then donate the money to charity.

Please write to Rabbi Shlomo Hochberg, President, Rabbinical Council of America, 305 Seventh Avenue, 12th floor, New York, NY 10001, or send an email message to office@rabbis.org, asking him to advocate swinging money over people's heads instead of chickens, in keeping with the many Jewish teachings that encourage compassion for animals.

For more information, see The Custom of Kapparot in the Jewish Tradition.

  To those of you who celebrate Rosh Hashanah, our very best wishes for a joyful New Year. May it bring love, compassion, and assistance to animals everywhere.

We greatly appreciate your continuing support which makes everything we do for animals possible.

Please send your tax-deductible donations to:
CHAI, POB 3341, Alexandria, VA 22302, USA, or
donate through our website.
 
To donate directly to Hakol Chai in Israel, send donations to:
Hakol Chai, POB 51858 Tel Aviv 67214, Israel, or
donate through the website (Hebrew).

Yours for a more compassionate world,

Nina Natelson