The field for the Democratic nomination replace the term-limited David Yassky as the representative of the 33rd District in the New York City Council in the November election is a crowded one. The Village Voice interviews perhaps the most audacious candidate – Isaac Abraham who is vying to be the first Hasidic member of elected to the City Council. He tells the paper he can do it, powered by 10 – 15 thousand votes from Willamsburg’s Hasidic community.
Village Voice: The First Hasidic…: Last summer, there was, in Brooklyn’s Hasidic communities, the chicken-swinging controversy. Actually, the controversy came from outside, when animal-rights activists suddenly objected to the centuries-old practice of swinging live chickens overhead before croaking their little necks in order to make them into dinner. Tens of thousands of chickens die this way annually. The ritual, known as kapparot, has something to do with transferring your own bad deeds to the poor, soon-to-be-plucked chicken. “Hideous torture!” cried PETA. No one else in the Orthodox community cared to comment on this interesting practice. But Abraham was glad to do so, and he gave no ground: “It’s a ceremony that has to be done. It’s not going to be stopped.” He added: “It doesn’t hurt them.” How he knew this was unclear, but it is the first rule in the spokesman business to always speak in a loud, authoritative voice, thus greatly reducing the risk of being challenged.
