More Jewish butchers
For those who read both my blogs, I’m sorry about the cross-posting. I’m not going to make a habit of it. I’m just bursting with excitement about this story, though.
While my foray into old newspapers today didn’t tell me a thing about chorissa in Melbourne in the nineteenth century, it did tell me two other items of highest importance. First, that a horse called “Kosher” ran in 1920s races in Victoria. (There are so many potential bad jokes in there I won’t even start.)
Second, and more sobering, from 1943 to 1947 kosher meat was nearly banned in Australia. Not before. Not after.
The timing is the sobering bit. The actual sequence of who demanded what and when has its funny moments. Everyone was united on wanting animals not to suffer, but some of the abattoir people were also united in wanting animals not to kick them after they’re dead. There was nearly a strike. The RSPCA got in the act and made a stand against kosher meat. The unions may have done unionish things. Two rabbis were reported on, but what they said was not.
Finally the Health Commission settled the matter by pointing out that a slightly different apparatus holding the animals would solve the problem. No pain for animals; no danger to employees. There was much grumbling about this: some groups maybe didn’t want that problem solved.
One day I shall find out the full story, because this is the newspaper-headline version and is likely to be full of inaccuracies. I can already see a strong possibility of there being a Melbourne abattoir view (’We shall not kill!’) and a Sydney one (’We shall not be kicked in the behind by a dead cow!’).
That timing is also curious. How did it feel to be a leader in the Jewish community and fighting the potential loss of kosher meat while dealing with the influx of Holocaust survivors and sorting out the whole Shoah foulness?
I might have to explore Australian Jewish food history a bit more. It appears that the GST on matzah and challah is not the first time that Jewish food has been under negative scrutiny.
April 1st, 2009 at 2:58 am
There’s GST on matzoh and challah???? In Washington, DC (where I’m more or less from), in some neighborhoods they’re year-round STAPLES — even the goyim buy and eat them.
– Laura “one of the goyim who did” Goodin
April 2nd, 2009 at 11:38 pm
There is a GST. My understanding is that, despite representations by the Jewish Community, traditional challah has egg and therefore is a cake and therefore attracts GST. I have no idea how this works with matzah. What it means is that you need to check with Aussie challah - to keep it affordable, some bakeries have droped the egg, which means it’s not really challah any more.
April 3rd, 2009 at 9:13 am
I thought the only mitzvah was about challah that it had to be braided…?
April 4th, 2009 at 7:58 am
Challah braiding is a customary thing for the regions that have Challah. It’s dropped for Rosh Hashanah (when we have round challah with raisins). The basic bread for those same regions is egg and oil based. The GST means that the Australian recipe is different to the places it came from.
Religiously, I doubt any of these aspects of the bread are mitzvah level - maybe minhag, though.