Judge dismisses lawsuit against LA synagogue’s Yom Kippur chicken ceremony

A federal judge in Los Angeles has dismissed a lawsuit against a synagogue for holding a kapparot ceremony, a pre-Yom Kippur ritual in which a chicken is swung by its legs and then slaughtered.

District Court Judge Andre Birotte Jr. ruled in favor of the Chabad of Irvine’s request to dismiss the lawsuit filed in late September on behalf of the Virginia-based United Poultry Concerns against Chabad, the Orange County Register reports.

The suit claimed that the practice violates the state’s unfair competition law. But Birotte wrote in his decision, which was released Friday, that the kapparot ceremony is a religious ritual supported by donations, not a “business act” covered by the unfair competition law.

A 2015 lawsuit filed in Orange County Superior Court that called for an end to the practice based on animal cruelty is still pending.

—JTA