nation / world
Can’t Find Passover Poultry? The
Kosher Chicken Shortage, Explained
JACKIE HAJDENBERG | JTA.ORG
T he reports are coming fast
and furious from the Costcos,
butcheries and grocery stores of
America: Kosher chicken is hard to find.

Facebook groups offer alerts when
shelves are restocked. Some stores are
limiting purchases; in others, cus-
tomers are policing each others’ carts,
looking for excessive stockpiling that
could shut themselves and others out.

While anyone who wants kosher
chicken at their Passover seder should
be able to get it, doing so might require
more effort, cost or compromise than
usual. That’s because an unusual array
of forces have conspired to depress
chicken production in the United
NAZARETH ORTHOPEDICS
Around the corner. Beyond expectations.

Chickens eat their feed at a poultry plant.
States, and kosher plants have suffered
alongside everyone else.

Here’s what you need to know about
the kosher chicken shortage.

Is there really less kosher chicken
available now than usual?
Yes. Many pressures on the chicken sup-
ply have contributed to less-than-aver-
age availability to farms, businesses
and the average consumer. These pres-
sures apply to non-kosher chicken, too,
but because there’s so much more of
that, produced over a wider number of
facilities, the effects have been blunter.

Overall, there’s definitely less kosher
chicken available right now than in
past years — but still enough that
everyone should be able to have what
they want, perhaps not at the price or
on the timeline they’d prefer.

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Today’s chicken supply has its roots
in what happened in March 2020 —
and new problems have emerged more
recently. A shortage of animals that set in
early on during the COVID-19 pan-
demic, when abrupt factory clo-
sures caused chickens and eggs to
be destroyed without being turned
into meat, resolved itself by about
September 2020, Yehudah Fink, direc-
tor of administration at David Elliot
Poultry, recalled last year.

But by then, the so-called Great
Getty Images
Resignation was already in full swing,
with many employers experiencing
unfilled or partially filled positions.

Even as Fink and others raised wages,
they could not operate their plants at
full capacity.

Fink planned to automate more of
his factories by this Passover to reduce
the need for workers, but he said that
wouldn’t make up for the labor short-
fall. And then came the avian flu.

The worst outbreak of avian flu since
2015 has decimated the non-kosher
chicken market, mainly in the Midwest
and on the East Coast. When a bird
flu outbreak occurs, any live birds that
might be affected are condemned. The
USDA has reported 22 million since
February, according to Reuters.

Even though the kosher poultry
farms have so far managed to avoid
the outbreak for the most part, they are
still affected. In normal times, when
a farm is short on live birds, they can
purchase more from another hatchery.

How is Passover affecting the
kosher chicken supply?
Poultry consumption always increases
during the Passover season, as people
buy chicken for their seders and the
duration of the holiday. Festive meals
for observant Jews traditionally feature
meat on the menu.

For the last two years, people have
See Nation, Page 23



nation / world
‘Nazi Grandma’ Sentenced to a Year in Jail
Germany’s infamous “Nazi Grandma,” 93-year-old German Holocaust denier
Ursula Haverbeck, was sentenced to a year in jail, after her appeal to overturn
guilty verdicts in two separate cases failed, JTA reported.

The Berlin district court upheld verdicts against Haverbeck – who was given
her nickname by some German media outlets — on April 1 and sentenced her to
a year in prison for incitement to hate.

At issue were her statements denying the Holocaust at a public event in Berlin
in 2017, as well as her related comments in an interview in 2020 disseminated
online. It is illegal in Germany to deny or trivialize the Holocaust or to glorify
Nazi propaganda and philosophy.

Presiding judge Lisa Jani rejected Haverbeck’s appeal, noting that Haverbeck
showed no remorse or reconsideration of her views. Her age was irrelevant, Jani added.

According to Deutsche Welle, Jani told Haverbeck that she was “not a Holocaust
researcher [but] a Holocaust denier” who was “spreading poison, not knowledge.”
Haverbeck remains a free woman for now: She can appeal again, which would
send the case to the Berlin Superior Court.

Haverbeck’s late husband Werner Georg Haverbeck held high positions in the
early years of the Hitler regime.

Domestic Violence Shooting at Florida JCC Leaves One Dead
A woman was killed at the Michael-Ann Russell Jewish Community Center in
Florida’s Miami-Dade County on April 3 in what police are calling an act of
domestic violence, JTA reported.

Police said the woman was killed by her husband while she attended her daugh-
ter’s swimming lesson. In a statement, the community center said police believed
there to be “no known threat to the Jewish community.”
Across the country, Jewish community centers are widely used by Jews and
non-Jews alike. A different shooting at an Indianapolis JCC in February stemmed
from a dispute during a basketball game and did not involve Jews or represent a
threat to the Jewish community, authorities there said.

European Jewish Congress Head Moshe Kantor Resigns Following
UK Sanctions
Moshe Kantor, the Russia-born president of the European Jewish Congress, resigned
after the United Kingdom imposed sanctions on him because of his alleged involve-
ment with Russian President Vladimir Putin’s regime, JTA reported.

Kantor, a dual citizen of Russia and Britain, resigned on April 8 after being
included on a list of eight people that the British government decided to punish
in connection with Russia’s war on Ukraine.

He is among eight “oligarchs” active in industries “which Putin uses to prop up
his war economy,” the British government announced. The sanctions include the
freezing of their assets in the United Kingdom.

Kantor is a large shareholder of the publicly traded firm Acron, one of Russia’s
largest fertilizer producers.

The European Jewish Congress said it was shocked by the sanctions.

“He is a long-standing and respected Jewish leader, who has dedicated his life to
the security and well-being of Europe’s Jewish communities and the fight against
antisemitism, racism and xenophobia,” the statement read.

Forbes 2022 Billionaires List Includes 30 Israelis
There are 30 Israeli billionaires on Forbes’ 2022 list, led by Eyal Ofer, chairman
of Ofer Global Holdings, Globes reported.

Ofer is ranked 117th with $15.4 billion, while his brother Idan, the controlling
shareholder in Israel Corp. and Kenon Holdings placed 118th with $10.5 billion.

They were followed by Dimitry and Igor Bukhman, who own the online gam-
ing company Playrix at 275th with $8.5 billion and tech entrepreneur Yuri Milner
at 324th with $7.3 billion.

Miriam Adelson, the Israeli-born widow of Sheldon Adelson, ranked 50th with
$27.5 billion, but Forbes counted her as based in the United States because she
inherited his casino empire. JE
— Compiled by Andy Gotlieb
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