As we report in these pages, New York State and New York City are considering legislation banning the sale of new “fur apparel,” ostensibly out of a concern for avoiding cruelty to animals. Of course, from time immemorial, animals have provided humans both clothing and food to stay alive. But the progressive program is expanding rapidly in both the state and city and things are changing apace.
Separate and apart from our overarching concern over a program that feeds on itself and which shows precious little regard for the past – there is a bustling and lucrative fur trade in both the state and city – we are concerned that the new legislative proposals make no provisions for the religious use of fur for making shtreimels.
And the issue has to be handled with great skill and sensitivity. The more the fur ban is linked to humane treatment of animals, the more an exception for shtreimels will tend to be viewed as a license to engage in animal cruelty. This is what was of great concern to in the effort to protect Jewish ritual slaughter in the days when there were world-wide, so-called, humane slaughter movements.
We trust that New York legislative officials will be sensitive to religious needs for fur despite any over-all ban.