Friedman, Aaron Tzvi. Tuv Ta’am [the necessity for Jews to maintain the laws of ritual slaughter]

Rare. A Response to the First Anti-Shechitah Campaign in America. Aaron Friedman (1822-76), a native of Stavisk, Poland, served as shochet or ritual slaughterer of his hometown before emigrating in 1848 to New York, where he was employed by one of the largest abattoirs until his death. On account of Friedman’s strict Orthodoxy and learning, he was known as the “Ba’al Shem of America.” In 1866 the first anti-Shechitah campaign in America was waged by the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. Henry Bergh, president of the Society, sent a letter that year to the proprietor of a kosher abattoir in New York accusing him of engaging in “barbarous, revolting, and wicked” practices. Bergh further called on him to desist from violating the laws of New York and of God by “mangl[ing] and tortur[ing] his creatures.” Friedman composed this pamphlet to refute Bergh’s accusations. He not only succeeded in silencing Bergh, but later, in 1885, Bergh even defended shechitah against charges of cruelty leveled by the Philadelphia branch of his Society. See Y. Goldman, Hebrew Printing in America no. 1092; JE, Vol. V, p. 518.