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By: Rabbi Yehuda Kravitz

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In the aftermath of World War II, America experienced an influx of Eastern European Jewry, and their input was felt immediately. Suddenly all the Yeshivos and day schools hired great talmudic scholars as rabbis and teachers. Students of the Yeshivos and day schools now had esteemed rabbis to emulate. Amongst the new arrivals were rabbis who entered Kashrus as well. An immense new “consumer base” evolved. The masses of immigrants formed a strong consumer base that empowered them to slowly upgrade the standard of Shechita.

The newly formed Jewish communities became more and more a marketing tool, enabling the Rabbonim HaMachshirim to demand and receive that which their predecessors were unable to.

The late Rabbi Moshe Leib Levovitz played a major role by implementing the kosher requirements at America’s premier kosher poultry plant, Empire Kosher Poultry, to meet the standards of Rabbi Moshe Feinstein zt”l, and by hiring European Yeshiva scholars as Shochtim and Mashgichim.

Novardok, Raden, Kaminetz, Mir and Telz Yeshiva scholars, steeped in Torah knowledge and with the “Mussar conscience” needed to be the “Yorei Shomayim” (G-d fearing person) par excellence that is required of a Shochet, accepted these positions.

This had an effect on other groups, that they should likewise upgrade their level of Kashrus standards and Rabbinic personnel.

But there was still a long way to go due to the immense number of Shechitos across America.  During the late forties, fifties, sixties, and seventies, there were small slaughterhouses across America, especially those located far from the main cities and Jewish communities, whose standards were questionable.

Yet, simultaneously, as Jewish communities began to grow and flourish, creating an ever greater viable consumer base, some new Shechitos were formed, some old ones closed, causing a ripple effect upon the entire industry, to upgrade Shechitos of lower standards, and become acceptable to a wider consumer base.

In the past twenty years, beginning in the eighties and nineties, until the very present, Kashrus in America in general, and Shechita in particular, has been immensely enhanced to levels far greater then ever imagined. This great change is due to the attitude of the younger, American born Rabbis now engaged in Kashrus. No longer is a Rav Hamachsir intimidated by the gruffness of a meat purveyor who may threaten his livelihood. The American educated Rov fears not his ability in assuming another position or profession for livelihood if need be. He enters the Rabbinate, and Kashrus, with a sense of mission, and cannot be coerced to lower his standards due to pressure. It is a field he enters by choice, not by default; and he is therefore treated differently than his predecessors. They were perceived to be individuals who could not speak the language of the land and therefore would not be able to acquire any other means of livelihood, and could thus be intimidated.

The OU stands at the forefront of this ongoing revolution, and plays a pivitol role in setting high Kashrus standards for the entire Shechita industry.