Since 1804: the story behind Britain’s kosher meat and the campaign that protects it

When you buy kosher meat in Britain, you are buying into a system that has been organised in London for more than two centuries. Shechita UK is not a symbol you will find on a packet of chicken, but it is the body that speaks up for the way that chicken was prepared. This is the fourth article in our series on the people behind the symbols on your shopping, and the first about meat.

Who is behind Shechita UK?

Shechita UK is the national campaign to protect shechita, the Jewish method of slaughter. It is based in London and works across the whole of the UK, alongside the National Council of Shechita Boards of Great Britain and the London Board for Shechita. It is worth being clear about its role: Shechita UK is an advocacy umbrella. The day-to-day certification of meat is carried out by the shechita boards and the batei din.

Its chair is Henry Grunwald OBE KC, who was president of the Board of Deputies when Shechita UK was founded, and its campaign director is Shimon Cohen.

More than two centuries of kosher meat in London

The story begins long before the campaign. In 1663 the Spanish and Portuguese congregation first proposed organising shechita for the community as a whole. In April 1804 London’s four main congregations formed the London Board for Shechita, and in 1954 the Board marked its 150th anniversary with a history written by Albert Hyamson. Until the late twentieth century the Board owned and ran its own abattoirs. The National Council of Shechita Boards, followed in 1953.

Why Shechita UK was formed

In 2003 the Farm Animal Welfare Council, a government advisory body, called for a ban on slaughter without stunning. Because shechita is carried out without prior stunning, the recommendation went to the heart of kosher meat in Britain. The community responded in November 2003 by forming Shechita UK, an umbrella that united the Campaign for the Protection of Shechita, the Board of Deputies and the National Council of Shechita Boards.

Twenty years on, in September 2023, the campaign celebrated its anniversary with a dinner that brought together dayanim from the London Beth Din, the Union of Orthodox Hebrew Congregations, the Federation and the Sephardi Beth Din. It is not often that so many different parts of British Jewry share one platform.

What Shechita UK stands for

• Trained professionals: it stresses that shechita is carried out by trained professionals.
• A voice in policy: it says government and animal-welfare bodies consult it on slaughter.
• Unity: it brings mainstream, Charedi and Sephardi batei din together behind one campaign.

How to check your meat

Because Shechita UK does not appear to issue its own symbol for consumers, you will not find its name on the pack. Instead, look for:

• The seal of the shechita board or beth din that supervised the meat, which is the mark that matters at the counter.
• The butcher’s or shop’s certificate, which names the authority behind it.
• That same authority’s standard, if you keep to a particular one at home, since different batei din supervise meat in Britain.

Shechita UK does not publish slaughter volumes or a count of butchers, so the boards and batei din remain your best source of detail.

Three things you might not know

1. The first proposal for organised kosher meat supply in London dates back to 1663, and the London Board to 1804.
2. Shechita UK exists because a government advisory body called for a ban on slaughter without stunning in 2003.
3. Its coalition puts mainstream, Charedi and Sephardi batei din on one platform, which is unusual in British Jewish life.

On The Kosher Shop, every food seller tells us which kashrut authority supervises their products, and we check the certificate before their shop opens. Next in this series: Kedassia, the Stamford Hill hechsher.

Sources: Shechita UK: Our history; Charity Commission: National Council of Shechita Boards; JTA, 10 November 2003; Jewish News, 15 September 2023.