Protesters, largely assembled through social media, passed around secret agendas that said when and where they would meet in Borough Park this week to protest the use of chickens as Kaporos. These protests happen ever year and, year over year, the media covers it in the exact same way: focusing on what Kaporos (Kapporot) is and the pending legal action filed mainly by animal activists against what they call animal abuse. I have yet to see coverage focused on the protesters themselves. During the two days of protest this week, I heard protesters state they were there because they are vegan. Others were Jewish and swore the ritual act of slaughter was against multiple laws in the Torah. One woman told me she would be fine with the practice, recognizing it as part of someone's religion, if the birds were treated more humanely before slaughter (some sit in crates on Brooklyn sidewalks for days without food and water). She said the way the birds were being held--by the wings rather than cradled--hurt them and sometimes broke their wings. Many of the protesters were Jewish. 

Pictured: Protesters call out, "This one's almost dead," as they use their phones take pictures of the crated chickens outside the Tomer D'Skwere School for Girls in Brooklyn.

As the only truly neutral person there, a lot of people eventually wanted to talk, though few wanted to be on camera, even if I was the one taking the photo. 

One woman told me, "When I tell them I don't want to be on camera, they tell me it's because I am ashamed at what I am doing. I am not ashamed. I don't want to be included in the way they're going to use the images to portray us."

Protesters were encouraged to document as much as they could. Some, like this guy, brought professional equipment with bright lights to highlight his subjects. He lobbed curse words at this family as they recited the prayer that would transfer the sins of this little girl into the hen her brother circled above her head three times. 
When they were finished, the mother turned to the man with the camera and said, "Thank you. Because of your bright light, I could read my prayer." To which he replied, "I'm surprised you can even read."

A protester holds her phone above a wall dividing one synagogue from the street. She recored theKaporos occurring behind closed doors. "You can step up here and get a shot," she said to me, "They [the police] told us not to but you can get one quick." I was the only reporter at the protest and because I was not Jewish, it was assumed that I was a protester. I was not there to document Kaporos, which was difficult to explain to protesters who were there to do just that. At the end of the night, it became clear that my story was about the protesters themselves: their actions, their words, their motivations.

On the second night protesters stood behind one ribbon of police tape, with practicers behind another on the opposite side of the street. Protest organizers announced that tonight was meant to be a "mostly-silent vigil." The chant tonight was directed at the chickens themselves rather than the Hassidic people. They would hold candles, refrain from discussing, and occasionally repeat in unison, "We see you, we care, we're trying."

Protesters were confronted with a more hostile group on the second night. Many were called biggets, one Jewish protester was told by a man unrelated to the event that, "Jews are the words biggets." I myself was accused of producing fake news and was told by multiple Hassidic men and children that the protesters were being paid to be there. For the record, I did not find a single instance in which this was true.

The people who showed up in Borough Park to protest came from different backgrounds. They were there for different reasons. While some attacked the Orthodox Jewish community with insults unrealted to the ritual,  others calmly asked that they, "please choose love." Some said nothing at all, but rather focused on slipping pieces of bread through the crates to give a few chickens something to eat. 

Hassidic school aged boys were the main demographic who engaged with the protesters. The mob mentality taking over was clear on both sides. To the protesters' cries of, "Use money not chickens," the boys often replied, "Use chickens not money." On day two, a group of boys jumped two innocent bystanders, friends riding their bikes through the neighborhood before the protests had even started. 

I watched as one protester in particular picked fights throughout both nights. Sometimes it was a police officer, many times a 12-year-old boy with face-framing payot. On the second night it was with the one guy who showed up wearing a MAGA hat (and was removed by event police kicked soon after he arrived). The first night, I heard the confrontational protester shout, "This isn't Israel."