Local reports describe a Hasidic homeowner returning home late at night to find his yard and stairwell strewn with poultry parts, in what residents describe as enforcement of the community's strict housing regulations, though the incident remains unverified beyond a single Hebrew-language outlet
A resident of the Squire (Skver) Hasidic community in New York returned home late one night last weekend to find his yard and the stairway leading to his front door covered in what appeared to be dozens of chicken feet, according to a report published Sunday by the Israeli Haredi outlet Kikar HaShabbat.
Kikar HaShabbat reported that the chicken parts appeared to have come from the community's local slaughterhouse, and that the scene carried a strong smell of decay. Citing unnamed local residents, the outlet reported that the apparent motive was the homeowner's alleged noncompliance with the community's strict internal housing regulations governing the purchase and sale of apartments within the enclave.
According to the report, the resident described the incident to neighbors with dark humor, noting that whoever left the chicken parts appeared to have no compunction about handling meat during the Nine Days, the period leading up to Tisha B'Av during which observant Jews traditionally refrain from eating meat, even while apparently enforcing communal discipline against him.
Kikar HaShabbat noted that this is not the first time internal enforcement of housing rules in the Squire community has turned violent. The outlet referenced an earlier, unspecified incident in which another resident's apartment was set on fire and completely destroyed after he failed to comply with community guidelines.
That reference appears to track with a well-documented case from 2011, when eighteen year old Shaul Spitzer attacked New Square resident Aron Rottenberg with a blowtorch outside his home, an assault that left Rottenberg with third-degree burns over roughly half his body.
The attack, which resulted in Spitzer's conviction on assault and attempted arson charges, was widely reported at the time to have been retaliation for Rottenberg's decision to pray outside the community's main synagogue rather than under the authority of the Skverer Rebbe, David Twersky. Twersky publicly condemned the use of violence in the aftermath of that attack, telling yeshiva students that force to settle communal disputes violated Skver's foundational principles.
