Addressed to R. Unna on the state of ritual slaughter in Germany. The letter was written at a time in which Nazi law in Germany had created intense difficulties for religious life, this is an historically important response to R. Unna’s earlier, seeking Halachic leniency that would permit electroshock-stunning of animals prior to ritual slaughter. In Europe of the interwar years, restrictions were imposed on ritual slaughter, by various anti-Semitic organizations acting under the guise of prevention of cruelty to animals. One of the rabbis who was very active in the battle against the Kosher slaughter ban was R. Chaim Ozer Grodzinski of Vilna, who dispatched letters on the topic to many European rabbis, and did his utmost to forestall the ban.

R. Menahem Mendel b. Shmuel Kirschbaum (1894 - 1942) was the spiritual leader of German Jewry during the dark period of persecutions by the Nazis. He wrote many responsa on related topics such as how to deal with the ashes of incinerated Jews, the ban of ritual slaughter and many other period hardships inflicted upon Jews. He was exterminated by the Nazis in 1942.