Kosher chickens will be available locally in New Zealand after authorities overturned a ban Friday on the ritual-slaughter of poultry. The last-minute reversal came before the High Court issued a ruling in the case between the government and the Jewish community headquartered in Auckland.

The new allowance leaves open a question on the ritual-slaughter of lamb, which remains banned in the South Pacific nation. A government decision on that issue is expected Monday, but local Jews are nevertheless thrilled with the latest news.

“It means so much to me,” said Vicky Nytke, who before the hastily-ordered ban obtained her chickens from Chabad-Lubavitch Rabbi Mendel Goldstein on the South Island.

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The mother of a small baby and little girl said that eating chicken “was something they couldn’t do.”

“Now,” she exclaimed, “there will be chicken again. Wow!”

Imported kosher poultry has been available in Wellington on the North Island since the ban was enacted, but it carried a prohibitive price. Many on the South Island went without chicken.

“We found vegetarian schnitzel,” said Nytke.

The imitation breaded chicken didn’t fool the native Israeli’s daughter.

“’Ima, this isn’t real schnitzel,’ she would say,” relatd Nytke, who came to New Zealand two years ago because her husband thought it would be a good place to raise a family.

Over time, Nytke’s friends tried to convince her to switch to non-kosher chicken.

“I would not give in,” she said.

New Zealand’s Jewish community of more than 7,000 people had supported a kosher-slaughtering industry since 1843. Most of the slaughtering took place on the North Island, but a year and a half ago, Goldstein, co-director of Chabad of New Zealand, arranged two mass slaughtering drives in Invercargill at the South Island’s southern tip.

“We made sure that that kosher chicken was available for all Jewish families,” said Goldstein, who worked with Rabbi Shmuel Kopel of Chabad of Otago, Nevile Baker of the Auckland Jewish community, and other representatives of the North Island community on the project.

In May, however, the newly-released Animal Welfare Commercial Slaughter Code ordered that “all animals slaughtered commercially in New Zealand [be] stunned prior to killing.” The provision ran against Jewish law, which disqualifies a stunned animal from ritual slaughter.

Minister of Agriculture David Carter’s decision to overturn the ban came just days before the publication of a controversial newspaper article calling the ban into question.

“We are all extremely delighted with the outcome,” said Goldstein. The Jewish community “banded together in a single voice and backed a single effort.”

He also applauded the community’s lawyer, Sarah Katz, who “showed outstanding dedication.”

New Zealand Jewish Council president Stephen Goodman told JTA that he was “very relieved.”

“It is disappointing that it took legal action for the government to come to a negotiated solution,” he said. “The whole process has been extremely stressful to the New Zealand Jewish community as well as costing over $NZ300,000 that could, and should, have been applied to reinforcing the community rather than arguing with our government over our right to live here.”

Goldstein, whose Chabad House primarily serves Israeli backpackers and families largely unaffiliated with the wider Jewish community, called the available of kosher meat critical to the survival of the South Island’s Jewish contingent and the identity of the rest of nation’s Jews.

“It is so, so, important for the Jews here,” said Goldstein. “There are some people in the community who will absolutely not eat anything but kosher chicken, but there are many, many, people who will only choose to eat kosher chicken if it is readily available.”

Nytke looked to the upcoming Jewish Sabbath with gusto.

“It seems to me that I am one of the few that wants to, needs to and does keep kosher,” she said. “Shabbat will be so much nicer, so much more festive.”