The Darkei Teshuvah (Yoreh Deah 82:26) quotes the Sho’el U’Meishiv (Mahadurah Chamisha, Vol. 1, siman 69) who writes: “If we take on like the Rema that even if a bird has the three simanim it is still forbidden to eat, unless we have a mesorah, how can people eat the indik bird [turkey] which was brought over from America. Certainly, there was no mesorah there, nonetheless, it is being eaten in all places where there are Jews. It must be that the previous generation decided it was kosher, and they relied on the simanim without a mesorah. However, now that we have adopted the stringent opinion of the Rema, there is no heter [permissibility] for it to be eaten.”
R’ Shlomah Kluger (Shu”t Tuv Ta’am V’Da’as, Telisoi, siman 150) also came out very strongly against people eating turkey and he writes: “It seems that the Sotan has managed to bring a new stumbling block into Yiddishe homes. New birds are being brought over from America ... the sins we are already committing are terrible, and now the Sotan is bringing chas vesholam more things for us to stumble over. This has already been going on for two years now, and I already said at the beginning that it’s forbidden. Therefore, once again I am coming to make it known that these birds being brought over from America are forbidden, both the bird itself, and its eggs, and anything that comes from it. Be warned against eating it, just like you are against eating neveilus and treifos. One should also be careful not to eat food with any utensils that belong to a person who eats this bird. There is nothing to rely on to eat them, it’s a case of a doubt in a Torah matter where we rule stringently. Especially us (Ashkenazim) who hold that simanim don’t help at all, and we only rely on mesorah. It certainly has the kosher simanim, however, we don’t rely on it, and since there is no mesorah, it’s obvious that it’s forbidden for consumption.”
The Karmarna Rebbe in his sefer Heichel Berachah (Parshas Devorim) writes that on birds where there is no mesorah: והם כשאר שרץ טמא - “they are like any other forbidden creature.”
In Kovetz Minhogim V’Halichos the Michtav Sofer (pg. 229) brings testimony from R’ Shimon Sofer the son of the Chasam Sofer: “... I know that in my birth town the chareidim would refrain from eating such birds, and I followed them with this, and both me and my household refrain from eating them.”
R’ Yaakov Kamenetsky also refrained from eating turkey. In the kovetz Yeshurun they bring: “I heard from Mori V’Rabbi HaGaon Rav Shmuel Kamenetsky the Rosh Yeshivah of Philadelphia, that his father HaGaon Rav Yaakov Kamenetsky was stringent and didn’t eat turkey. He explained, that before he got married, he ate it, however, once he got married to his rebbetzin who was the daughter of HaRav Dovid Tzvi Heller the mashgiach of Slabodka, he stopped eating them, as the rebbetzin came from the city of Shavol (שאוועל) in Lita, and there they were stringent not to eat them. Rav Shmuel Kamenetsky also adopted this stringency and doesn’t eat them. However, since he never took it upon himself as a kabbalah or a minhag not to, he simply does it as a stringency, his family does eat it.”
