Magen Tzedek

Maximizing Animal Welfare in Kosher Slaughter

2011-04-29T11:32:00.002-05:00

Opinion
By Temple Grandin
Published April 27, 2011

There are legislative attempts around the world to require stunning of animals prior to religious slaughter. I do not get involved in the politics of this issue, but the following discussion may help clarify where there are problem areas.

Over the past 30 years I have worked closely with the kosher industry to ensure that religious slaughter is performed in as humane a manner as possible. The issue of stunning, in my view, is not the most important issue when it comes to ensuring the welfare of animals before they are slaughtered. But it is critical to recognize that performing kosher slaughter with an acceptable level of welfare does require more attention to the procedure’s details than slaughter in which the animal is stunned.

There are two animal welfare issues when slaughter is performed without stunning. They are the method used to restrain the animal and the throat cut itself.

These issues are particularly relevant when it comes to cattle. Poultry can be slaughtered easily with a sharp knife, and there is no need for stunning. Sheep are smaller than cattle and easier to restrain and kill quickly. A lamb that is slaughtered with a sharp knife out on the farm, even without stunning, probably has better welfare than a lamb that has to ride on a truck to a slaughter plant. Due to anatomical differences in the blood vessels in the neck, cattle take twice as long as sheep to lose consciousness after the cut, and their size makes them difficult to restrain.

Some of the worst animal welfare problems in the kosher industry are the stressful methods of restraint that are still being used in some slaughterhouses. In the United States, there are still some kosher plants that hoist conscious animals by one rear leg. Fortunately, most of the large American kosher plants have stopped using this traumatic method.

In South American kosher slaughterhouses, however, the handling practices are often atrocious. The live cattle are shackled and dragged and then held down by several people. The methods of restraint are so bad that it is impossible to determine how the animal is reacting to the throat cut. Large amounts of kosher beef are imported into this country from plants that are using these barbaric methods of restraint.

Even when a plant has decent restraint equipment to hold the animal in a more comfortable position, it needs to be operated correctly. This requires management that is committed to good animal treatment.

I have observed that when kosher slaughter of cattle is done well, there is almost no reaction from the animal when the throat is cut. Flicking my hand near the animal’s face caused a bigger reaction. When the cut is done well, 90% or more of the cattle will collapse and become unconscious within 30 seconds.

There are new scientific studies that show there are welfare concerns when animals are slaughtered without stunning. New Zealand researchers conducted a study on calves with a new EEG brain wave method that indicated that the knife cut caused pain. In this study, however, they used a machine-sharpened knife that may have been too short. A knife that is too short will cause gouging of the wound. The results of this study clearly show that the knife they used was not acceptable. To this date, a similar study has not been done with the special long kosher knife.

Another study has shown that one of the most difficult welfare problems to solve is aspiration (inhaling) of blood into the lungs after the cut. Cattle continue to breathe after the throat is cut. There is much variation in the percentage of animals that aspirate blood. It may be possible to improve methods and reduce this problem. Aspiration of blood is an issue that must be fixed to have an acceptable level of welfare. It will require both research and practical experimentation with technique to solve this problem.

Finally, there needs to be accountability to ensure that both restraint and slaughter are done correctly. Over the years, I have become disgusted by the frequency with which procedures in a given plant seem perfect when I am visiting, but as soon as I have left an undercover video surfaces that reveals bad practices. This has happened in both conventional and religious slaughter plants.

To prevent this problem, I am a big advocate of video auditing over the Internet. An outside auditing company can view video from a plant and evaluate its practices using an objective scoring system. Some of the variables that can be measured are electric prod use, percentage of cattle vocalizing (bellowing) and acts of abuse. Video auditing is now being used in many large, conventional slaughter plants. Unfortunately, all kosher plants have resisted video auditing.

Kosher slaughter of cattle requires special care. While some kosher plants have done well, and many others are improving, too often kosher plants have been very badly managed compared to many of the big conventional plants.

In order to maximize animal welfare, kosher slaughterhouses need to take the following steps: 1) eliminate stressful cruel methods of restraint such as dragging, shackling and hoisting or leg clamping; 2) keep animals calm before slaughter, since an agitated animal is more difficult to kill and takes longer to become unconscious; 3) perform the cut immediately after an animal’s head is restrained; 4) use restraining devices that hold animals in a comfortable upright position; 5) perform collapse scoring to keep track of the proportion of animals that quickly lose consciousness; 6) use video auditing by an outside firm, and practice transparency by streaming the video to a webpage so that the public can view it.

Adhering to these practices would enhance animal welfare, and all these steps could be implemented without transgressing the requirements of religious law. The kosher industry has an opportunity to show the world that it is doing things the right way.
Temple Grandin is a professor of animal science at Colorado State University and a designer of livestock handling facilities. She is the author of “Animals Make Us Human: Creating the Best Life for Animals” (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2009).

Kosher Gets Ethical

2011-01-10T03:10:00.001-06:00

A new standard is about to remake American Jews’ dietary code.

By LOUIS NAYMAN

Kosher is about to get an American makeover. Sometime between Passover and Chanukah 2011, a new social responsibility certification—the Magen Tzedek (Star of Justice)—is expected to begin appearing on the labels of selected kosher food products throughout the United States.

Kosher products are those that meet the standards of kashrus, Jewish dietary law prescribing what foods or combination of foods are permissible or prohibited to eat. Pork and shellfish are forbidden. Meat and dairy products cannot be mixed. Ingredients and processes must be inspected to make certain that nothing prohibited is introduced. Even otherwise permissible meat is kosher only if slaughtered, processed and inspected according to specific procedures under the supervision of a specially trained rabbi. Some orthodox Jews insist on an additional set of inspections involving examination of the lungs and internal organs to make certain that they are smooth—glatt—and free of punctures or disease.

Kosher food is a $250 billion business, accounting for approximately 40 percent of all packaged foods sold in the United States. That makes kosher certification—by agencies specializing in rabbinic supervision of kashrus compliance—a big enterprise as well. By far the largest certifier of domestic kosher products is the nonprofit Orthodox Union, whose U inside an O symbol appears on more than 400,000 products, including Land O’ Lakes butter, Golden West beef, Jolt energy drinks, Oreo cookies, Glenmorangie Single Malt Scotch and Blue Bunny ice cream.

Those who remember the 1970s television ad for Hebrew National hot dogs (“We answer to a higher authority!”) can be forgiven for assuming that current kosher certification explicitly mandates labor standards, hygienic conditions and environmental ethics surpassing federal or state requirements. It does not.

Magen Tzedek certification, say its developers, is intended to assure purchasers that a kashrus-compliant product also conforms to Biblical and Talmudic ethical values and standards regarding the treatment of workers, animal welfare, environmental impact and fair business dealings. Criteria for product certification include: living-wage compensation and decent benefits, neutrality in labor organizing drives, documented compliance with EPA and OSHA regulations, adherence to humane animal treatment and farm standards, responsible energy and water consumption, use of sustainable materials and alternative fuels, and fair treatment of immigrant workers.

The new certification is now in beta testing, with an expected market rollout sometime during the coming year, says Rabbi Morris Allen, who is working with Cornell University meat science professor Joe Regenstein and Social Accountability International to ready the standard for market. The spiritual leader of the Beth Jacob Congregation in Mendota Heights, Minn., Allen has a history of involvement as a pulpit rabbi in issues such as prison reform and immigrants rights, and has been leading the push for Magen Tzedek during the last five years.

It has been a polarizing effort. Some Jewish leaders believe the new standard is redundant and unnecessary. Rabbi Avi Shafran, spokesperson for Agudath Israel of America—a leading fundamentalist Orthodox religious, educational and advocacy organization—isn’t convinced that kashrus needs yet another certification. “I think that many consumers have no reason to distrust the government agencies and law enforcement agencies as adequate safeguards for all those areas,” he says. “I know of no halachic [pertaining to Jewish law] opinion requiring a kosher consumer to try to ensure that companies go beyond what governmental rules require of them.”

Rabbi Menachem Genack, one of the foremost experts of kashrus certification in the world and the Rabbinic Administrator and CEO of the Orthodox Union’s kashrus program, is “keeping an open mind.” Under his leadership, the Orthodox Union will allow the Magen Tzedek to be placed on labels next to the familiar OU logo.

Allen is determined to bring the new kosher standard to grocery store shelves around the country. “We have one chance to do this right,” he insists. “We as a people should not be more concerned about the smoothness of a cow’s lung than the safety of a worker’s hand.”

Louis Nayman is a longtime union organizer. The views expressed are his own.

Jews Ready To Roll Out New 'Ethical Kosher' Seals

2010-12-23T10:11:00.000-06:00

By Nicole Neroulias
Religion News Service

NEW YORK (RNS) What does it really mean for your Hebrew National hot dog to "answer to a higher authority?"

For years, it's meant a kosher certification that ensured Jewish (and non-Jewish) consumers were buying a product that met strict religious standards for slaughter and preparation that went beyond government requirements.

Now a controversial Jewish movement believes kosher food must meet an even higher ethical ideal -- and they're rolling out a stamp of approval to make it official.

The new Magen Tzedek "seal of justice," developed by Conservative Judaism's Hekhsher Tzedek Commission will be tested on at least two kosher food companies in early 2011.

Standards and fees will be adjusted after 10 weeks of reviewing a host of conditions -- including labor, animal welfare, consumer rights, corporate integrity and environmental impact -- and analyzed by a New York-based auditing firm, said Rabbi Morris Allen, the project's
director.

The new seal is a response to poor labor and animal welfare practices at the now-defunct Agriprocessors meat plant in Postville, Iowa, which had earned a kosher stamp of approval from Orthodox rabbis.

The dueling kosher certifications have opened a rift between Hekhsher Tzedek's Conservative backers and Orthodox Jews, who control most existing kosher standards and are the largest consumers of kosher products.

Kosher certification, now available from hundreds of agencies and stamped on more than one-third of American food products, costs anywhere from a few hundred to tens of thousands of dollars, depending on a company's size.

The new, supplemental Magen Tzedek approval will probably cost in the "low-to-mid-four figures," Allen estimates, which shouldn't result in higher prices for kosher foods.

What may raise the price, however, is if a company needs to improve conditions to meet ethical standards.

"If the company wants our seal and they're paying (workers) poorly, they may have to raise their compensation to their employees, and those sort of things," Allen said. "But most companies that are already being good food production companies, it will be a negligible cost."

Critics say the new ethical kosher movement is an unnecessary layer of bureaucracy in an industry that's already under government regulation. The (Orthodox) Rabbinical Council of America released its own kosher ethical guidelines last January, but emphasized that food
supervisors don't have the expertise to recognize or handle illegal or unethical business practices.

Kosher certifications usually pay for themselves through increased market share, and skeptics are doubtful the industry will see the same benefits in a second ethical seal, on top of meeting federal USDA and work-safety requirements.

"Companies already have enough on their hands," said Rabbi Menachem Genack, the rabbinic administrator of the Orthodox Union's kosher division, which had certified Agriprocessors. "We think that the government agencies have the experience and resources to do that better than us."

Menachem Lubinsky, editor of Kosher Today and president of LUBICOM Marketing Consulting, which specializes in the kosher food industry, said most companies don't want yet another symbol on their packaging, and that the Magen Tzedek stamp may even prompt a backlash from Orthodox consumers.

"There's a perspective that those companies will be seen as having caved in to Conservative demands and being more left-leaning," he said, adding that smaller kosher producers won't be able to afford or compete with Magen Tzedek's requirements.

"(Consumers) see this as being superfluous and they have full faith in the government to protect them," he added. "There are always problems slipping through the cracks ... but (ethical kosher) would unfairly burden the small producers."

Allen maintains that it's not enough to merely expect kosher food companies to meet or exceed government workplace standards, just as Jews don't leave it to state laws to ensure that food advertised as kosher is actually kosher.

"The government is oftentimes stretched, and is not able to do the kinds of inspections that should take place," Allen said. "For us, these are religious issues, no less than certifying the ritual nature of the product. It's our responsibility to see that in the production of kosher
food, the ethical demands of the Jewish people are also being met."

Allen also dismisses critics who say Conservative Jews are trying to compete with, or supplant, the Orthodox in policing the kosher food industry.

"As far as I know," he said, "there's no unique responsibility for only the Orthodox to be involved in determining standards."

The movement does have some support among the Orthodox, including Uri L'Tzedek, an Orthodox initiative that aims to ensure that kosher restaurants pay minimum wage and overtime.

Since its debut in May 2009, about 60 kosher eateries in America have earned the group's Tav HaYosher seal. Director Rabbi Ari Weiss said several restaurant owners have told him that the ethical seal has improved business among customers who care about fair workplace standards.

The same may hold true for ethical kosher food products, he said.

"We see it as bringing ethics and ethical consumption into the Jewish marketplace," Weiss said. "In any community, there are bad actors and good actors ... We're asking them to abide by the law. Nothing more, nothing less."

Despite resistance from the Orthodox, ethical-kosher supporter say their efforts will appeal to the wider spectrum of Jewish and even non-Jewish consumers who care that their food comes from a place that paid, not just prayed, properly.

"At the end of the day, it's a win-win for the kosher food industry," Allen said, "because for some people, our symbol will be the only symbol that they will care about.

The Rise of Ethical Kashrut

2010-12-20T16:26:00.001-06:00

Baltimore Jewish Times
December 20, 2010

I like my meat – even though I don’t eat it often due to kosher meat’s insanely high prices in this country. But when I do buy it, I’d like to know that child labor laws, environmental standards, communal responsibility and general decent human behavior has not been violated in its preparation. (Knowing of such things does govern where I shop, which is why I don’t care to step in a Walmart or a certain kosher market in Baltimore, which are stories I’d be happy to share…).

Now, thanks to the Conservative movement – in which I was raised and remain – I and so many others are poised to actually feel good about the kosher meat available.

Many remember how scandal rocked the kashrut industry three years ago. That’s when the behemoth (pun intended) Agriprocessors was cited for hundreds of labor violations, some involving children, and so much more. No longer could one believe the label “kosher” automatically denoted “better”. Rather, at best it meant that the food preparation hit a baseline standard of Jewish law.

Now, in good news for all kosher consumers and certainly the Jewish people’s image, what for some is an unlikely player is about to bring an ethical seal of approval into the marketplace.

The Conservative movement’s Hekhsher Tzedek Commission will in early January 2011 begin testing select companies’ domestic food production standards on five levels –labor practices, animal welfare practices, consumer protection, corporate integrity and environmental impact. After a three-month trial, the Commission will decide if the company deserves the designation of a “Magen Tzedek,” or “seal of justice,” reports “The Forward.” (See: http://forward.com/articles/133979/) Even better, the results will be made public in March.

Rabbi Morris Allen, director of the project, would not identify the companies, but called them “significant players in the food industry — and in the kosher food industry.”

How big could this get? Approximately 40 percent of food manufactured in the country carrying a kashrut certification, according to “The Forward.” Thus, the potential for ethical stewardship of so much more than ingredients is massive.

We may not quite be what we eat, but how that food arrives on our plate matters to many of us. And as discerning consumers, shouldn’t we care about what Judaism instructs, our role in our planet’s health and how those two efforts intersect?

Posted by Neil Rubin on 12/20/10 at 03:56 PM

Tough New Ethics Seal Set To Be Tested in Kosher Marketplace

2010-12-20T16:25:00.002-06:00

The Jewish Daily Forward
December 15, 2010

After more than a year of fine-tuning, the criteria for earning a Magen Tzedek, the “seal of justice” to be awarded to kosher food producers that meet a detailed set of ethical standards, are about to be tested by American food companies. The seal would be added to products that already merit a hekhsher, or symbol certifying that a food item is kosher, to show that the product not only meets Jewish dietary laws, but comports with Jewish moral values, as well. Beginning in January, several producers of kosher food will attempt to follow guidelines for everyday business conduct in five principal categories: labor, animal welfare, consumer issues, corporate integrity and environmental impact. The draft standards for these guidelines fill 150 PowerPoint pages. The companies’ efforts will be audited by Social Accountability Accreditation Services — an experienced social responsibility auditor based in New York City — with results to be announced in March.

Testing the standards represents the closest step yet to demonstrating “that Jewish ethical concerns that are based on who we are as a people are just as certifiable as Jewish ritual concerns,” Rabbi Morris Allen, a Minnesota pulpit rabbi, told the Forward. Allen is the project director of the Conservative-backed Hekhsher Tzedek Commission, which was formed in early 2007 after revelations of poor labor conditions — on top of previous exposés of brutal animal treatment — at the Agriprocessors kosher meat plant in Postville, Iowa, shocked some Jews into activism around the practice of kashrut.

“This is a serious religious undertaking to help restore a culture of kashrut in America. Kashrut itself suffered a black eye as a result of some of this,” said Allen, who hastened to note that many kosher food producers have always behaved ethically. Covering everything from employee access to binding arbitration, the nutritional value of the food produced and recycling resources within a factory, the standards represent “the most exhaustive and comprehensive undertaking in the kosher food marketplace ever attempted,” he added.

Allen said that the Hekhsher Tzedek Commission has signed agreements for testing with two companies and is closing in on a third. He would not name them, because the parties have signed confidentiality agreements that Allen said are aimed at promoting honest and robust testing of the standards. One of the companies is a kosher-specific producer, while the other two produce kosher food along with nonkosher products, he said. Allen called them “significant players in the food industry — and in the kosher food industry.”

Some major players in kashrut, however, aren’t as excited. Asked whether people in kosher circles are buzzing over either Magen Tzedek or the “Jewish Principles and Ethical Guidelines (“JPEG”) for the Kosher Food Industry,” released early this year by the Rabbinical Council of America, which represents Orthodox rabbis, some authorities said it’s quiet on the ethical-advancement front.

Rabbi Menachem Genack, rabbinic administrator of the Orthodox Union’s Kashrut Division, said, “I don’t hear them talking about either one.” Rabbi Sholem Fishbane, executive director of the Association of Kashrus Organizations, also said, “It’s been pretty quiet. I haven’t heard any movement at all on these things.”

Genack, who visited Agriprocessors during the crisis, and whose O.U. now certifies the successor company, Agri Star, said, “I frankly would be surprised if this really took off.” It’s hard to pay for the additional infrastructure, and companies are mostly interested in the marketing aspect of certifications, Genack said — meeting federal safety regulations keeps them busy enough.

“I’m interested just to see how it works out,” he said. “I don’t know. I don’t have a clue.”

Magen Tzedek is one of several initiatives that sprang from the collapse of Agriprocessors, which was the nation’s largest producer of kosher meat until its harsh treatment of animals and laborers came to light (largely through reporting in the Forward). Immigration raids on its workers followed, along with the indictment and imprisonment of CEO Sholom Rubashkin, and the plant’s bankruptcy and closure in the fall of 2008.

Although many Jewish consumers and kashrut authorities have backed the Brooklyn-based Rubashkin family, other critical responses have surfaced. In addition to the RCA’s “JPEG,” the Orthodox social justice group Uri L’Tzedek now grants a Tav Ha-Yosher, or ethical seal, to kosher restaurants around the country that meet basic standards for fair treatment of workers.

Because that initiative focuses on the comsumption end, while Magen Tzedek examines production, Uri L’Tzedek’s director, Rabbi Ari Weiss, calls the efforts “complementary.” (Kosher restaurants comprise a relatively small market share, while more than 40% of all food manufactured in the United States bears a kosher certification.) “The more rabbinic organizations and rabbis and leaders in the community who are talking about the significance and importance of ethics in both the workplace and kosher production — I think that’s an amazing thing,” Weiss said.

The Hekhsher Tzedek Commission released its “Standards for the Magen Tzedek Service Mark” in September 2009 and invited the public to comment. Joe Regenstein, professor of food science at Cornell University and an official adviser to the effort, said he received input from about 10 people, activists on various sides of the issue, which helped him fine-tune the standards that the beta-testing companies will use this winter. Their experience likely will lead to further retooling in 2011, Regenstein said.

Magen Tzedek’s project manager, Rabbi Iris Richman, wrote in an e-mail that audits “will take place both on factory floors as well as within the offices of these companies, where records, logs, and documentation will be reviewed. These auditors need not be Jewish nor do they require knowledge of kashrut, because the applicant facilities will already be kosher-certified.… The facilities themselves that apply for certification pay for audits, and auditors travel to the sites themselves, where they review documents, inspect the facilities, and interview workers confidentially. The exact details of these visits are being finalized as we speak.”

Although the Agriprocessors plant, bought by Orthodox Jewish Canadian plastics manufacturer Hershey Friedman in July 2009, can expect its practices to be scrutinized in the months and years to come, spokesman Jeff Pigott says the company isn’t eager to participate in the Magen Tzedek effort. “Right now, Agri Star has kosher certification they’re comfortable with, and they’re not looking for additional certification,” Pigott said.

For now, at least, the Magen Tzedek effort will be focused elsewhere. “This is not about Postville,” Allen said. “This is not just about one company in one state. This is about who we are.”

Contact Karen Loew at loew@forward.com

Newsweek's 50 Most Influential Rabbis in America: Magen Tzedek Scores Two!

2010-07-08T18:08:00.003-05:00

by Michael Lynton and Gary Ginsberg
June 18, 2010

Two rabbi watchers release their 2010 list.

In the fall of 2006, Sony Pictures chairman and CEO Michael Lynton and his pal Gary Ginsberg, now an executive vice president of Time Warner Inc., began working on a list of the 50 most influential rabbis in the U.S.

The friends devised the following unscientific criteria to rank the leaders, whose specialties range from kashrut to Kabbalah: Are they known nationally/internationally? (20 points.) Do they have political/social influence? (20 points.) Do they have a media presence? (10 points.) Are they leaders within their communities? (10 points.) Are they considered leaders in Judaism or their movements? (10 points. ) How big are their constituencies? (10 points.) Have they made an impact on Judaism in their career? (10 points.) Have they made a greater impact beyond the Jewish community and their rabbinical training? (10 points.)

NEWSWEEK published that first list around Passover, 2007, with this caveat: “Is the list subjective? Yes. Is it mischievous in its conception? Definitely.” Now in its fourth year, Lynton and Ginsberg’s list includes eight fresh names and a new rabbi in the top spot.
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10.Morris Allen—As program director for Magen Tzedek, the ethical kosher seal, Allen is changing the way the world thinks about kashrut and the ethical issues surrounding the hechsher. (NEW)
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32.Michael Siegel—In addition to serving as senior rabbi at Chicago’s Anshe Emet congregation, Siegel is also nationally known as the co-chair of the Heksher Tzedek Commission. (NEW)

(Click here to see the complete listing.)

New ethical seal will take kashrut where it must go

2010-05-28T09:37:00.003-05:00

Jweekly.com
Thursday, May 27, 2010

The laws of kashrut have guided Jews for millennia. But like everyone else on the planet, Jews can no longer deny the link between food and the socio-ecological impact of its manufacture.

That is why we applaud the Conservative movement for devising a new hechsher, or certification, that adds to the guidelines for what is — and isn’t — an acceptable kosher product.

Our story on page 8 details the movement’s new Magen Tzedek, which acknowledges what its designers call “Kashrut for the 21st century.” After a period of testing, the new seal of approval will make its debut, probably in the first half of 2011.

Beyond the rules of kashrut enshrined in the Torah –– rules that can never be modified –– the Magen Tzedek commission created additional categories by which to assess kosher status. Those categories include the welfare of workers and animals, the environment and corporate responsibility.

Some may look askance at this and similar efforts afoot in other denominations. After all, the Torah and Talmud already address a multitude of social justice issues. Over the years, the various streams of Judaism have codified the Jewish way when it comes to how we treat the planet and our fellow human beings.

The times we live in call for more.

Nothing has a greater impact on civilization than food production. There is no greater drain on resources, no endeavor more polluting, than the food industry. We depend on an unsustainable global system powered by fossil fuels, pesticides and exploitative labor practices.

And let us not forget the horrific level of animal cruelty at its base.

As the shameful example of the Agriprocessors scandal showed us, the kosher food industry is not immune to committing abuses.

Thus we face the omnivore’s dilemma. We must eat to live, but we must make sure that the food we eat meets the highest ideals of Judaism. It is no longer enough that a shochet properly applied his trade or that a rabbi supervised production in any given factory.

It means that at every step, from farmland to dinner table, from pasture to drive-through window, the food we eat embodies respect for the Earth, respect for animal life and respect for our fellow human beings.

The new Conservative hechsher absolutely upholds the letter of the law when it comes to kashrut. As one commission adviser says, there will be no hechsher on pork sausage.

But the Magen Tzedek hechsher upholds more than the letter of the law. It upholds the spirit, as well.

Ethical Kosher Seal Nearing Marketplace for Conservative Jews

2010-05-27T22:20:00.000-05:00

Conservative movement’s ambitious ‘Magen Tzedek’ in testing stages, hoping to have certified products on store shelves within year.

Tuesday, May 25, 2010
Rivka Oppenheim
Special To The Jewish Week

With the trials of Sholom Rubashkin, the former CEO of the Agriprocessors kosher slaughterhouse in Postville, Iowa, still looming large over the kosher food industry, the Conservative movement is ready to make its mark on a field that is dominated by Orthodox companies.

After years of discussion and planning, the “Magen Tzedek” — which the Conservative movement calls the world’s first Jewish ethical certification seal — will complete beta testing with two food companies by the end of 2010.

“Our expectation is, a year from now, to have 15 companies that will be promoting the Magen Tzedek,” said Rabbi Morris Allen, project director of Hekhsher Tzedek, the commission that has developed the seal.

Rabbi Allen, 55, spoke to The Jewish Week before participating in a session at this year’s Rabbinical Assembly convention, on “Moving Magen Tzedek in the Marketplace: How the Conservative Movement is Seating Itself at the Kosher Table.”

Conservative rabbis from all over the United States and Canada crowded into the chapel of the Upper West Side’s Congregation Ansche Chesed Monday night to get an update on the initiative, which began in 2006 — two years before federal agents raided the Agriprocessors plant.

Meanwhile, Tav HaYosher, a more modest initiative launched by the Orthodox social justice organization Uri L’Tzedek one year after the Rubashkin raid, has just marked its one-year anniversary — with 40 participating establishments in five states.

Rabbi Michael Siegel, national co-chair of the Hekhsher Tzedek Commission, acknowledged some people’s frustration with the slow pace of his project.

“People in your congregations are saying ‘Nu? Hurry up,’” he said.

Rabbi Siegel, who is senior rabbi of Anshe Emet Synagogue in Chicago, asked every congregation to appoint an ambassador who will sign on for a one-year commitment, promoting the Magen Tzedek mission throughout the Conservative movement.

“It won’t simply be the rabbis pounding on the bima,” he said.

The Magen Tzedek is not intended to replace kashrut certifications, such as the Orthodox Union’s seal of approval. That’s why Professor Joe Regenstein, who drew up the guidelines for the Hekhsher Tzedek Commission, refuses to actually use the term “hekhsher tzedek.”

“That caused confusion and unnecessary concern,” he told The Jewish Week.

Regenstein, head of the Cornell Kosher and Halal Food Initiative, told the audience at Ansche Chesed that besides fruits and vegetables, which don’t need a heksher, any Magen Tzedek-certified product would also need to have kosher certification.

“Pork sausage is not going to qualify, no matter how good [the plant is] at social justice,” he said.

Hekhsher Tzedek will consider five issues in awarding its seal of approval: labor (wages and benefits, and health and safety); animal welfare; consumer issues; corporate integrity; and environmental impact.

A social auditing firm, Social Accountability Accreditation Services has been hired to help develop and implement the standards. Rabbi Siegel said he plans to work with ROI Ventures, a strategy firm, to look into the economic sustainability of Magen Tzedek.

Whereas Tav HaYosher lists only three criteria on its website, all of them issues that already fall under existing U.S. labor laws — the right to fair pay, the right to fair time (one day off per week, compensation for overtime, breaks etc.) and the right to a safe work environment — the Magen Tzedek standards go well beyond legal requirements. A summary version is available on the Magen Tzedek website.

After opening the set of standards to public comment last fall, Regenstein prepared a response for every single one.

“It’s got to be something that’s objective, auditable, fair,” said Regenstein, a professor of food science at Cornell. “The process needs to be transparent.”

And while Uri L’Tzedek works only with restaurants and grocery stores, Regenstein has bigger plans for the Magen Tzedek, which he hopes to promote internationally.

“It would be a jam processor in North Dakota who is already kosher-certified, to a Kraft, to a Unilever,” he told The Jewish Week.

Rabbi Siegel went even further, telling the assembled rabbis that there have been discussions about giving Magen Tzedek to synagogues — ensuring that fair labor practices are enforced in houses of worship, not just in restaurants and factories. An article in the Forward newspaper this fall noted that the labor standards Magen Tzedek calls for in the food industry are met in few Conservative synagogues and other movement institutions, many of which, according to that article, do not pay a “living wage” or health benefits to custodial and other part-time staff.

Like the Magen Tzedek project, Shmuly Yanklowitz, founder and president of Uri L’Tzedek, is hoping to keep growing.

After receiving Orthodox rabbinical ordination from Yeshivat Chovevei Torah, the 28-year-old will move to Los Angeles next month to launch his organization on the West Coast.

Yanklowitz says in the past year, 60 compliance workers have been trained to help enforce the standards of the Tav HaYosher, and that the movement now has “thousands of constituents.”

“I think that the community momentum is immense right now,” he said. “Our constituents are really demanding rapid response. I think there’s not patience for long, drawn-out processes.

“We’re at a crucial stage for the development of the ethical kashrut narrative and for the identity of the concerned Jewish, socially conscious consumer.”

Asked about expanding the Tav HaYosher to other areas besides food, Yanklowitz said that conversation is premature, and that there is a “danger of overextending.”

“We really need a serious victory on creating social change in kashrut first,” he said.

The measure of that victory? When “those that are not complying will need to comply in order to stay afloat.” Already, he said, “multiple owners have told me they’ve gotten thousands of dollars more business because of the Tav.”

Rabbi Menachem Genack, CEO of the Orthodox Union’s Kashrut Division, is skeptical over Magen Tzedek’s potential impact on the kosher food industry.

“I don’t see many companies willing to sign on to a standard that’s different than what’s in place, in terms of government regulations,” he said.

While Rabbi Genack said he’s willing to sanction the Magen Tzedek symbol appearing next to the OU’s, he also said the government should be the ones to handle labor issues — even as he slammed the government over its handling of the Rubashkin case.

“Everything it did was an overreaction,” Rabbi Genack said. “It destroyed a company. It destroyed the economy of the region. ... Asking for a life sentence was an absolute outrage.

“I think the one that should be in the dock is the U.S. Attorney. That’s where I think there’s an ethical outrage. The justice that was done is more reminiscent of Soviet jurisprudence.”

Sholom Rubashkin is currently being tried by the state of Iowa on child labor charges. He faces 83 counts of child labor violations. Federal sentencing has been postponed until June 22, after Rubashkin was convicted last November of 86 counts of bank fraud.

After initially pushing for a life sentence, prosecutors have asked for a 25-year sentence, which Rabbi Genack says is “essentially still a life sentence” for the 51-year-old Rubashkin.

Unlike Rabbi Genack, Magen Tzedek’s Rabbi Allen said relying solely on government inspectors to enforce labor laws might not be the best course of action.

“The mine disaster in West Virginia and the oil spill off the coast of Louisiana have demonstrated that oftentimes the government is unable, or becomes too involved, to be able to stop certain kinds of industry practices,” said Rabbi Allen, spiritual leader of Beth Jacob Congregation in Mendota Heights, Minn.

“We wouldn’t trust New York law when it came to ritual law. We shouldn’t necessarily simply trust American law when it comes to upholding Jewish ethical norms, either.”

JTA contributed to this report.

Conservatives’ ethical seal nearing kosher marketplace

2010-05-27T14:44:00.002-05:00

By Amy Klein · May 25, 2010

NEW YORK (JTA) -- “We will not put a hechsher on pork products.”

Counterintuitive as the need for that statement about kosher certification might sound, it was just one of the points about the Conservative movement's planned ethical seal that the group responsible for the certification wanted to clarify at this week’s gathering of Conservative rabbis in New York.

The Hekhscher Tzedek Commission announced at this week's Rabbinical Assembly convention that it had hired a social auditing firm to compile standards for what the seal will represent. The Magen Tzedek certification has been in development for three years following multiple scandals at the nation’s largest kosher meatpacking plant, Agriprocessors of Postville, Iowa.

Beta testing with two companies will be finished by the end of 2010.

“Over the course of the next year we will be in the marketplace,” promised Rabbi Morris Allen, the Hekhsher Tzedek project director and spiritual leader of Congregation Beth Jacob in Minnesota.

Joe Regenstein, an adviser to the Hekhscher Tzedek Commission and professor of food science at Cornell University, said the new certification will cover five areas: wages and benefits; health and safety of workers; animal welfare; environment and sustainability; and a broad category of corporate responsibilities, such as nutritional labeling and good practices.

At the convention panel at which the certification was discussed -- “Moving Magen Tzedek Into the Marketplace: How the Conservative Movement is Seating Itself at the Kosher Table,” the co-chairman of the Hekhscher Tzedek Commission, Rabbi Michael Siegel of Anshe Emet Synagogue in Chicago, urged the dozens of rabbis in the room to make the commission's projects known to their communities.

The commission wants each synagogue to appoint one socially aware and active member to work directly with the commission for a year.

Siegel also urged the audience to make sure that their synagogues and Jewish organizations are in compliance with the ethical standards espoused by the seal, such as using fair labor practices for workers and ensuring that outside contractors, like catering companies, adhere to the standards.

“We have to set the right example in our own synagogues. It's a serious issue,” he said. “This will be our Achilles heel if we don't address it.”

The commission hired Social Accountability Accreditation Services (SAAS) for help in coming up with the standards a food company must meet in order to be approved for the Magen Tzedek, or star of justice. The commission posted draft standards at the Magen Tzedek Web site for three months, inviting public comment, and now the standards are being finalized.

“We think that social justice in the marketplace is something that we can make happen,” said Eileen Kaufman, executive director of Social Accountability International, which accredits and monitors organizations as being in compliance with social standards. “What we do at SAAS is take creditable standards and put them in a structure that enables them to be carried out and used as criteria for purchasing. That proves as incentive for organizations to follow them.”

At first the label will be targeted toward U.S. kosher food product companies, Regenstein said, estimating the number at about 10,000. It will include only products that already have been certified as kosher, including non-food items like detergents and aluminum foil, as well as products that do not require kosher certification, such as fruit and vegetables.

Even though some companies might adhere to the social justice practices enumerated, if they are not kosher, they cannot get the seal.

“We are a Conservative Jewish organization. We will not put a hechsher on pork sausages. That's just not who we are,” Regenstein said. The Magen Tzedek is “tied to Jewish ethics and to Jewish law. The companies have to meet a minimum of Jewish law.”

Regenstein prefers to call the accreditation the Magen Tzedek rather than use the term hechsher.

“The word hechsher means kosher certification, and this program is not kosher certification,” he said. “This is a social justice program attached to previously recognized kosher certification.”

Regenstein added that the term hechsher made the Orthodox community nervous.

“They thought, and perhaps rightfully so, that we were going into the kosher certification business," he said. "We are going into the ethical certification business.”

For now the seal will not apply to restaurants. Other organizations, like Uri L'Tzedek, certify kosher restaurants as ethical.

Eventually the Hekhscher Tzedek Commission hopes to certify catering companies.

After the SAAS criteria are finalized, the commission will conduct an economic feasibility study to determine the cost of accreditation, Regenstein said.

He noted that it might prove economically desirable for kosher companies to acquire the seal because it will widen the market for their foods to those who care about ethics even if they don’t keep kosher.

“By tying it to kosher products, you will have more Reform and Conservative Jews looking at products that are kosher,” Regenstein said. “They can reach the entire Jewish community and people outside the community looking for a framework to choose ethical products.”

The seal may even help people become kosher observant, he said.

“All of a sudden it's not just people who keep kosher” who will be eating kosher products, Regenstein said, “but people who are interested in social justice.”

New Ethical and Legal Guidelines by Orthodox Group Echo Central Principles of Hekhsher Tzedek - Affirm Importance of the Magen Tzedek

2010-01-22T11:41:00.003-06:00

Conservative Movement’s Ethical Certification Seal In Final Stages of Development

January 22, 2010 (New York, NY) – The Magen Tzedek ethical certification seal for kosher foods received an important vote of confidence yesterday as the Rabbinical Council of America released its Guidelines to Enhance Kosher Food Producers’ Compliance with Jewish Legal and Ethical Teachings.

Launched during the summer of 2007, Magen Tzedek is a joint project of the Hekhsher Tzedek Commission of the Rabbinical Assembly and the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism.

“We heartily salute the RCA for developing these guidelines which obviously come in response to recent serious abuses within the kosher food industry,” stated Rabbi Morris Allen, founder and director of Magen Tzedek. “We are gratified to have the core principles of Magen Tzedek affirmed in their guidelines and feel supported in our effort by our counterpart organization in the Orthodox world.”

“The power of a good idea is magnified when it gains support from all corners,” said Rabbi Julie Schonfeld, executive vice president of the Rabbinical Assembly. “The observance and promotion of kashrut is a commonly-shared value of both Conservative and Orthodox Judaism. The Rabbinical Assembly looks forward to working with the rabbis of the RCA so that our joint efforts can insure that kashrut is a kiddush Ha-Shem, a sanctification of Gd’s name for the Jewish People.”

The RCA’s announcement comes at a critical time in the development of Magen Tzedek as the Hekhsher Tzedek Commission is about to sign a contract with a major social auditing firm that will take its two years’ work on the development of standards and guidelines and transform them into objective and verifiable means to certify companies that their ethical practices meet appropriate standards of conduct in the production food, reported Rabbi Allen.

“The RCA’s announcement underscores Magen Tzedek’s message,” said Rabbi Schonfeld. “While Magen Tzedek constitutes a unique expression of our unflagging commitment to the integration of ethics and ritual, we are pleased that our Orthodox colleagues have begun to develop their guidelines.”

The world’s first Jewish ethical certification seal, Magen Tzedek will help assure consumers that kosher food products were produced in keeping with the highest possible Jewish ethical values and ideals for social justice in the area of labor concerns, animal welfare, environmental impact, consumer issues and corporate integrity.

It is designed to coexist with other rabbinic kosher seals.

The development of the Magen Tzedek seal came as a response to the egregious violations of human and animal rights at the AgriProcessors Meat Processing facility in Postville, Iowa, the largest producer of kosher meat and poultry in the US. As an expert witness on the ground, Rabbi Allen had an intimate knowledge of the situation and advocated for much-needed changes, developing Hekhsher Tzedek in the process.

The basic principle of Hekhsher Tzedek is that the ethical underpinning of kashrut is inextricable from the ritual observance.

The Magen Tzedek seal will be awarded to kosher food companies based on a number of criteria having to do with such matters as employee health, safety and training; wages and benefits; the company’s environmental impact; corporate transparency and product development, among others.

“More than anything, the RCA’s new ethical and legal guidelines demonstrate that Magen Tzedek has captured the hearts and minds of American Jews, reflecting deeply-held social and religious values,” said Rabbi Allen.

STATEMENT FROM THE HEKHSHER TZEDEK COMMISSION REGARDING THE CONVICTION OF SHOLOM RUBASHKIN

2009-11-13T11:34:00.002-06:00

New York, NY (November 13, 2009) -- The news out of Sioux Falls, SD, yesterday, that Sholom Rubashkin was convicted on 86 out of 91 counts of fraud in the state’s investigation into criminal activity within the Agriprocessor’s meat processing facility in Postville, Iowa, delivers both justice and a heavy heart to those of us who champion the cause of ethical kashrut.

The investigation into Agriprocessors has unfolded in slow-motion. First there were allegations of business fraud and worker abuse, then investigations, then negotiations – all with ample opportunity for the Rubashkin family to cooperate and self-correct -- then arrogant disregard for the law, shocking revelations, indictments, a plethora of press attention, the riveting scandal of the federal raid in May of 2008, the largest scale of its kind in US history...and finally the verdict of guilty on the majority of counts of business fraud in yesterday’s trial.

It is important to note that the trial on charges of worker abuse is not even underway. The heartbreaking stories that will emerge in the course of this trial will be as cringe-worthy as they are criminal.

As the founders of Magen Tzedek, we were on the ground in Postville from the virtual start of this tragic drama in the summer of 2006, bearing witness to the terrible worker conditions and business practices at the nation’s largest manufacturer of kosher meat and poultry, trying to steer the Rubashkin family towards taking responsibility and correcting their mistakes, acting in accordance with the biblical injunction – “hokhaich tokhiach et amitecha” – “rebuke your kinsman,” that is, do not stand idly by while one of your brethren commits a grievous wrongdoing.

Although the miscarriage of kashrut at Agriprocessors was not the catalyst for the creation of Magen Tzedek, it provided an urgent context and need for us to develop our initiative, proclaiming publicly our belief that keeping kosher is inextricably linked to leading a life of ethical integrity.

There are tragedies within tragedies in the story of the fall of the house of Rubashkin, the worst of which might be the deaf ear of the Rubashkin family turned towards those who tried to prevent the collapse. We were at the epicenter of those who repeatedly reached out to the family. Yet as the investigation and trial wore on, it became clear that the deafness was a direct result of the Rubashkin family’s flagrant disregard for the law and ethical behavior.

There is neither joy nor a sense of schadenfreude in yesterday’s conviction. Those of us who toil in the field of tikkun olam are downright demoralized by this highly preventable outcome. This story could have ended very differently. Had the Rubashkin family done a sincere teshuva – heeding, for instance, the three-pronged course of action we delivered to them in the summer of 2006 -- they would now be the heroes of the kosher world instead of its villains.

Given the sad outcome of this situation, we rededicate ourselves to the birthing of our Magen Tzedek seal of ethical certification, a process that has been long and arduous but more relevant with each passing day.
After thousands of hours of meetings, deliberations, drafts of our working guidelines and compliance procedures, we are getting closer. The soul and future of kashrut depends on the development of Magen Tzedek as an actual seal on kosher food products, indicating that it has been produced in accordance with high ethical standards for employee wages and benefits, health and safety, animal welfare, corporate transparency and environmental impact. What has emerged in the course of the development of this product is that Magen Tzedek is more than just a new certification for kosher food -- it is a worldwide awareness built upon the belief that we are how and what we eat.
Achieving Magen Tzedek is our ascent to Sinai, fraught with challenge and yet possessed of a promise. Like the Law that Moses receives at the summit of the mountain, Magen Tzedek will give Jews and all people of conscience a road map towards leading lives of ethical integrity through the portal of keeping kosher.

The Hekhsher Tzedek Commission

Rabbi Morris J. Allen, Project Director

For further information about this statement or to request an interview with any member of the Hekhsher Tzedek Commission, please contact Shira Dicker at shira@hekhshertzedek.org; 917.403.3989. Because of the Sabbath, please make these requests prior to 4 pm EST.

New Kosher Food Certification May Be Most Detailed In the Industry

2009-09-09T23:48:00.001-05:00

Magen Tzedek’s Ethical Standards Apply Even to Workers’ Wages
By Nathaniel Popper
Published September 09, 2009, issue of September 18, 2009.

The Conservative movement has released detailed guidelines for what experts say could be one of the most comprehensive food certifications in existence.

The guidelines for the new Magen Tzedek food certification are intended to ensure that ethical standards are adhered to in kosher food production, and they delve into nearly every phase of the production process. A group of Conservative rabbis began developing the certification more than two years ago after a Forward article drew attention to the poor working conditions at what was then the world’s largest kosher slaughterhouse, Agriprocessors, in Postville, Iowa.

The Hekhsher Tzedek commission, which created the guidelines with the backing of the national bodies of Conservative Judaism, has previously released rough sketches of what the certification would encompass. But the rules released this week go on for 175 pages and delve into great detail on the standards companies will need to meet if they want to earn a Magen Tzedek certification. (Hekhsher Tzedek means certification of justice in Hebrew, while Magen Tzedek means seal of justice.) Those standards broadly break down into five areas: treatment of employees, animal welfare, consumer issues, corporate integrity and environmental impact.

Among the specific rules laid out in the draft is one stipulating that a company would have to pay its lowest paid employee at least 115% of the federal minimum wage (currently $7.25 an hour) and provide the same employee with health and other benefits that amount to at least 35% of his or her wages. These standards, and many others, would apply to workers who produce any ingredient that is at least 5% of the weight of the final product.

There are a number of certification programs that look at one or another of the specific categories that the Magen Tzedek is interested in — but industry experts say that there are almost no other food-certification systems that are as comprehensive and thorough as what the Conservative rabbis are proposing.

“The breadth is impressive,” said Scott Exo, director of the Food Alliance, which bills itself as the “most comprehensive third-party certification for the production, processing, and distribution of sustainable food.”

The guidelines are being offered for public comment, and the commission is hoping to have an application and a beta test of the program done by the end of this year — with the program starting next year. The Hekhsher Tzedek commission is in talks with an independent auditing company that would conduct the actual certifying audits.

“This shows that it is possible to take Jewish norms and to produce a set of standards that are measurable and operational,” said Rabbi Morris Allen, the Minnesota congregational leader who founded the Hekhsher Tzedek commission.

From its inception, the certification has faced skepticism from many in the Orthodox rabbinate, which has traditionally overseen kosher food certification. Many rabbis have worried that the Magen Tzedek could be seen as an effort to replace kosher certification with modern ethical standards.

The guidelines state that the new certification is targeted at kosher products “because those are specifically of interest to Jews and already claim a special status in the Jewish community.” But the guidelines are careful to note that Magen Tzedek “is in addition to, not instead of, the kosher hekhsher mark.”

Past disclaimers, however, have not satisfied critics of the Hekhsher Tzedek initiative.

“My sense is that the Orthodox world, which remains the engine behind the kosher market, will continue to insist that all social justice issues be guided by government,” Menachem Lubinsky, a consultant to kosher companies and the organizer of the largest kosher industry trade show, told the Forward in an e-mail.

Regarding the Magen Tzedek effort, Lubinsky wrote: “Industry people have told me time and again that it will have little effect on the average consumer (including Conservative Jews) who will continue to base their purchase of kosher products on kosher certification, quality, and price.”

The breadth of the new standards also make them vulnerable to the criticism that they will be hard to enforce — and the guidelines go in many directions that would be difficult to ground in Jewish law, such as the directive for the certification to look at “how many microwave ovens are in the lunchroom for workers to heat food.”

In order to blunt possible criticism, the commission consulted with a board of kosher companies that have given feedback on how to make the guidelines more workable. But Kimberly Rubinfeld, who is the commission’s program manager, said that converting rough Jewish ideals into practical rules was not easy.

“Nothing comes directly from Torah — it is all interpretation,” Rubinfeld said, “so there has been a lot of discussion and debate about how do we convert Jewish values to all of these different areas. This is talking about every step of the production process from the farm or the field all the way to your fork.”

The guidelines were drawn up for the Hekhsher Tzedek commission by Joe Regenstein, a professor of food sciences at Cornell University and an a consultant on food certification projects.

“We are trying to have standards that most companies can meet, because we want most companies to commit to improving their business ethics,” he said.

The certification allows companies to build up points that eventually add up to either a Magen Tzedek or a Magen Tzedek with distinction. In a number of the five areas of evaluation, such as animal welfare, the Magen Tzedek would rely on already existing auditing agencies.

But in many of the areas of evaluation, the new guidelines propose a broad and fresh look at a company’s operations. The most intensive area of inquiry appears to be in labor standards, in part because there are so few accepted standards in this realm.

“That is probably going to be the hardest one — for both the companies to meet and for us to assure ourselves that things are happening properly,” Regenstein said.

As they are now, the guidelines would require a company to submit information on wages, benefits, child care and annual cost-of-living increases, as well as its sick leave, vacation, bereavement and parental-leave policy.

Regenstein said that these guidelines will be particularly difficult to transplant overseas, and so, at least initially, the Magen Tzedek will be confined to companies producing in the United States. But as with the larger vision, Regenstein dreams big.

“I want it on all the products that are in the supermarket, from the pastas to the ice creams,” he said.

Contact Nathaniel Popper at popper@forward.com

New Owner of Agriprocessors Faces Old Questions About Its Plans For Company

2009-07-22T19:10:00.000-05:00

By Rebecca Dube
Published July 22, 2009,

The new owner of the Agriprocessors plant in Postville, Iowa, whose bid of $8.5 million for the troubled kosher meatpacking plant was accepted by a federal bankruptcy court judge July 20, is stepping into a business, and an industry, that has weathered changes under a harsh spotlight in recent years.

Agriprocessors was bought at auction by SHF Industries, a company formed by Canadian plastics manufacturer Hershey Friedman and his son-in-law, Daniel Hirsch. Friedman owns Polystar Packaging Inc. of Montreal, which is a top maker of plastic packaging for meat. An observant Orthodox Jew, Friedman is also well known in the Montreal community for his philanthropy.

Those who have been watching the Agriprocessors saga have a lot of questions for Friedman — questions about what the ethical standards will be, how workers will be treated and how involved the Rubashkin family will be, if at all, in the future operation of the plant. The Rubashkins built Agriprocessors into the nation’s largest supplier of kosher meat, but they were forced to declare bankruptcy, and now they face criminal charges over their employment, and treatment, of undocumented workers.

It’s not yet clear whether, or how, Friedman will distance himself from the company’s legacy. He could not be reached for comment, but in an interview with Mishpacha, an Orthodox Jewish family magazine based in Jerusalem, Friedman described the Rubashkin family as “wonderful people” who “were victims of a massive witch hunt.”

Speaking with The Des Moines Register later, Friedman clarified his statement, saying that the former owners would have no role in upper management. “It’s a very large family,” he told the Register. “There are nice people in it and not-nice people.” He said that some members of the family might continue to work at the plant at lower-level jobs.

Critics of Agriprocessors are withholding judgment. “I hope, in the coming days, the Friedmans will understand the importance of speaking clearly about their plans for the company,” said Rabbi Morris Allen, leader of the Conservative movement’s Hekhsher Tzedek effort to reform labor practices in the kosher food industry. “I hope that there can be a restoration of kosher meat in this country that is not just ritually appropriate, but ethically appropriate, as well.”

The Forward’s exposure in 2006 of subpar working conditions at Agriprocessors, and the massive 2008 federal immigration raid of the factory, which resulted in nearly 400 workers being arrested, has sparked an international debate over to what extent kosher standards should include ethical treatment of workers. And since Agriprocessors shut down its beef production lines and declared bankruptcy last year, new competitors have stepped in to fill the breach.

The $8.5 million purchase price falls well short of the $22 million that Agriprocessors owes to unsecured creditors, including back pay and benefits to employees. Another bidder, Soglowek Nahariya Ltd. of Israel, was reportedly prepared to pay $40 million for the bankrupt company last March, but rescinded the offer before the auction took place. SHF was apparently the only bidder at auction for Agriprocessors, which in 2002 reported sales of $180 million to Cattle Buyers Weekly.

In the purchase agreement approved by the bankruptcy court, Friedman is not liable for any debts owed to Agriprocessors’ unsecured creditors, including Postville-area businesses, farmers who supplied animals to the plant and former workers who are owed back wages. While the sale of Agriprocessors is undoubtedly good news for Postville, a town of 2,500 that relied heavily on the meatpacking plant for jobs, it’s doubtful whether former employees will see any of the money they’re owed.

“I think not, and it breaks my heart,” Allen said. “A lot of people in Postville who did a decent day’s work for a decent day’s pay probably will never be made close to whole. Hopefully that’s something the Friedmans will address in the coming days.”

A coalition of Jewish and local leaders called the Postville Community Benefits Alliance is pressing to meet with the new owners to discuss issues such as improving wages for workers.

“We’re hoping a meeting will occur sooner rather than later, and the owners will attempt to build a relationship with the community and be more transparent in how they run the plant than the previous owners were,” said Vic Rosenthal, executive director of Jewish Community Action of St. Paul, Minn., and a member of the alliance.

Federal prosecutors have filed a 163-count indictment against Agriprocessors and former plant manager Sholom Rubashkin, son of company founder Aaron Rubashkin, with charges including labor law violations, bank fraud, mail and wire fraud, and nonpayment for livestock. Meanwhile, the Iowa Attorney General’s Office has filed more than 9,000 child labor charges against the plant and its owners and former managers.

Rubashkin intends to plead not guilty to all charges, his lawyer has said. Some lower-level managers already have pleaded guilty to immigration-related charges.

Allen said he hoped that none of the Rubashkin family would be allowed to continue in management roles at Agriprocessors under the new owners.

Before the immigration raid, the bankruptcy proceedings and widespread layoffs, Agriprocessors was the nation’s largest kosher meat producer, with a work force of about 800. The company distributed its meat under the labels Aaron’s Best, Rubashkin’s and Shor Habor. The number of employees has dwindled to about 100 as the plant has maintained production of a limited amount of poultry, but not beef, in recent months.

Also in his interview with Mishpacha, Friedman said he hopes to get the beef-processing plant up and running again by the High Holy Days.

Contact Rebecca Dube at dube@forward.com

For Some Local Jews, Kosher Isn't Enough

2009-06-30T23:53:00.004-05:00

Ethics of food production is key part of 'ethical kashrut.'
By Joshunda Sanders
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
Sunday, June 28, 2009

Malka Dubrawsky and her husband, Robert Trent, decided to go vegetarian after she heard a radio show about mad cow disease, she said.

By keeping a vegetarian diet, she and her husband are also keeping kosher, a Jewish dietary law spelled out in the Torah that prohibits mixing meat with dairy and requires that birds and mammals be slaughtered in a way that ensures they do not suffer.

"Eating that way makes you more mindful," Dubrawsky, a freelance textile designer, said. "Just like in Judaism, what you say to and about people is very important; it's really bad to deride people or insult them. What you put in your mouth is as important as what comes out of it."

Dubrawsky and Trent, both 42, are part of a trend among Jews to combine their religious views with the goal of consuming local, organic food. Called ethical kashrut, it's the idea that adherence to Jewish dietary laws is as important as the ethics and social justice involved in the creation and processing of food.

In the past, "the idea of how you would slaughter an animal was connected to the idea of appreciating that the animal was God's creation, and you're lucky enough to have the sustenance from eating it, but you are required to kill it as humanely as possible," Dubrawsky said. "It's an old idea that fits into the new idea" of ethical kashrut, she said.

A major catalyst for Jews who now practice ethical kashrut was a scandal at Agriprocessors Inc., the largest provider of kosher meat in the United States.

May 12 marked the anniversary of federal immigration raids at the Postville, Iowa, company, where 389 immigrants were arrested in the Bush administration's largest crackdown on illegal workers at a single site. For years, the company faced allegations of worker abuse and violations of labor laws. It was also criticized over code violations and slaughtering practices not in line with kosher rules to minimize animal suffering.

"I was horrified because those people know what Jewish law says about that," Dubrawsky said. "They, of all people, who put forward this righteous face, should have known better."

The Agriprocessors raid and allegations of violations reverberated at the Kosher Store at the H-E-B off Far West Boulevard, Cross said. It's the grocery chain's only dedicated kosher store statewide, and it has relied on Agriprocessors for the bulk of its meat products for years. The 2008 raid caused a flurry of questions, said Frank Efrayim Brock, the food supervisor at the store.

"People in Texas are curious about where food comes from now," he said.

The discussions prompted by the raid created "a growing pain in the kosher community, the first big moment in kosher," Brock said. "Now, kosher has to reflect the values in society. Ultimately, this was going to happen, and it's for the good because we can have relatively inexpensive meat that doesn't have a stigma attached to it."

Cross said the store stopped doing business with Agriprocessors in November. "But there was no one to fill the void," he said, so he had to search for new suppliers.

He selected Wise Organic Pastures in Pennsylvania, which supplies kosher meat both to the H-E-B Kosher Store and to Central Market stores in Austin. He also chose meat suppliers in Minnesota and South Dakota.

Rabbinical authorities in charge of kosher standards, referred to as mashgichim, are developing a seal for ethical foods. The new and traditional stamps are called hekhshers. Even before the raid, Rabbi Morris Allen of Mendota Heights, Minn., started work on an ethical kashrut symbol — called Magen Tzedek, which means seal of justice. He is director of the Hekhsher Tzedek Commission, which has worked to get the seal placed on products since 2006. He said that the commission hopes to have the seal on at least three products before Rosh Hashana in September.

Adoption of the proposed seal would be one way to make ancient Jewish practices fit a more modern society, said Lisa Goodgame, 37, the director of the Jewish Community Relations Council with the Jewish Community Association of Austin.

"Ethical kashrut may make keeping kosher relevant again for my generation because it helps blend how we eat with spirituality, which is very important," Goodgame said.

The seal benefits everyone involved, Allen said. "More people will be buying kosher products, because they're kosher, they're ethical or for both reasons," he said. "It will be a win for food producers, the workers who will be treated better, the animals that will be treated better and the environment. Our product is ultimately the antidote to the horrific tragedy in Postville."

The Kaddish debate continues

2009-05-13T20:03:00.000-05:00

By Ami Eden · May 13, 2009

Another top leader of Conservative Judaism is taking issue with Rabbi Norman Lamm, the chancellor of Yeshiva University, for his recent assertion that "with a heavy heart we will soon say kaddish on the Reform and Conservative Movements."

Here's the statement put out by Rabbi Julie Schonfeld, the incoming executive vice president of the Rabbinical Assembly, the Conservative movement's rabbinical union.

New York, NY (May 13, 2009) – One week ago today, I returned from the AIPAC conference in Washington, DC energized not only by the thrilling program but by the realization that out of the 200-plus rabbis in attendance, more than half were my colleagues, ordained by the Conservative movement and now standing at the helms of the leading Jewish communal organizations of the day. They came with delegations of committed Conservative Jews from their congregations and institutions.

During my time in our nation’s capital I also met with the Conservative rabbis who were heading up our new Office of Public Policy and Office of Israel Advocacy, respectively. These initiatives are part of a five-platform agenda of the Rabbinical Assembly which includes Social Justice Partnerships, Interfaith Work and Hekhsher Tzedek -- a star project of the Conservative movement which is focused on creating an ethical certification process for kosher foods.

The enormous popularity and success of Hekhsher Tzedek, which has captured the interest of the Jewish community at large, including many of Rabbi Lamm’s Orthodox constituents who are in agreement with my colleague, Rabbi Morris Allen’s call that we take ethical mitzvot as seriously as ritual ones in the preparation of kosher food. The message we are hearing loud and clear is that the American Jewish community is quite literally hungry to lead lives where the ritual is bound up in the ethical underpinning.

This contribution and others, however, have sadly eluded the notice of Rabbi Norman Lamm, chancellor of Yeshiva University, who felt moved to publicly declare the need to recite Kaddish for our allegedly-dying movement in a recent Jerusalem Post interview.

It seems that Rabbi Lamm has been so busy making funeral arrangements that he has missed the news of our movement’s great and global vitality. Our seminaries are respected houses of religious learning and pastoral training, drawing new and committed students to the rabbinate. There are exciting congregational developments around the world, especially in Israel and Europe. Our presence in Latin America is critical. Our warm and welcoming synagogues throughout the United States and Canada offer proof that our movement occupies the very heart of Jewish life in North America.

And our camping and school system could not be stronger and more in demand. If any of our schools are feeling the pinch, it is an indication of the nation’s economic crisis as a whole… not our movement’s failure.

As I prepare to assume my post as executive vice president of the Rabbinical Assembly this summer, I am excited and optimistic at this very moment of transition into new leadership. With Chancellor Arnold Eisen directing the Jewish Theological Seminary and Rabbi Steven Wernick heading The United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism, we are prepared to energetically bring the Conservative Movement forward into the new century.

My advice to Rabbi Lamm is -- save your Kaddish. The imminent demise of Conservative Judaism is a tired and false mantra. Instead, I would suggest that you direct your attention to working cooperatively within the Orthodox community to build for the Jewish future. This, and not eulogizing the institutions where Jews live their lives, ought to be the work in which we jointly and cooperatively engage.

A wakeup call, one year after immigration raid in Postville, Iowa

2009-05-13T18:12:00.001-05:00

By Rubén Rosario
Updated: 05/12/2009 11:51:41 PM CDT

Warning: The following column is rated 'R' for righteous. People younger than 17 — but especially closed-minded nativists, bigots and those folks with absolutely no sense of global history or diverse life experiences — must be accompanied by a mature adult before reading this.

Church bells rang Tuesday. Shofars — ram's horns blown to signify a call to action in the Jewish tradition — were heard coast to coast, from Malibu to Mendota Heights to Maine.

The demonstrations, in addition to a multitude of solidarity marches and prayer and candlelight vigils here and elsewhere, commemorated the massive federal immigration raid a year ago this week at the Agriprocessors Inc. kosher slaughterhouse in Postville, Iowa.

Almost 400 workers, many of them undocumented workers from Guatemala and Mexico who were longtime residents of the northeastern Iowa community, were scooped up in a SWAT-like action replete with military-style helicopters.

Most of the workers served at least five months in prison and ultimately were deported after initially being charged with aggravated identity theft — a prosecutorial tool rejected last week by the U.S. Supreme Court. And that unanimous ruling was as stunning and crystal clear as an in-your-face LeBron James slam-dunk.

The plant's well-heeled Orthodox Jewish owners and its supervisors and underlings were charged, indicted, prosecuted or are still facing trial on employment, workplace safety and child labor violations.

The raid punched a hole in the small town's economy and financial future. Agriprocessors, which declared bankruptcy and virtually closed shop six months after the raid, was the town's major employer.

Several other businesses closed in the wake of the raid. Home vacancy rates surged after the loss of about 20 percent of the town's population, some 2,300 in July 2007.

The town's revenue base dipped to the point that the city council unsuccessfully sought to declare Postville a federal disaster zone.

A weekly food pantry giveaway still draws lines reminiscent of the Depression era.

"I don't think anyone will ever look back and say it was a good thing,'' Marilyn Olson, a coordinator for the Postville Recovery Coalition, said of the raid in a Waterloo, Iowa, newspaper interview. "This is a community that is deeply hurt and grieving."

COMING TO GRIPS

These raids are pretty much like slapping a Band-Aid on a heart attack. But we've relied on them until the recent change in presidential administrations because our leaders — regardless of party — lack the cojones to cut through the partisan politics and come up with a better way.

In the meantime, it's been the interfaith community of America that has seized the moral leadership and higher ground on this issue.

That's why I attended an interfaith service on the Postville raid, held Tuesday morning at the Beth Jacob Synagogue in Mendota Heights.

Rabbi Morris Allen, a longtime Twin Cities resident and religious leader, has garnered a national if controversial name by spearheading "Hekhsher Tzedek," or ethical seal.

Allen and many supporters believe ethical standards such as respecting worker rights should serve as a required supplement to the traditional kosher handling of meats, a practice pretty much corrupted by the aftermath of the raid at Agriprocessors.

"Judaism, absent ritual or ethic, is not a complete spiritual journey," Allen said. "It's unconscionable that we in the Jewish community were complicit in allowing this kind of behavior to continue, where the food we are obligated to eat was being produced on the backs of 15- and 16-year-old kids whose safety was endangered. This is not who we are as a people."

The Rev. Jose Santiago of Holy Rosary Church in South Minneapolis, a guest at Tuesday's service, underlined how the raid and other daily actions little known to the public needlessly tear families apart.

He peppered the audience with example upon example of discriminatory practices thrust upon members of his congregation — from ethnic profiling to demanding more marriage documentation than legally required by suburban city records clerks "who take it upon themselves to be above the law."

He cited the July 14, 2008, beating death of Luis Ramirez, a 25-year-old married father of two, by a band of assailants in the small Pennsylvania town of Shenandoah. Two culprits, who cursed Ramirez's ethnicity during the incident, were acquitted of murder charges in April and found guilty of simple assault — a verdict Santiago noted was cheered by the defendants' families and friends in the courtroom.

"We need to not allow these things to happen, whether it's in our back yard or within our nation because they affect people who have simply come here to raise their families and children," he said.

TAKING ACTION

Before blowing the shofar to end the service, Allen read excerpts from a letter sent to President Barack Obama this week by Pedro Arturo Lopez Vega, a 12-year-old Postville resident affected by the raid.

Pedro's mother was among those workers arrested and deported after serving a five-month prison term based on the charges disallowed by the nation's highest court.

"I don't want anybody to suffer the way I did because it is very painful when they take away the one person you can always trust and count on," Pedro wrote in the May 6 letter.

He requested that Obama, whose administration has pretty much slapped a moratorium on such raids pending a Department of Homeland Security review, allow his deported mother to at least return to Postville to attend his graduation from eighth grade in two weeks.

"I can not repay you with money but I assure you that I will do my best and always help people in need," Pedro wrote in conclusion.

Allen then read an excerpt from the Torah that notes that "a stranger who dwells with you shall be to you as of one of your own citizens, you shall love them as yourself as you were strangers in the land."

Then he blew the horn, a sound hopefully heard loud and clear Tuesday in Washington, D.C., and all corridors of righteous justice.

Rubén Rosario can be reached at rrosario@pioneerpress.com or 651-228-5454.

# To read congressional testimony on the raid in Postville, go to judiciary.house.gov/hearings/hear_072408.html.

Kosher that's not just for food

2009-04-07T21:24:00.001-05:00

As Passover begins, there is a movement in the Jewish community to expand the meaning of kosher beyond just food. Jennifer Collins reports.

Read Text Here(Listen Here)

Kai Ryssdal: Passover starts tomorrow night, which means kosher shopping has already begun. This year though with a twist. Marketplace's Jennifer Collins reports there is a movement in the Jewish community to expand the meaning of kosher.

JENNIFER COLLINS: Morris Allen is a rabbi in suburban St. Paul, Minnesota. Today he is delivering Passover supplies to the neediest in his congregation of 400 families.

MORRIS ALLEN: Let's see I can open up a bag: Matzoh, grape juice, candles.

It's all Kosher, of course. That means the preparation of the food complies with Jewish dietary laws. Allen has started a movement to make sure that Kosher food is ethical as well. It's his response to a scandal at a Kosher meat-packing plant that took advantage of immigrant workers.

ALLEN: When you buy a Kosher product, they should be able to know, that it's really a product that speaks to the best of who we are as a people.

So, for instance, that brisket was produced by a worker who was treated well and by a company that respects the environment. He also wants to give those products a certification, what's being called the "Magen Tzedek" seal. Allen says the seal could help companies during this recession.

ALLEN: People are looking at ways that they can catch up in the market share. And I believe that the Magen Tzedek symbol will become such a vehicle by which we will ultimately elevate food production in this country.

Some in the Jewish community say Kosher law is strict enough. But Randy Fried, the manager of "Got Kosher?" a shop in Los Angeles, says his customers want ethically produced products.

RANDY FRIED: Is it organic? Is it natural? So there's certainly a moment in the Kosher food world of moving toward a more healthy, organic approach.

Fried says he expects business to be brisk when the seal is rolled out later this year, just in time for Rosh Hashanah.

I'm Jennifer Collins for Marketplace.

The Hekhsher Tzedek Commission Announces the Creation of Magen Tzedek

2008-12-23T15:24:00.002-06:00

Conservative Movement's Ethical Certification Seal
To Be Introduced to Kosher Food Industry in Coming Months

Design Features Emanating Star of David

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: Shira Dicker 917.403.3989; Aliza Fried 202.265.3000

December 23, 2008 (New York, NY) - The Hekhsher Tzedek commission has announced the creation of Magen Tzedek, the new ethical certification seal that will be introduced to the kosher food industry in the coming months.

Designed as an emanating Star of David, Magen Tzedek is the symbol that will be featured on kosher foods whose companies successfully apply for ethical certification from the Hekhsher Tzedek commission.

Launched during the summer of 2007, Magen Tzedek is a joint project of the Rabbinical Assembly and the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism. Though the initiative, as well as the actual seal, will now be known as Magen Tzedek, the group in charge will still be known as the Hekhsher Tzedek commission.

Credited with promoting the observance of kashrut within the Conservative movement and beyond, the Magen Tzedek seal is designed to coexist with other rabbinic kosher seals. Dr. Joe M. Regenstein, a professor of food science at Cornell University, has been named an advisor for the project. A renowned consultant to the kosher food industry, he will help in the creation of Magen Tzedek's compliance application and procedure.

"Magen Tzedek is a proud product of Conservative Judaism but also a gift for the entire Jewish community," said Rabbi Michael Siegel, co-chair of the Hekhsher Tzedek commission. "It is a bold new symbol that signifies kosher food produced with the highest degree of integrity."

The Magen Tzedek seal will be awarded to kosher food companies based on a number of criteria having to do with such matters as employee health, safety and training; wages and benefits; the company's environmental impact; corporate transparency and product development, among others.

The creation of Magen Tzedek follows on the heels of the $100,000 grant from the Nathan Cummings Foundation received earlier this month, the second grant the foundation awarded the Hekhsher Tzedek commission.

Awarded in a time of economic recession, the $100K Cummings grant expresses a vote of confidence in the power of Magen Tzedek to effect positive change within the American Jewish world. According to the commission's second co-chair Jerold Jacobs, the funds will be earmarked towards advocacy and education efforts to promote the ethical certification initiative.

"By introducing Magen Tzedek, we are inviting the public to be a part of the conversation about kashrut, justice and Judaism," said Mr. Jacobs. "Magen Tzedek draws together consumers of kosher food around the communal table to contemplate how to bring tzedek - justice - to the world."

The focus on the ethical aspects of ritual observance has won the support of the entire Conservative movement and ignited a movement that transcends denominational boundaries. "Magen Tzedek is an authentic expression of the Conservative rabbinate and our unflagging commitment to the integration of ethics and ritual," said Rabbi Julie Schonfeld, incoming executive vice president of the Rabbinical Assembly. "It is an excellent representation of our philosophy."

Rabbi Siegel speculated that even non-Jews or Jews who do not keep kosher might select a product with a Hekhsher Tzedek certification as a way of expressing their commitment to social justice. "In this regard Hekhsher Tzedek assumes an important position in the broad social movement of ethical eating," he added.

The new Magen Tzedek seal will be introduced at the annual Hazon Food Conference this week, which features Rabbi Morris Allen, creator and founder of the Hekhsher Tzedek initiative. The conference will be held December 25-28 at the Asimolar Conference and Retreat Center in California.

"Our initiative has captured the hearts and minds of American Jews, reflecting deeply-held social and religious values," said Rabbi Allen. "Magen Tzedek presents an opportunity to deepen one's observance of kashrut alongside social responsibility."

For more information about Magen Tzedek or to set up an interview with any member of the Hekhsher Tzedek commission, please call Shira Dicker at 917.403.3989 or Aliza Fried at 202.265.3000. To view the new Magen Tzedek seal, please click here. If you intend to reproduce the seal, please use the black and white symbol. To learn more, please go to www.hekhshertzedek.org; www.magentzedek.org; www.rabbinicalassembly.org or www.uscj.org.

Rabbi Morris Allen's blog can be found at http://rabbimorrisallen2.blogspot.com/.

ABOUT THE RABBINICAL ASSEMBLY

Founded in 1901, the Rabbinical Assembly is the international association of Conservative rabbis. The Assembly actively promotes the cause of Conservative Judaism, publishes learned texts, prayer-books and works of Jewish interest, and administers the work of the Committee on Jewish Law and Standards for the Conservative movement.

Rabbis of the assembly serve throughout the world in congregations, on campus, as educators, hospital and military chaplains, teachers of Judaica and officers of communal service organizations. Its membership spans over 20 countries and numbers 1600 rabbis.

ABOUT THE UNITED SYNAGOGUE OF CONSERVATIVE JUDAISM
United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism represents and supports the synagogues of the Conservative movement in North America. We work with lay leaders and Jewish professionals on the national, regional, and grassroots levels to teach, inspire, and motivate Conservative Jews to live lives increasingly filled with Jewish learning, ethical behavior, spirituality, and mitzvot.

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Label Says Kosher; Ethics Suggest Otherwise

2008-12-11T08:24:00.000-06:00

By PAUL VITELLO

Published: December 10, 2008
The New York Times

What it means to be kosher — the nub of a debate sparked in May by sweeping labor abuse charges against the Orthodox Jewish owners of the largest kosher meatpacking plant in the nation — was pondered Tuesday night in a panel discussion at Yeshiva University in Upper Manhattan, the academic nexus of Orthodox Judaism.

It was, for the most part, a subdued and scholarly discussion about ritual law, Jewish ethics and what to do if you suspect that the kosher meat on your table has been butchered and packed by 16-year-old Guatemalan girls forced to work 20-hour days under threat of deportation, as alleged in a recent case.

“Is it still possible to consider something ‘kosher certified’ if it is produced under unethical conditions?” asked Gilah Kletenik, one of the organizers of the student group that arranged the session, which drew an overflow crowd of 500, most of them students.

In keeping with the Talmudic tradition embodied by the rabbis on the panel, the answer seemed to be yes and no.

“The basic underpinning of Jewish tradition is ethics,” said Rabbi Menachem Genack, a Yeshiva dean and the chief executive of kosher certification for the Orthodox Union, the group that oversees kosher standards in 8,000 food manufacturing plants around the world, including about 25 meatpacking facilities in the United States.

But he said the process of producing food that is certifiably kosher according to Jewish law is one thing; the conditions in which that process is undertaken are another. “The issues are not obvious sometimes,” he said.

In a more pointed comment, Rabbi Avi Shafran, who has defended the prerogative of the Orthodox rabbinate against what he sees as well-meaning but misguided efforts to add social-justice protections to the criteria for the production of kosher food, said, “Lapses of business ethics, animal rights issues, worker rights matters — all of these have no effect whatsoever on the kosher value.”

The realm of kashrut, or Jewish dietary law, which for 5,000 years has been the exclusive domain of orthodox authorities, has received new scrutiny from a broad spectrum of Jews since federal agents raided an Agriprocessors plant in Postville, Iowa, on May 12, arresting 389 illegal immigrants. The owners, Aaron Rubashkin and his son, Sholom, members of a prominent Orthodox family in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, were charged with bank fraud and employing under-age workers.

After the raid, workers’ organizations said that many Agriprocessors employees had long complained of frequent accidents and forced overtime but did not take their claims to the authorities because they feared deportation.

The workers’ stories gave a boost to a kosher-reform campaign known as Hekhsher Tzedek (in Hebrew, kosher righteousness), which was begun in 2006 by Rabbi Morris J. Allen, a Conservative rabbi from Mendota Heights, Minn., who has long promoted ethical reforms in kosher meat plants.

Rabbi Allen said on Wednesday that though he “would have loved” to have been invited to the discussion, “the important thing is that the topic of what constitutes good kosher food production has been elevated.”

“We are proud that people in all parts of the Jewish community are taking our agenda seriously,” he added.

The four-member panel was composed of Rabbi Genack, Rabbi Shafran, Rabbi Basil Herring — executive director of the Rabbinical Council of America, an Orthodox group — and Shmuly Yanklowitz, whose views probably came closest to those of the reform-minded Rabbi Allen.

Mr. Yanklowitz, a recent Yeshiva graduate and co-founder of Uri L’Tzedek, which describes itself as “the Orthodox social justice movement,” told the audience he had visited Postville and met a former Agriprocessors employee named Maria, a young woman from Guatemala.

“Maria worked in hot, slavelike conditions from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. so that we could have our kosher meat,” he said.

In an extended address that was at times Jeremiah-like in its condemnations, he called on the audience to rise to “a higher moral standard” in addition to adhering to the strict guidelines of kashrut as defined by traditional Jewish law.

“The consumer of goods produced immorally is morally culpable,” he said.

At the moment, Mr. Yanklowitz’s group has focused mainly on improving conditions for workers in kosher restaurants.

Rabbi Allen’s group has proposed something more comprehensive and problematic for Orthodox authorities: a seal of approval, the Hekhsher Tzedek seal, which he proposes adding to kosher products whose producers meet certain standards of employee safety and benefits, humane treatment of animals and environmental protection.

The campaign has received support from prominent members of the Conservative and Reform movements, but so far not from Orthodox circles, despite general agreement that worker protections are important in kosher food plants.

What may seem to reformers to be a mistaken separation of Jewish ritual law and Jewish ethics, however, is seen by the Orthodox as a defense of tradition.

“There is nothing in Jewish law that conflates the status of kosher food with the way the food is produced,” Rabbi Shafran said in a phone interview Wednesday. “What sticks in our craw,” he said, referring to the proposed seal, “is that it is following the zeitgeist rather than following the law. It falsifies the integrity of Jewish law.”

To be clear, he said, “Ethics is vitally important in Judaism.” Unethical acts, like illegal acts, should be punished according to the laws that apply. But the rules of what defines food as kosher were written in the Torah by divine agency and cannot be changed, he said.

Shlomit Cohen, 21, a senior at the university’s Stern College for Women and president of the Social Justice Society, a student group representative of a new wave of social activism among young Orthodox Jews, said she appreciated Rabbi Shafran’s point of view and “his desire to retain respect for the authority of legal tradition.”

“But this is more than a technical legal issue,” she said. “Change is needed, and if it is not coming from the leadership we have, it will have to come from others.”

Postvile coming unglued

2008-11-21T14:02:00.000-06:00

By Ben Harris · November 20, 2008

The Agriprocessors plant is shut down. Workers are not being paid. An estimated several hundred are stranded, broke, and out of work. And now, we have the first rumblings of a violent reaction.

Jeff Abbas, the indefatiguable force behind Postville radio, recorded a frightening interview this morning with a 50-year-old ex-Agriprocessors employee who warned that other former plant workers -- some of them ex-cons and possessing firearms -- were planning robberies around town and the kidnapping of the Rubashkin children. Abbas says the city does not consider the threat credible, but several law enforcement vehicles are expected in Postville tonight just in case.

A recording of the interview is here.

Meanwhile, a judge is expected to make a determination today about whether Sholom Rubashkin will be held in jail until his trial. And Postville's Jewish community, which numbers in the several hundred, is beginning to feel the pinch. The kosher grocery is reportedly shuttered and folks are without food and -- irony of ironies -- kosher meat. And if that alone20isn't worthy of a novel, who comes to the rescue? Rabbi Morris Allen, he of Hekhsher Tzedek fame, whose Minnesota synagogue sent a trailer of food to Postville this week.

Seriously, you can't make this stuff up.

Kosher Ethics

2008-10-07T02:22:00.000-05:00

Religion and Ethics News Weekly
October 3, 2008

Watch this Report

BOB ABERNETHY, anchor: We have a story today about a question facing many Orthodox and Conservative Jews who eat only kosher food. Meat is kosher if it has been prepared according to Jewish law and certified so by a rabbi. But what if the plant managers were accused of unfair labor practices? Should kosher certification depend not only on how an animal is slaughtered but on how workers are treated? Lucky Severson reports from Iowa, where a kosher meat packing plant is owned and run by Orthodox Jews from Brooklyn.

LUCKY SEVERSON: This was the scene in the early hours of May 12, when authorities staged a commando style raid on the Agriprocessors kosher meat packing plant in Postville, Iowa. They arrested hundreds of suspected illegal immigrants. But then they uncovered evidence suggesting serious safety violations and child labor abuse by plant officials. People in this small town are still in shock, and the reverberations have rattled and divided the American Jewish community. It's a debate not so much about the raid itself, but what it uncovered. Rabbi Morris Allen:

Rabbi MORRIS ALLEN (Beth Jacob Congregation, Minneapolis, MN): The Jewish community is going to have to ask, is it enough for us to be satisfied that we have kosher food on our plate? Or are we also concerned that in the fulfillment of the laws of kashrut, which is a fulfillment of a way in which we bring holiness into our lives that there has not been a desecration of people's dignity in allowing me to fulfill my holy act?

SEVERSON: It was an odd match in the beginning in 1988 when Orthodox Jews from Brooklyn, New York showed up in rural Postville and bought the defunct meat packing plant on the edge of town. But over the years, Christians and Jews lived side by side and both sides seemed to prosper. Agriprocessors grew into the largest producer of kosher food in the U.S. Including the slaughterhouse, the plant employed over a thousand workers, with rabbis supervising the actual killing to make sure it's done in keeping with Jewish law.

MENACHEM LUBINSKY (Spokesman, Agriprocessor, Inc.): It has to be done by a shochet, by a kosher slaughterer who is a God-fearing Jew.

SEVERSON: In fact, kosher rules are so strict rabbis like Yosiede Lstein work in kosher restaurants and markets to make certain all foods coming in meet biblical standards.

Rabbi YOSIEDE LSTEIN (Caravelle Restaurant): A kosher animal is delineated in the Bible, chapter 11 of Leviticus. God says in the Bible what animals may be eaten. For example, only certain types of animals and those animals are kosher only because they have split hooves and chew their cud. Why these are the signs for kosher, we have no idea. God said it. We believe it. Simple as that.

SEVERSON: It's believed that almost 90 percent of Orthodox Jews eat only kosher food, and around 20 percent of conservative Jews adhere to the tradition. Consumers look for the kosher label much as they do the Good Housekeeping seal of approval. So they were taken aback when the animal rights group PETA took this video and accused Agriprocessors of not slaughtering in a humane way.
Elinore Ehrlich

ELINORE EHRLICH (Kosher Customer): I do a lot of my kosher meat shopping at Shop Rite, and I have spoken to the manager of the butcher section, and I said I was really very upset and very disturbed about what I had heard about the plant, the Agriprocessors plant in Iowa, and he too was very upset and very disturbed.

SEVERSON: But the consternation over the kosher slaughter and processing of animals has grown into concern over the ethical treatment of humans, of workers, and there are some rabbis now who want to expand the meaning of kosher.

Rabbi ALLEN: We believe that most consumers, when given a choice between a product that says it's ritually kosher, and a product that says it's ritually kosher and it's been produced in an ethical fashion, we'll choose the latter.

SEVERSON: Nearly 400 immigrants were charged with immigration violations. The men are still in prison or have been deported. The women, mostly mothers, wear electronic monitoring bracelets. And it's left to religious leaders, like Father Paul Ouderkirk of St. Bridget's Catholic Church, to feed and care for the moms and kids.
Rev. Lloyd Paul Oudekirk

Father LLOYD PAUL OUDEKIRK (St. Bridget's Catholic Church): The more I talk about it, the madder I get, because we're going into our fifth month of this. They have these women with no money, no income. Plus they need food, and shelter, and so on. So Immigration is asking us to pay for their being incarcerated right on the streets of this town.

SEVERSON: Father Paul introduced us to Rosa Samora, mother of two daughters whose father was taken to a Missouri prison. For five months she has been wearing an electronic monitoring bracelet, leaving her unable to work or to leave town.

ROSA SAMORA (speaking in Spanish)

Father OUDEKIRK: She said, "There isn't much I can do because I, because I depend so much on the charity of the church here." So even if her husband were deported, she wouldn't have enough money to go with him.

SEVERSON: The Agriprocessors raid was the biggest of its kind in U.S. history. Company spokesman Menachem Lubinsky questions the government's motives.

Mr. LUBINSKY: I'm not going to be the one to accuse anyone of being that selective to pick on that company because of the way they look. Maybe they look like Hasidim, maybe they're Jewish. I'm not going to deny that their very entry into Postville, Iowa wasn't under the most friendly terms. I believe that there was something here that just didn't add up.

SEVERSON: But Rabbi Allen, who leads a Conservative congregation in Minneapolis, says he doesn't think Agriprocessors was targeted because it's operated by Orthodox Jews, but because they treated their workers poorly. He points to the over 9,000 criminal misdemeanor charges authorities have filed against the company for, among other things, hiring underage workers and putting them in hazardous jobs. Rabbi Allen visited the plant before and after the raid.
Rabbi Morris Allen

Rabbi ALLEN: People shared with us unbelievable stories of pain and suffering that they endured because they had no choices. If they raised their voice, they could have been deported back, and they really didn't have any place to turn to.

Mr. LUBINSKY: The government's going to have to prove that the management knew every day that these people were of underage. Remember, the imperative for these people was they wanted to make money. They wanted to help their families, and as in every immigrant group, they'll do anything under the sun to get those jobs and to bring money into the house.

SEVERSON: Rabbi Allen says Leviticus details kosher laws, but there are equally important laws about the treatment of workers in Deuteronomy 24.

Rabbi ALLEN: You should not abuse the needy and destitute labor, whether a fellow countrymen, or a stranger in one of the communities of your land -- and one text telling us what kind of meat to eat isn't written in boldface, and another text telling us about how to treat the worker isn't written in small print.

SEVERSON: Rabbi Allen is pushing a plan to add an additional symbol to the kosher certification -- a "justice" certificate that says the kosher product meets biblical, ethical standards as well. He says he's received enthusiastic support for his justice certificate from rabbis across the religious spectrum, but certainly not all.

Mr. LUBINSKY: I think it's more that the Orthodox feel, look, we are -- we're the basic customers. We buy this product 365 days a year. We're interested in kashrut the way it was for 3,000 years. We're not interested in redefining it.
Rabbi Yosiede Lstein

Rabbi LSTEIN: In America there are plenty of labor laws to deal with that, and if the government is not doing enough to enforce it, then you just have to step up what the laws are doing already.

Rabbi ALLEN: It's a religious concern, and we should never leave to the government those issues that are the responsibility of a particular religious community to address.

SEVERSON: Even though some Jewish leaders are opposed to the notion of a justice certificate, the idea may be gaining steam among Jewish consumers.

Ms. ERHLICH: I discussed it with my rabbi, and he's not happy about putting this into a solid written down kind of thing. Certain things should be done without having to put them down, and yet behind this movement I think there is something worthwhile.

Rabbi ALLEN: This is a major undertaking. This is the first time that a religious community has staked, has set out to say that it is possible to demonstrate that good corporate citizenship is something that can be rewarded from a religious point of view.

SEVERSON: The Agriprocessors plant has hired a new person to run its operation with promises to make things better. The plant itself is not operating nearly at capacity because not enough people can be found to do the unpleasant work, and the illegal immigrants are still waiting to learn their fate.

For RELIGION & ETHICS NEWSWEEKLY, I'm Lucky Severson in Postville, Iowa.

In the Diaspora: Unetaneh tokef

2008-10-05T15:33:00.000-05:00

by Samuel Freedman
The Jerusalem Post
October 5, 2008

For two days earlier this week, as many of us stood in synagogue, we recited one of the most famous and challenging passages in the Rosh Hashana liturgy, the acrostic poem of Unetaneh Tokef. At the very outset, the text reminds us we are in the "awesome and terrible" time of judgment. For those who fall short, the verses declaim a variety of hideous deaths: by beast, plague, stoning, famine, earthquake, sword.

In its refrain, however, Unetaneh Tokef offers the formula for survival. U'teshuva, u'tefilla, u'tzedaka ma'avirin et ro'a hagezera, go the words. Repentance, prayer and righteousness can avert the evil decree.

As American Jews, we're not particularly vulnerable these days to famine or beasts, and stoning was something we gladly partook of in college. We need deliverance more from hypocrisy, a hypocrisy bred by comfort. Hearing the Rosh Hashana service, it was hard to conceive of a more appropriate focus of New Year soul-searching than Agriprocessors.

By now, the scandal of Agriprocessors has been chronicled from Stephen Bloom's book Postville to Nathaniel Popper's investigative reports in the Forward to Julia Preston's coverage in The New York Times to the muckraking blogger FailedMessiah.com. No sensate American Jew has any reason to be unfamiliar with the rudiments of the case: The largest kosher meat plant in the nation has been charged with violating federal or state laws on pollution, workplace safety, child labor and the employment of illegal immigrants.

Early on in the series of exposures, Morris Allen, a Conservative rabbi in St. Paul, Minnesota, began campaigning for a new designation of kashrut called hechsher tzedek that reflected how a food producer treated its human employees as much as its animal raw material. With the explosion of news about Agriprocessors since last spring, when federal authorities swooped down on the Iowa plant to arrest several hundred Hispanic immigrants, the hechsher tzedek proposal has gathered momentum from its base in the Conservative movement to Reform and even certain Modern Orthodox quarters. Just in the past few weeks, the Orthodox Union threatened to withdraw its valuable hechsher from Agriprocesssors' meat unless the company replaces its CEO. The Rabbinical Council of America, the major association of Orthodox rabbis, announced it would form a task force to determine ethical guidelines and practices in producing kosher food.

SO, WHILE I hardly was in the position to take a field survey, I would guess that hechsher tzedek and Agriprocessors figured prominently in a great many Rosh Hashana sermons. Which is all to the good. And at the same time, I've become aware of a dismissive counterargument that portrays hechsher tzedek as an easy issue, a lofty stance that costs nothing to the person holding it. That premise I deeply dispute.

At a minimum, an American Jew who refuses to buy Agriprocessors' meat is willing to be inconvenienced because its distribution network is unmatched in the industry. If there is indeed a kosher-meat shortage in parts of the country, as has been reported, then prices will almost certainly rise.

Paying that kind of literal price is the least important cost of conscience. Far more importantly, the Agriprocessors situation requires us to look into ourselves, our values. America as a whole has been unwilling to acknowledge the elephant in the room - the illegal immigrants, given no plausible way to become legal, who babysit our kids, mow our lawns, bus our tables, build our homes. No, the discussion on the subject consists of one side: the fantasy of walling off Mexico and shipping all the illegals to the far side.

Agriprocessors offers our own specifically Jewish version of this American embarrassment. The biggest producer of the meat we consider to be holy was doing so by taking advantage of the desperate and weak.

IT ISN'T Agriprocessors' fault that Congress has repeatedly caved in to the nativist lobby and failed to enact a rational reform of immigration law. But it is Agriprocessors' fault, enabled by our complicity at the registers, that the powerlessness of its workforce, the inability of the exploited to protest against their own exploitation lest they be uncovered and deported, made possible all the other forms of workplace abuse. To endorse and live by and buy by hechsher tzedek would require you (or me) to look unflinchingly at the casual hypocrisy that lets you separate what you consume from how it got to your plate.

What kind of religion cares more about how a cow's neck is slit than about child labor? Imagine if, after the Triangle Shirtwaist Company fire, the prevailing Jewish concern hadn't been about the young seamstresses locked into a burning factory, but whether the clothes they made had mixed wool and linen.

One of the lasting shames of the Triangle fire is that it was the company's Jewish owners who exploited its Jewish workers. In the case of Agriprocessors, the Jewish owners, the Rubashkin family, have had plenty of defenders among the Orthodox. One delegation of rabbis, having taken a plant tour paid for by the company, pronounced the facility state-of-the-art - as if the issue here were the age of the equipment, not the conditions of the workers. Lenin had a phrase for that Orthodox delegation: "useful idiots."

It will be far from an easy issue to have an intra-Jew battle over hechsher tzedek. A lot of liberal American Jews, who never before showed much concern about kashrut, will have to make a persuasive case. Surely, the Rubashkins and their apologists are counting on their Jewish critics to lose energy, drift away, alight on some other cause du jour. Even if Agriprocessors changes its CEO, as the Orthodox Union has insisted, the shift could prove purely cosmetic unless sustained pressure on the company to rectify its day-in, day-out practices continues.

When it comes to Agriprocessors and hechsher tzedek, tefilla is the easy part, the lip service. Tzedaka and teshuva, righteousness and repentance - those demand action.

www.samuelfreedman.com

Living - not just eating - kosher

2008-09-29T13:27:00.004-05:00

Anderson Cooper 360
September 29, 2008

Rabbi Morris J Allen
Beth Jacob Congregation
Mendota Heights, MN

Being at the center of an effort to change how American Jews think about “what’s Kosher” is a double-edged sword when you are the rabbi of a modest congregation in suburban St. Paul and it is the week leading up to Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year.

This is the busy season for rabbis, the days leading up to Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement. There are sermons to write and congregants to counsel. There are holiday preparations to look after, festive meals to plan, family members to invite.

Then add on interviews to be done – for radio, television, newspapers, magazines and the web. During this time of celebration and reflection I can most strongly make the case for a “Heksher Tzedek” or “Justice Certification” for Kosher meat and poultry.

Outside of the Jewish world, the word “Kosher” has become part of the vernacular, usually applying to whether one is acting properly or ethically. For Jews, Kosher means the rules that apply to what we eat and how we eat.

Kosher is a big business. There are about 6.5 million Jews in this country, but more than 10 million Americans who buy Kosher products.

We have proposed an additional standard as it relates to Kosher food – taking into account, for example, not only whether an animal is slaughtered according to Jewish law, but also how the animals are treated beforehand. This concern must also be matched, just as importantly, with how the people doing this work are treated. And not simply with meat, but Hekhsher Tzedek is addressed to all products which bear a kosher symbol. For these concerns also occupy a central place in the discussion of Jewish life. Yet, this undertaking is controversial.

Hekhsher Tzedek has sparked a national conversation among Jews about the contemporary meaning of Kosher. People who previously knew little about keeping Kosher are receiving a crash-course education. And they are responding beautifully. Our work has allowed us to demonstrate that when so important an issue is brought to a community, people respond.

Naturally, this brings a smile to a rabbi’s face (even one who, ironically, is a vegetarian). After 23 years of promoting the observance of Kashrut, people are now really listening! They are listening because we have demonstrated to the Jewish community that keeping Kosher is central to Jewish self-understanding and a perfect way to demonstrate that both ritual and ethical aspects of Jewish life can be present at our dining room tables.

Some people know about the Hekhsher Tzedek campaign because of the federal immigration raid in May and the investigation into the Agriprocessors meat processing facility in Postville, Iowa. The national Hekhsher Tzedek commission has gone on the record regarding charges of worker abuse at the plant, which produces kosher meat and poultry, insisting that the ethical treatment of workers and corporate responsibility be part of how we view Kosher companies.

Though this story has captured national headlines, Hekhsher Tzedek exists above and beyond this deplorable case, promoting the simple yet profound message that ritually kosher food tastes best when it is prepared in accordance with the ethical Jewish norms and values that are also found inside our tradition.

Keeping kosher has always been an integral part of Jewish identity. Kashrut provides us with a daily opportunity, with every meal, to sanctify our lives, to create a sense of holiness and awareness of God in our lives. Keeping kosher must translate into living kosher and exploiting a worker, the environment, or an animal in the process of producing kosher food makes that an impossibility. Our Justice Certification will insure that it is indeed possible to buy kosher food and be assured that it meets with all the criteria that we as Jews should live.

A Hekhsher Tzedek is being developed by a renowned group of rabbis and food industry experts. Marketing will commence when we are sure that we have developed a system that can evaluate from a Jewish perspective in an objective and verifiable manner. The appearance of this Justice Certification symbol alongside the traditional ritual hekhsher (Kosher seal) will provide consumers with assurance that the food they are buying is produced by companies that embrace Jewish ethical values as well as follow ritual practices.

This certification will be based on adherence to standards in five categories: Employees’ Wages and Benefits; Employee Health and Safety; Product Development; Corporate Transparency; and Environmental Impact.

It is important to understand that the goal of this initiative is not to replace any existing, honored hekhsher, nor to revise any traditional beliefs or practices. Rather it is intended to enhance what living kosher means.

And despite what some critics have said, Hekhsher Tzedek does not aim to overthrow existing standards of kashrut. Nor does it aim to be divisive, as others have charged. In fact, from our experience, Hekhsher Tzedek has built bridges between Jews of various walks of life. It will be a win-win for the producers of Kosher food. And here’s why.

Within my own movement, the Conservative movement of Judaism, Hekhsher Tzedek has gained unanimous support from the governing bodies of both rabbis and congregations. Simply put, Hekhsher Tzedek has served to re-energize Conser vative Judaism, which has always occupied the solid center of the American Jewish community. We have been able to speak about kashrut with new assuredness and confidence.

And we’ve received support from the Reform and Reconstructionist movements. Many Orthodox leaders have also praised the initiative, with a prominent rabbinical group announcing a similar type of initiative earlier this week. Hekhsher Tzedek has been endorsed by a consortium of organizations dedicated to social justice, including HAZON and MAZON: A Jewish Response to Hunger. When all is said and done, more Jews ( and many non-Jews) will buy more kosher products as a result of our work.

These have been exciting and dizzying times for those of us involved in Hekhsher Tzedek. What began as a modest initiative in my own community of Mendota Heights, MN to further promote the observance of the laws o f kashrut has snowballed into a national, interdenominational effort to create a culture of kashrut in America. I first spoke of this on the eve of Yom Kippur in 2006. Today, articles written about the kashrut in America frequently reference our work.

It seems that American Jews are hungry to live kosher lives, which is an expansion of the idea of simply keeping kosher.

Response to RCA Announcement

2008-09-25T23:14:00.004-05:00

We welcome the RCA's decision and encourage them to join with us, as the Reform Movement has recently done, in the work of Hekhsher Tzedek. Such a move would demonstrate that the entire Jewish community appreciates the need for restoring a culture of Kashrut in America Jewry. This decision by the RCA is an indication that Hekhsher Tzedek has been quite successful in demonstrating that our work matters--in terms of religious action and in terms of the everyday impact it has had already on the Jewish consumer.

Hekhsher Tzedek underscores the approach we have long advocated for Jewish life: an equal reverence for both "mitzvot bein adam l'makom" and "mitzvot bein adam lhavero"(what might be termed ritual and ethical commandments). This decision also underscores the fact that those who for the longest time dismissed this sacred work may well have been doing so simply because it emanated from the religious understanding of Conservative Jews and not because of the content of our work. Today, on the cusp of the New Jewish Year, perhaps a new recognition of the sacred work which all Jews are engaged in doing can be celebrated.

Rabbi Morris J Allen
Director Hekhsher Tzedek

A Different Kind Of Kosher Sermon

2008-09-24T23:22:00.004-05:00

by Steve Lipman
Staff Writer
New York Jewish Week

The most-contested presidential election in a generation. The worst stock market performance since the Depression. The always-precarious geopolitical situation in the Middle East. If you’re in shul during this High Holy Days season, you’ll hear your rabbi give sermons on these topics.

You’ll probably hear sermons about a slaughterhouse in rural Iowa, too. As the Rosh HaShanah and Yom Kippur season —the one time a year when rabbis deliver their sermons to packed pews — approaches, a likely sermon topic for many rabbis will be the ongoing controversy over the Agriprocessors plant in Postville and the resultant, growing acceptance of the Hekhsher Tzedek movement, which has cast a critical eye at the kosher food industry. The plant was raided by federal immigration officials in May, and its owners were charged earlier this month with criminal child labor violations.

Created by the Conservative movement two years ago and pitched to rabbis this year as a subject to be raised on the pulpit, Hekhsher Tzedek offers a seal, in addition to the standard Orthodox-endorsed kashrut labels, which attests that the approved product was made in accordance with ethical concern for animals and employees. Hekhsher Tzedek, a relatively new cause in the Jewish community, has apparently struck a responsive chord.

A representative sampling of rabbis contacted by The Jewish Week indicates that they have responded favorably to Hekhsher Tzedek, as well as a wide variety of other topics suggested in recent months by Jewish organizations. “The response [to the Hekhsher Tzedek sermon proposal] has been significant,” said Rabbi Morris Allen, spiritual leader of Beth Jacob Congregation in Mendota Heights, Minn., and Hekhsher Tzedek’s project director. “We’ve been contacted by rabbis across the denominational spectrum. Rabbis are planning to speak about it; rabbis have already spoken about it.”

“Almost everyone I heard from is talking about Hekhsher Tzedek” and planning to continue doing so in the coming weeks, said Rabbi Charles Savenor, executive director of the Metropolitan New York Region of the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism. “Some [local Conservative rabbis] are talking in terms of ‘justice.’ Some are talking about how kashrut is relevant in terms of personal responsibility.

The timing is perfect” for the Conservative movement to propose Hekhsher Tzedek as a sermon topic, Rabbi Savenor said.“I definitely will speak about Hekhsher Tzedek,” said Rabbi Laurence Sebert of the Town and Village Synagogue in Manhattan. He was inspired in part by the e-mail notice. “It’s a well-timed excellent suggestion.”

And Rabbi Sebert will discuss Darfur in the context of the wider subject of chesed, or kindness. These topics “fit in with things I had wanted to talk about. It’s certainly true for most of my colleagues,” he said.“It’s not either-or for me,” said Rabbi Sebert, referring to traditional themes or issues du jour. He tries to meld contemporary issues into “the eternal verities” of the Days of Repentance, he says. “If I’m taking about Darfur, I will talk about it in the broader context of teshuvah [return], tefilah [prayer] and tzedakah [charity]. It’s what the time of the year speaks to most clearly.“Some things are prompted by [events] that happen the week before,” he says.

Israel’s fighting in Lebanon during the summer of 2006 inspired many of the rabbi’s sermons. “September 11,” the orchestrated attacks on the U.S. the week before Rosh HaShanah in 2001, “that’s the obvious example,” he said.Discussions of contemporary issues receive a mixed reception from congregants, Rabbi Sebert said. “Some people love it when you talk about politics. Some people roll their eyes and take a nap.”

“The odds would be good” that many Reform rabbis in the New York City area will include Hekhsher Tzedek and Darfur, a topic suggested by American Jewish World Service, among their High Holy Days sermon topics, said Rabbi Eric Stark, director of the Union for Reform Judaism Greater New York Council. “My sense is that many rabbis who may be giving five or six sermons” during the yom tov period “were looking for ideas or suggestions... looking for a political topic. The issues of our day include topics like Darfur and the ethical treatment of animals.”

Rabbi Marc Schneier of the Hampton Synagogue said he will include some remarks about Hekhsher Tzedek and Darfur in his yom tov sermons. “There needs to be both glatt kosher [a rigorous standard of kashrut] and glatt yosher [unscrupulous ethical standards],” Rabbi Schneier said of the Hekhsher Tzedek principles. The increasing acceptance of such quasi-political topics by a cross-section of American rabbis indicates both a change in the rabbinate, and the mounting influence of the Internet as a medium for reaching rabbis, observers told The Jewish Week.

Once, synagogues’ spiritual leaders turned mainly to traditional Jewish texts and liturgy for their sermon topics, especially on Rosh HaShanah and Yom Kippur. Today, it’s often email. As always, rabbis say, they try to seek a balance between the old, standard concerns of repentance and self-examination, and the news. In the next two weeks, they say, they will devote their remarks to subjects, in addition to Hekhsher Tzedek, that come from their heart or from conversations with congregants.

“The economy is as the top” of the list, said Rabbi Potasnik. “Rabbis I have spoken to are very concerned about addressing the economy in some fashion. People are hurting. We are concerned... with what we are going to do to help people rebuild their lives.” Rabbi Potasnik, who serves as spiritual leader of Congregation Mount Sinai in Brooklyn Heights, said he will also deliver a sermon on “The Bucket List,” the to-do priorities of aging people, inspired by last year’s popular film directed by Rob Reiner.

“Our generation is getting older,” Rabbi Potasnik said; people facing their own mortality ask themselves, “What spiritual legacy do I want to bequeath to my family?”And the rabbi plans to speak, in some way, about Darfur, the ongoing genocide in Sudan that has taken some 450,000 lives during the last five years. “We have to keep the community fire going,” Rabbi Rick Jacobs of the Westchester Reform Temple and a member of the American Jewish World Service board of trustees told a group of 70 rabbis who participated in a recent podcast conference call about Darfur.

“Every movement [of Judaism] sends out materials to their rabbis” with suggestions and background on High Holy Days sermonizing. “We bombard rabbis with all sorts of issues,” Rabbi Potasnik said. “It’s a very receptive audience.“I see rabbis today, the younger seminarians, who are much more involved in addressing contemporary problems,” he said.

Such groups as Rabbi Potasnik’s Board of Rabbis, the Metropolitan Council on Jewish Poverty, the Rabbinic Cabinet of United Jewish Communities, Mazon, Hazon and a wide variety of political groups in this country and Israel provide rabbis with both sermon suggestions and educational materials that relate to them.“Any major national [Jewish] organization seeks to position their cause” by trying to shape rabbis’ sermons, says Rabbi Elliot Cosgrove, who became senior spiritual leader at Park Avenue Synagogue in Manhattan this month. “They know they have a captive audience in the midsummer, if not earlier,” of rabbis working on several sermons.

Rabbi Cosgrove said he will concentrate this year on introducing himself and his “vision of congregational life” to members of his synagogue, and will mostly stay clear of current topics like Hekhsher Tzedek.“I integrate [suggestions] which are useful,” Rabbi Cosgrove said. “I don’t think it’s the responsibility of a congregational rabbi to be a spokesman for any [other] organization.”No one needs a reminder to talk about this year’s highly contested presidential election. Since members of the clergy usually avoid direct political endorsements, rabbis will probably address Obama vs. McCain by discussing the importance of voting, or the challenge of maintaining one’s Jewish identity in a society where there is little overt anti-Semitism, Rabbi Potasnik said. “The election brings out, ‘What does it mean to be a Jew in America?’”

“I’m speaking a lot this year about change, because that’s on the mind of Americans” as a theme of both major party candidates for the presidency, said Rabbi Mitchell Wohlberg, spiritual leader of Beth Tfiloh Congregation in Baltimore and author of the newly published “Pulpit Power: Meaningful Sermons on Religion & Politics ... and Life” (EMEK Publishing) “We Jews speak about change every year” on the High Holy Days.Rabbi Jay Rosenbaum of Temple Israel in Lawrence, L.I., and Secretary General of the North American Board of Rabbis, said he too will speak about change during Rosh HaShanah and Yom Kippur. He says he notices “a profound focus on spirituality” among congregants this year. “Discussing your relationship with God seems more prevalent than in the past.”

The Conservative movement’s High Holy Days appeal is part of a wider effort to heighten the visibility of Hekhsher Tzedek in American Jewry in coming months. The Hekhsher Tzedek seal will appear on items made by companies that “reflect production benchmarks consistent with Jewish ethical standards,” paying fair wages, ensuring workplace safety, following government environmental rules and treating animals humanely, among other criteria.

Rabbi Allen calls Hekhsher Tzedek “a response to who we are as Jews. The image of kashrut has been tarnished” by reports of religious Jews mistreating animals and abusing employees, many of them undocumented and underage. “Hekhsher Tzedek is in many ways the remedy.”

The Reform movement’s Central Conference of American Rabbis endorsed Hekhsher Tzedek last month, and, Rabbi Allen says, many Reform rabbis will probably discuss the initiative over yom tov.“The endorsement of the CCAR is a very important statement,” Rabbi Allen said, adding that the Hekhsher Tzedek seal may lead members of the Reform community who ordinarily who do not observe kashrut to start buying more kosher products. The seal “will not be on food that is not kosher. This issue puts the responsibility on the congregants themselves.”

Do rabbis resent outsiders pushing them to speak about current issues on the High Holy Days? “No one has ever expressed to me resentment,” Rabbi Savenor said. “If they resent being asked to speak about something, they don’t speak about it.” “I don’t resent it. It’s very helpful,” Rabbi Sebert said. As a rabbi, he said, listening to others’ opinions, including those offered on the Internet, comes naturally. “I find that exchanging ideas, even over e-mail, stimulates my own thinking. That’s my job.”

E-mail: steve@jewishweek.org

Support for Hekhsher Tzedek

2008-09-18T23:19:00.000-05:00

The Union’s Executive Committee unanimously approved a resolution, “Worker Rights, Ethical Consumerism and the Kosher Food Industry,” which follows closely on the heels of the CCAR’s resolution on the subject. It urges Reform congregations and their members, whether or not they have elected to observe kashrut, to consider the guidelines to be established by the Hekhsher Tzedek Commission when purchasing food products and, in general, to become more ethically aware consumers. The full text of the resolution is available online.

Conservative Movement Finds Unity In Promoting New Hekhsher Guidelines

2008-09-11T17:39:00.003-05:00

By Anthony Weiss
Thu. Sep 11, 2008
The Forward

Two years after a bruising debate on sexuality that left some wondering if the Conservative movement was irreparably divided, an initiative to link kosher food regulations with labor and environmental standards seems to have reunited the movement’s rabbinate.

A number of rabbis have agreed to devote at least part of their High Holy Day sermons to the initiative, which is known as Hekhsher Tzedek, Hebrew for “justice certification.” In late July, the committee spearheading the initiative released the guidelines that will be used to judge food producers, but the High Holy Day push ensures that the move will be widely discussed when synagogue attendance is at its highest.

Rabbis and leaders of the Conservative movement who spoke with the Forward were universally positive about Hekhsher Tzedek, a display of unity that would have been astonishing only two years ago.

“It’s something that is obviously one people can get behind, because who is opposed to tzedek?” said Jonathan Sarna, a professor of American Jewish history at Brandeis University, referring to the Hebrew word for “justice.” “Among rabbis, I think it’s a great relief to be able to talk about tzedek.”

In 2006 Rabbi Morris Allen of Minnesota started the kosher food initiative in response to reporting by the Forward about labor conditions at the giant Agriprocessors slaughterhouse in Postville, Iowa.

The moves by Allen and his commission came at the height of the movement’s earlier problems. In December 2006, the movement’s committee on Jewish law passed a legal opinion paving the way for same-sex marriage and gay and lesbian ordination. In response, four rabbis promptly resigned from the committee in protest. Earlier this year, four synagogues in Toronto, where opposition to the sexuality rulings had been particularly high, voted to leave the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism, the umbrella group for Conservative synagogues.

As the same-sex marriage debate unfolded, the Conservative movement’s numbers were dwindling and some observers warned that the movement might be coming apart at the seams.

The new certification program has drawn anger from many leaders of Orthodox Judaism, but the blend of ritual, ethics and food seems to have formed a powerful combination that has spoken to the various strands within the Conservative movement.

“There’s no divisiveness on this,” said Ray Goldstein, international president of the USCJ. “Everywhere I go, people are speaking about it. Rabbis have gotten passionate about it, and also laypeople.”

The most striking element of the support has been that it has come from both sides of the earlier debate about sexuality. Rabbi Loel Weiss of Temple Beth Am in Randolph, Mass., had opposed the liberalization of the movement’s strictures on homosexuality, but he has spoken out in favor of the new movement.

“This is one of the very few examples where the movement has come out to modify Halacha in a more vigorous, dynamic way,” Weiss said. “This is one of the most exciting developments that the Conservative movement has produced over the last two decades.”

Likewise, rabbis who pressed for the new rulings on sexuality have been supportive.

“I think this is a real moment of definition for the Conservative movement,” said Menachem Creditor, rabbi of Congregation Netivot Shalom in Berkeley, Calif. “If this translates into something that’s visible, the Conservative movement will have achieved something it hasn’t done in a long time, which is translating a profound idea into personal action.”

Observers suggest that one thing making Hekhsher Tzedek so unifying is its combination of Jewish law and a socially liberal mission. Where these impulses parted ways on issues of sexuality, they have been fused together in Hekhsher Tzedek.

“Gay ordination became a symbol of the fault lines between the halachists and the post-halachists” in the Conservative movement, said Steven Bayme, director of the American Jewish Committee’s contemporary Jewish life department. With Hekhsher Tzedek, Bayme added, “suddenly, you have an issue that bridges that gap.”

Within Orthodox Jewish streams it has been exactly this fusing that has caused concern. A number of Orthodox rabbis have said that Jewish law about the proper treatment of employees should be kept separate from Jewish law about the preparation of kosher food. These rabbis have argued that kosher supervision should focus on ritual food preparation while issues like labor rights and environmental regulation should be left to the government.

“[L]aws, halachic and otherwise, are already in place to ensure proper treatment of animals, workers, consumers and the environment; and ignoring any of them renders a company subject to punitive action by federal and state agencies,” wrote Avi Shafran, a spokesman for the ultra-Orthodox umbrella group Agudath Israel, in the September 8 issue of the Jewish Observer. “To the extent that an envisioned new ‘badge of approval’ simply reiterates those requirements, it is superfluous. And where it aims to go further, beyond halachic and/or governmental strictures, it overreaches, and can serve only to make mischief.”

Shafran went on in the article to accuse the Conservative movement of using Hekhsher Tzedek as “a bald attempt to portray itself as something other than dwindling and desperate,” citing the recent divisions over sexuality issues.

Even within the Conservative movement, there are still questions about whether the excitement about the initiative among the clergy will translate into greater participation by ordinary members. A number of rabbis also warned that consumers must see concrete examples of the Hekhsher Tzedek on the shelves of their supermarkets if the initiative is to hold people’s attention. The rabbis who lead the commission have said that they hope to provide the first evaluation of kosher companies within the next year.

Keeping Up With Heksher Tzedek - September

2008-09-07T07:40:00.035-05:00

Thursday, September 25, 2008

Orthodoxy's Kosher Crisis, Forward
Hekhsher Tzedek's Law Problem, Forward
Orthodox Leaders Blast Hekhsher Tzedek, Mountain Minyan
Agudath Israel Blasts Hekhsher Tzedek, Conservative Jew
From Gay Rights to Kosher Standards, Gay Gevalt
Hekhsher Tzedek Responds to RCA, Failed Messiah
In 5768, establishment faced new upstarts, Jewish Chronicle
5768, A chronology, Jewish Chronicle

Wednesday, September 24, 2008

RCA Task Force to Publish Jewish Principles and Ethical Guidelines for Business and Industry, Rabbinical Counsel of America
RCA Starts Toothless Hekhsher Tzedek, Failed Messiah
Orthodox Version of Hekhsher Tzedek, Kosher Nexus
Agudath Israel Issues Statement On “Hekhsher Tzedek” Initiative, Jewish and Breaking News
Agudath Israel: Jews Must Conduct Business Ethically, ‘thanks, but no thanks’ To “Hekhsher Tzedek”‏, Vos Iz Neias
Agudath Israel Issues Statement on Hekhsher Tzedek Initiative, Yeshiva World News
Agudath Israel Of America Rejects “Hekhsher Tzedek” , Frum News
Rabbis tackle ethics of producing kosher food in wake of Iowa immigration raid, Sun Sentinel
What does kosher mean? Hekhsher Tzedek causing a rift in the Jewish community, Sun Sentinel
Agudah Israel Issues Statement on "Hekhsher Tzedek" Initiative, Kashrut News

Tuesday, September 23, 2008

Post Postville, Rabbi Shael Speaks
New Hekhsher Tzedek Website, Jews Next Dor
Denominationalism, My Jewish Learning

Sunday, September 21, 2008

Jesuit University to Offer Jewish Social Justice Course, The Tisch: Rabbi Menachem Creditor's Writings

Thursday, September 18, 2008

Support for Hekhsher Tzedek, Hekhsher Tzedek
New Unity Based on Hekhsher Tzedek, Conservative Jew
Yatid Interview with Rabbi Menachem Genack, CEO and Rabbinic Administrator OU Kosher, Kashrut News

Wednesday, September 17, 2008

Yatid Interview with Rabbi Menachem Genack, CEO and Rabbinic Administrator: OU Kosher, Yeshiva World News
New Ethical Kosher Seal in the Works, Mitzpeh

Tuesday, September 16, 2008

Agriprocessors: Why my family has stopped buying red meat, Jewneric
An Orthodox Take on a Conservative Approach to Jewish Law, LukeFord.net

Monday, September 15, 2008

The Truth Shall Set You Free, Kosher Nexus
Should Orthodoxy Promote Social Justice, Emes Ve-Emunah
Allegations Spur Debate on What's Kosher, Omaha World Herald
OU President: Agriprocessors Is Kosher, But Plant Managers That Do Not Obey Laws, Raises Issues If The Meat They Process Is To Be Trusted, Vos Is Neias
Agriprocessors Allegations Spur Debate on What’s Kosher, Yeshiva World
OU President: Agriprocessors has "Lost a Lot of Credibility", Failed Messiah

Sunday, September 14, 2008

Still Ignoring Reality, The Blog of Garnel Ironheart

Friday, September 12, 2008

Kashrut must also apply to ethics, insist local rabbis, Cleveland Jewish News
No Hekhsher, Not Tzedek, Cross Currents

Thursday, September 11, 2008
Conservative Movement Finds Unity In Promoting New Hekhsher Guidelines, Forward
'Ethical' kosher certification is a positive step, J. the Jewish News Weekly
Jewish Unity in the 21st Century, Jewneric
Agri and Alle and the World, Five Towns Jewish News
And You Will Incur Guilt, Shalom Rav

Wednesday, September 10, 2008

Kashrut agencies shouldn't be leveraging ethics, Canadian Jewish News
OU Threatens to Drop Agriprocessors, New York Jewish Week
Welcome to the hekhsher tzedek community, Orthodox Union, Zackary Sholem Berger
Meatpacker May Lose Kosher Certification, New York Times

Tuesday, September 9, 2008

Fare that isn't fair, The Shpiel

Monday, September 8, 2008

More Agri-vation, Kosher Nexus

Sunday, September 7, 2008

Hekhsher Tzedek, The Rabbinical Assembly

Saturday, September 6, 2008

Faithful Have More Food For Thought, Washington Post

Friday, September 5, 2008

The N.Y. Reporter Who Exposed Abuses at Kosher Plant, Pro Publica
Conservative Movement Moves Into High Gear With Its ‘Heksher Tzedek’ Kosher Seal, Voz is Neias
Reform Embrace Ethical Kashrut, Cleveland Jewish News
How Kosher is Kosher? National Catholic Reporter

Thursday, September 4, 2008

The Forward Paper and Union are after Alle to Hechsher Zedek themselves, Yudel's Rest of the Story
Words and Meaning: We Go Where Language Take Us, The Triple Bottom Line Blog
As Industry Faces Criticism, a Look at How the Kosher Sausage Gets Made, Forward
Reform Embraces 'Ethical' Kashrut, Jewish Exponent
Quite Possibly the Last 'Miscellaneous Post' of 5768, Heeb'n'vegan

Wednesday, September 3, 2008

Reform Rabbis Endorse? Who Really Cares? Yudel's Rest of the Story
An Evolving Definition of What It Means to be a Practicing Jew, NIF Blog
Reform Rabbis Endorse Hekhsher Tzedek, Failed Messiah
Taking Hekhsher Tzedek to the Next Level, New York Jewish Week
Reform Rabbis Endorse Certification Plan, Frum News Report

Tuesday, September 2, 2008

The Conservative Movement's Greening Initiative, Heeb'n'vegan
Phil Haslanger: Tightening ties between food and faith, The Capital Times
Reform Rabbis Embrace Ethical Kashru t, JTA

Monday, September 1, 2008

Conservatives' kosher initiative launches High Holidays drive, JTA

Reform rabbis embrace ethical kashrut

2008-09-04T13:21:00.002-05:00

JTA Breaking News
Published: 09/02/2008

The Reform movement's rabbinical group endorsed the Conservative movement's ethical kosher initiative.

The Board of Trustees of the Central Conference of American Rabbis, the Reform movement's rabbinical association, resolved last month to explore ways to cooperate with the initiative, known as Hekhsher Tzedek. (click here to read)

The conference urged producers of kosher meat to adhere to the highest ethical standards, applauded the Conservative movement for integrating ethical concerns into kashrut and encouraged Reform Jews to consider the initiative's guidelines in making dietary choices.

"Those who keep kosher, including the growing number of Reform Jews who are embracing the observance of kashrut, should not be forced to choose between their ritual observance and their ethical values," the Reform conference said.

Spurred in large measure by the continuing controversy over Agriprocessors, the Iowa meat producer that was the target of a massive immigration raid in May, Conservative Rabbi Morris Allen has pushed Hekhsher Tzedek as a supplementary certification attesting that kosher food products are produced in an ethical manner.

In recent days, Allen has reached out to Conservative rabbis to seek their endorsement of the initiative, which is a joint project of the movement's rabbinical and congregational arms. Among the Orthodox, the initiative has provoked unease from those who believe it modifies the notion of kashrut.

Agudath Israel of America, an umbrella group of fervently Orthodox Jews, is expected to release a statement shortly criticizing the initiative.

Exploring the ethical meaning of kosher food

2008-08-24T12:02:00.000-05:00

By Sumathi Reddy, Sun reporter
August 23, 2008
Baltimore Sun

Kosher food just isn't kosher anymore for some members of the Jewish faith.

Concerns about worker abuse at kosher slaughterhouses have led Conservative Jews to develop standards to ensure that producers pay fair wages and benefits and are sensitive to animals and the environment.

A proposed certificate of righteousness, called hekhsher tzedek (pronounced HECK-shur ZED-ick) and an identifying seal, are likened to fair trade coffee. The idea is producing a rift between Conservative and Orthodox Jews.

Some Orthodox rabbis say they have no place getting into the business of labor practices, which are best left to the federal government. Furthermore, they question why producers of kosher food should be held to a different standard from other businesses.

"On humanitarian grounds, I support it," said Rabbi Sheftel Neuberger, a leader in Baltimore's Orthodox Jewish community. "But I don't think it's a rabbinic issue. ... Are they going to also choose which sneaker company to endorse?"

But other Jews say that ethics surrounding the production of kosher meat are as important as the ritual.

"I'm not obligated to buy Nike shoes; I am obligated to buy kosher food," said Rabbi Morris Allen, a Minneapolis rabbi who has led the Conservative movement to implement the seal.

"I can't fix business practices throughout the world ... but I do have a responsibility to be involved in trying to address an industry that I am dependent upon in order to fulfill my Jewish life."

In May, federal authorities raided Agriprocessors Inc. in Postville, Iowa, the nation's largest kosher meatpacking plant. Immigration officials arrested about 400 allegedly illegal workers, and authorities are investigating possible violations of child labor law, among other things. Yesterday the plant was accused of more than 31 safety violations, according to Iowa state labor officials.

Allen and the rabbinical and congregational arms of the national Conservative movement have been in the process of developing a hekhsher tzedek for more than a year, since concerns first surfaced over work conditions at Agriprocessors.

Draft regulations were approved last month for standards that address five areas: health, safety and training; wages and benefits; environmental impact; corporate transparency; and product development.

The program would be strictly voluntary. Companies that seek the symbol would be evaluated by a commission to ascertain whether they meet the five standards and would then be periodically re-evaluated.

"We affirm the role of those who have spent their lives defining kashrut products through ritual means," said Allen. "This would be a secondary seal demonstrating that Jews are not only concerned about the ritual aspects of our tradition but the ethical aspects of our tradition. This is another level of commitment of what it means to be Jewish in the marketplace."

The process will cost companies, he said, acknowledging that that cost will likely be passed on to consumers, but it's a price he believes they'll be willing to pay.

A campaign is under way with rabbis supportive of the concept taking up the issue.

Allen has spoken at Chizuk Amuno, a Conservative synagogue in Pikesville, said Rabbi Ron Shulman. Shulman took up the issue in June when the congregation decided to stop buying kosher meats that come from Agriprocessors. They are sold under several labels, including the popular Rubashkin brand.

"In our congregation people are very aware of it, and they have adapted their consumption choices to not be buying their meats from the Postville plant until their practices are modified," he said. "There are plenty of other brands. Fortunately, nobody's going hungry."

Miriam Foss is one such congregant. The Mount Washington resident said she recently asked her butcher, Wasserman & Lemberger Kosher Meats in Pikesville, if any of the meat came from Agriprocessors and was pleased to find out that it did not.

To Foss, a hekhsher tzedek symbol is similar to the fair trade coffee that she buys and is willing to pay more for.

"The process is really important, not just the product of kosher meat," she said. "I feel like it's really supported in Judaism, that it's important how workers are treated in the production of kosher food. Of course the laws of kashrut have to do with the animals ... but it's the whole picture that's important."

Some say that with food prices soaring, any increase that could result from a hekhsher tzedek process will turn consumers off. "I think now things have gotten so expensive, it's going to be very, very hard," said Chaim Fishman, manager of Seven Mile Market in Pikesville, a kosher grocery store.

Fishman said of the hundreds of customers he sees, only two or three have inquired about the brands associated with Agriprocessors. "I think people are just happy trusting the rabbis for the certification and trusting the U.S. government," he said.

Fishman, who is an Orthodox Jew, said he would not be swayed by a hekhsher tzedek symbol. "If it happens to be there, OK," he said. "But I think a lot of Orthodox probably won't be all that interested in seeing that certification."

The Rabbinical Council of America, the national Orthodox Rabbinic organization, does not support the hekhsher tzedek concept.

"Kosher is kosher, and kosher reflects the requirements of what renders an animal ... acceptable for a Jew to properly eat," said Rabbi Basil Herring, executive vice president of the council. "Of course there are always ethical concerns whether it's regarding food or clothing or furniture ... but it is inappropriate to mix the two realms together."

Furthermore, Herring said labor law is the government's domain: "For a kosher agency or a rabbinic group to take upon itself those responsibilities ... would be enormously complex, inefficient and, frankly, very, very expensive."

But some in the Orthodox community called it an "excellent idea." One is Rabbi Chaim Landau, who leads the Ner Tamid Greenspring Valley Synagogue in Baltimore.

"We are now driven to raise the level of understanding of what kosher is and to be able to relate to it on more than just a technical level," said Landau.

He said he hopes it would be a positive education "not just for those who are concerned within the Jewish community ... but those within the broader community."

sumathi.reddy@baltsun.com

Rabbis Debate Kosher Ethics at Meat Plant

2008-08-24T12:00:00.000-05:00

By JULIA PRESTON
Published: August 22, 2008
New York Times

An immigration raid at the nation’s largest kosher meatpacking plant has opened a wide rift among Jewish leaders over the company’s ethical conduct and led to new interest in a campaign to create wage and safety standards for workers producing kosher food.

Illegal immigrants caught in a raid at the Agriprocessors plant in Postville, Iowa, told of lax safety rules and under-age workers.

The Agriprocessors Inc. plant in Postville, Iowa, lost about half its work force when 389 illegal immigrants were detained there in May, causing shortages of kosher meat and poultry in butcher shops and supermarkets across the country.

Immigrants caught in the raid told labor investigators of unpaid overtime, lax safety measures and under-age workers at the plant. Their stories have troubled many kosher consumers and given impetus to a campaign known as Hekhsher Tzedek (which means “justice certification” in Hebrew) to create an additional seal of approval for kosher-certified products, indicating that the producers met certain standards for the treatment of workers.

“People want kosher food that is produced in an appropriate manner according to both ritual law and ethical law,” said Rabbi Morris J. Allen of Mendota Heights, Minn., who is leading the effort backed by the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism, representing the synagogues of the Conservative movement, and the Rabbinical Assembly, the organization of Conservative rabbis.

But while Rabbi Allen and others have criticized Agriprocessors, some Orthodox Jewish leaders rallied to the company’s defense. After touring the Postville plant on July 31, a delegation of 20 Orthodox rabbis, including leaders of kosher certification organizations from the United States and Canada, concluded Agriprocessors was “an A-1 place,” said Rabbi Pesach Lerner, vice president of the National Council of Young Israel, an Orthodox group.

“An old medieval plant we didn’t see,” said Rabbi Lerner, who organized the trip. “We saw a Cadillac with top-of-the-line machinery and a heavy emphasis on safety, security and health.”

A spokesman for the company, Menachem Lubinsky, said it had been unfairly singled out for labor violations that were unproven accusations. Mr. Lubinsky told The Jewish Week newspaper that Agriprocessors was facing a “Dreyfus trial in the media,” referring to the case of a Jewish military officer in France who was unfairly tried for treason in the late 19th century.

Agriprocessors managers, at first stunned by the immigration raid, have since gone on the offensive, revising management practices and hiring lawyers and public relations advisers in an effort to rebuild the company’s reputation, especially among Jewish consumers.

The Postville plant has been owned since 1987 by Aaron Rubashkin and his family, Lubavitch Hasidic Jews who built the company from a Brooklyn butcher shop into a kosher meat giant controlling more than 60 percent of the market, with annual kosher sales of more than $80 million, according to analysts’ estimates.

Agriprocessors specializes in glatt kosher beef, the highest kosher certification that is reserved for meat from animals with smooth lungs bearing no lesions. The shortages after the raid highlighted the company’s dominance in the kosher meat market, with brands like Aaron’s Best, Shor Harbor and David’s.

Kosher experts said that Mr. Rubashkin and his son Sholom, until recently the chief executive in Postville, had vastly extended the distribution of kosher products across the United States by selling them to major supermarkets along with nonkosher beef.

But workers at the Postville plant had long complained of forced overtime, frequent accidents and extortion by floor supervisors who sold jobs for cash. Their complaints were amplified after the raid, when nearly 300 illegal immigrant workers, most from Guatemala, were criminally prosecuted, with most sentenced to five months in prison followed by deportation.

On Aug. 5, Iowa labor authorities said they had found 57 cases of under-age workers employed at the plant, and they called on the state attorney general to bring criminal charges against Agriprocessors for “egregious violations” of the state’s child labor laws.

On Friday, the Iowa labor department announced 31 citations against Agriprocessors for safety violations and proposed $101,000 in fines. Kerry Koonce, the department’s spokeswoman, said 21 violations were serious and 6 were repeat offenses cited earlier this year by authorities, which the company had agreed to correct.

The violations, found in inspections that began on July 8, included inadequately shielded meat-cutting saws and improper storage of compressed gas cylinders — “a very high number for one inspection,” Ms. Koonce said. One repeat violation was a hole large enough for a worker to fall through in the plant floor, she said.

Mr. Lubinsky, the spokesman, said Agriprocessors was not aware of under-age workers in its plant and had moved swiftly to fire four workers under 18 who were discovered by managers. In a statement on Friday, the company said all of the safety issues identified by Iowa inspectors in July were remedied within days. The company denied that it had failed to correct any earlier violations.

A low-level Agriprocessors floor supervisor pleaded guilty this week to criminal immigration charges, the only manager convicted to date. Higher managers remain under criminal investigation.

The Agriprocessors raid in May fueled a fundamental debate between the Orthodox and Conservative movements of Judaism. The Orthodox, who include the majority of Jews who keep kosher, adhere to a strict interpretation of Jewish law, while the Conservative movement has a more liberal interpretation emphasizing social justice. Among Conservative Jews, a minority observe kosher laws strictly.

Rabbi Allen said the Hekhsher Tzedek campaign grew out of his efforts to promote kosher practice in his synagogue, and his participation in a Jewish commission of inquiry that went to Postville after an article in 2006 in The Forward, the weekly Jewish newspaper, about conditions there. The commission’s report found “significant issues of concern, including health and safety.”

Since then a rift has grown between Rabbi Allen’s group and Agriprocessors and its supporters. Several rabbis supporting the Hekhsher Tzedek campaign joined a protest at the Postville plant in July.

Last month, a New York public relations firm representing Agriprocessors, 5W Public Relations, posted fake blog comments under Rabbi Allen’s name on FailedMessiah.com, a Web site that is fiercely critical of the Rubashkins, and on the Web site of JTA, the Jewish news agency. Shmarya Rosenberg, who runs FailedMessiah.com, traced the fraudulent comments on his site to a 5W address. JTA reported that one false posting in Rabbi Allen’s name came from an address belonging to a 5W executive, Juda Engelmayer.

The postings seemed intended to discredit Rabbi Allen by making him appear to use crude, arrogant language. In a statement, 5W confirmed that the postings came from its offices but said that they had been made by an intern without approval.

The Hekhsher Tzedek campaign has broadened its ambitions beyond Agriprocessors, hoping to see its “God Housekeeping Seal” adopted by kosher food producers nationwide. On Aug. 1, the campaign unveiled proposed “social justice criteria” for the seal, including standards for wages and benefits, worker safety, animal welfare and environmental protection.

In coming days, the two Conservative Jewish organizations behind the campaign will send out a mailing calling on rabbis to preach about it during Rosh Hashana, the Jewish New Year.

Rabbi Allen said the campaign was not seeking to change ancient kosher dietary laws, which are traditionally administered by Orthodox Jews. “We are not revising, we are enhancing,” he said.

But some Orthodox leaders predicted that the campaign would be spurned by Orthodox Jews. Rabbi Avi Shafran of Agudath Israel, a national Orthodox group, warned that the Hekhsher Tzedek was likely to backfire by raising the price of kosher food.

The campaign’s leaders appear “not so much interested in ensuring fair treatment of employees and the like as they are in redefining the very concept of kashrut” (the Hebrew word referring to kosher laws and practice), Rabbi Shafran said. “That, in our view, is deeply troubling.”

Meanwhile, the negative news from Agriprocessors spurred Orthodox leaders to action. David Eliezrie, a California rabbi who joined the trip to Postville, called the delegation “the New York Yankees of rabbis.” Aaron Troodler, another delegation member, said Agriprocessors had paid for the rabbis’ travel.

They saw changes that Agriprocessors had made since the raid, according to the report of their trip. They met with James Martin, a former federal prosecutor recently hired as a compliance officer, and were told of a toll-free hot line he set up for confidential worker complaints.

Workers interviewed on video by Yair Hoffman, a delegation member, said Agriprocessors now pays a starting wage of $10 an hour, up from $7.25 before the raid. Jacobson Staffing, an outside company that has taken charge of hiring, has enrolled the company in E-Verify, a federal program devised to block illegal immigrants from getting jobs.

After the three-hour tour, the rabbis issued an unqualified endorsement. They said they did not intend to delve into conditions before the raid or address the plight of the immigrant workers caught in the raid.

“I have no firsthand knowledge of what went on before,” Rabbi Lerner said. “But if you take away preraid, you’ve got to say it’s a wonderful situation now.”

Support Grows To Change Kosher Rules

2008-08-21T12:32:00.005-05:00

by Tovia Smith
Minnesota Public Radio: All Things Considered
August 20, 2008

Click here to go to Minnesota Public Radio: All Things Considered

Support is growing in the Jewish community to change the standards for kosher certification — to include an ethical component. A group of Conservative rabbis has drafted guidelines. The Orthodox movement has resisted the idea, but may be open to independent certification on ethical issues.

Slaughterhouse case fuels kosher justice movement

2008-08-11T14:33:00.000-05:00

By RACHEL ZOLL

NEW YORK (AP) — Very little goes unexamined in the kosher world.

From meat and poultry to the coating on vegetables and the ingredients in mouthwash, rabbis who determine whether a product meets Jewish dietary laws scrutinize the most minute details about all things consumed.

For religiously observant Jews, that concern has rarely extended beyond the product itself.

But now, allegations of worker abuse at the nation's biggest kosher slaughterhouse have some Jews demanding that food companies be judged not just by the purity of their products but by the way their treat their employees.

"How can you sit at your table and eat a product packaged by a pregnant woman has been standing on her feet all day?" asked Rabbi Morris Allen of Minnesota. He is developing a certification program that aims to protect workers and the environment in the kosher industry.

Interest in Allen's "hekhsher tzedek," or "certificate of righteousness," has ballooned since a May 12 immigration raid at Agriprocessors in Postville, Iowa.

Nearly 400 illegal immigrants were arrested at the plant in the biggest such raid on a single work site in U.S. history. State officials say dozens of underage workers were employed there in violation of child labor laws. Agriprocessors has denied any wrongdoing.

Many Jews are embarrassed and angered by the allegations and, along with some religious leaders, are rethinking what it means to be certified kosher.

The "hekhsher tzedek" would be awarded to companies that pay fair wages, ensure workplace safety, follow government environmental rules and treat animals humanely, among other criteria.

The program, which could begin as soon as next year, would be separate from the traditional certification process that measures compliance with Jewish dietary law. A company that fails to obtain a "hekhsher tzedek" could still get its food certified as kosher.

Allen, of Beth Jacob Congregation in Mendota Heights, is developing the program through the United Synagogue for Conservative Judaism and its Rabbinical Assembly, to which he belongs. Conservative Judaism holds a middle ground between the liberal Reform and strict Orthodox traditions, allowing some innovation in Jewish law to adapt to modern times.

But it's unclear how much of an effect the certificate would have.

The majority of kosher consumers and certifiers are Orthodox, and they drive the multibillion-dollar U.S. market. Kosher meat is more expensive than standard food, and since large families are the norm among the Orthodox, some fear any changes could increase the cost.

Rabbi Menachem Genack, chief kosher executive of the Orthodox Union, the largest kosher certifier in the U.S., called Allen's idea unreasonable and unenforceable. He said the Orthodox Union relies on federal and state agencies — "who have both the expertise and authority" — to monitor plant conditions.

Yet, pressure for change is coming from more than just Conservative Jewish leaders.

Within the Orthodox community, there are signs that Jews in their 20s and 30s are gaining interest in what the Torah says about social justice.

Last year, young Orthodox Jews in New York formed Uri L'Tzedek, an advocacy group on issues such as immigration and labor rights. Leaders of the group, whose name means Awaken to Justice, collected about 2,000 signatures in support of a boycott of Agriprocessors.

They suspended the action when the owners hired a former federal prosecutor as a compliance officer, but are still going ahead with a fact-finding tour of the plant this week, where they will also meet with immigrant workers.

"The younger generations of modern Orthodox Jews are seeking new meaning to their religious expression, going beyond survival and anti-assimilation and just text study," said Shmuly Yanklowitz, a rabbinical student and co-founder of Uri L'Tzedek. "There have been countless individuals who have felt estranged from the Orthodox community who have been in touch with us. We're getting hundreds of e-mails saying that this has filled a gap."

Despite sharing the ideals of the "hekhsher tzedek," Yanklowitz said his group does not support the proposal. He said any systemwide change in kosher production will have to come from within the Orthodox world because of its "overwhelming commitment" to following Jewish dietary law and the buying power that brings.

Still, Conservative Jewish advocates for the justice certification believe they can bring moral pressure for change.

Rabbi Avram Reisner of Baltimore, a member of the panel of religious law scholars that guides Conservative Judaism, has written a 20-page analysis of Jewish law on wages, working conditions and other business issues in support of the "hekhsher tzedek."

"The Conservative movement has hauled the Orthodox establishment out in a way they hadn't anticipated," Reisner said. "We're not looking to horn in on the business. We're looking to expand the envelope so the kosher consumer can buy things that they feel good about."

Keeping Kosher

2008-08-06T16:04:00.003-05:00

by Gary Rosenblatt
New York Jewish Week
8/6/2008

What lessons can we take away from all the embarrassing reports about Agriprocessors, the largest kosher slaughterhouse in America, accused of abuse of both animals and workers in its Postville, Iowa plant?

The plus side is that the controversy has sparked a long-overdue discussion about the larger meaning of the mitzvah of kashrut, a conversation that includes values as well as ritual and could result in some substantive improvements. But there are those who contend that such talk is likely to have little impact on the multi-billion dollar kosher food industry.

The case, you may recall, focused first on alleged violations in the treatment of animals, and then spread to charges of the mistreatment of immigrants and underage employees, failure to pay minimum wage, and of perverting Jewish ethical values and standards in regards to kashrut.

The giant plant has become the scene of protests in recent days, following the high-profile arrest in May of close to 400 illegal immigrant workers and reports in the media of charges that Agriprocessors is the worst violator of its kind. In response, members of the Rubashkin family of Brooklyn and some of their defenders assert the media is guilty of a modern-day witch-hunt when no charges have been filed against the owners.

Some Jews wonder why it is that only a kosher establishment has endured the full brunt of a government investigation and national media attention. What’s more, a group of more than 20 leading Orthodox rabbis, including Agudath Israel Executive Vice President Rabbi Shmuel Bloom, visited the plant last week and came away impressed, saying the Rubashkins are exceeding the requirements of the law and, according to a joint statement, “working diligently to adhere to the highest workplace standards possible.”

One positive outcome from all this attention is that some elements of the Jewish community are gaining awareness of the notion that kosher qualifications should go beyond the preparation of food and must include Torah values about treating employees, and customers, with dignity and respect.

A movement that began in Israel in 2004, through a nonprofit agency there called Bema’aglei Tzedek (Circles of Justice), has certified about 400 restaurants that comply with fair employment practices and access for the disabled. It began with concern, especially among younger people, about the treatment of foreign workers in Israel. It has caught on in Jerusalem, and elsewhere, as consumers check establishments not only for the traditional te’udah, or certificate, that the food served is kosher, but for the new tav chevrati, or social seal, gained after satisfactory responses to queries about whether wages are fair, working conditions are acceptable and access is provided for the handicapped, etc.

Such concerns have found expression in the U.S. through a new Modern Orthodox group, Uri L’Tzedek (Awaken to Justice), which seeks to emphasize social action, and Hekhsher Tzedek (Seal of Justice), a recent effort by Conservative rabbis to tie ethical standards to those of rituals in approving food as kosher. Mirroring the societal factors in Israel, this initiative was sparked by reports of mistreatment of foreign workers and an attempt to infuse moral and business concerns into kashrut certification.

In a policy statement released the other day by Hekhsher Tzedek, five primary areas were cited for evaluation before a product will be approved: employees’ wages and benefits, employee health and safety, product development, corporate transparency and environmental impact.

(This is just the kind of moral issue that could inspire and reinvigorate Conservative Jewry, which has lost members and been divided internally for the last few years over whether or not to accept gay clergy.)

Traditionally, it is the Orthodox community that has been most interested in and involved with kashrut. And while there is great satisfaction among the kosher clientele in the growing numbers of products certified kosher, there has long been grumbling that prices are too high, with suspicions of monopolies and even corruption. Kashrut is considered such a murky business, especially as it has grown, that few are fully knowledgeable about the economics of it all. And the numbers are staggering.

Kosher food is now an $11.5 billion industry, double what it was a decade ago, with more than 100,000 certified products on the market, according to Menachem Lubinsky, an expert in the field who has also served as a spokesman for Agriprocessors.
The Orthodox Union, the largest kosher certifying agency, now oversees some 7,000 factories in 80 countries, with major growth in China.

Leaders of the Orthodox establishment “are not enthusiastic” about Hekhsher Tzedek, says Lubinsky, who adds that the new certification “will not have any impact” on kosher consumers.

He says “the major certifying agencies don’t want to re-define kosher,” and feel they should deal with kashrut standards per se and let the government handle issues of business standards and compliance.

However, this notion of separating kashrut itself from other activities seems counter to the practice of some leading Orthodox kashrut certifying agencies that withdraw supervision of establishments based on social behavior. A notable case was that of the Glatt Yacht boat rides around Manhattan two decades ago; the proprietors were faced with losing certification by the Kof-K agency if they continued to permit mixed dancing on board.

The Orthodox establishment tends to believe that the laws regarding kashrut and ethical behavior “should not be intertwined,” according to Lubinsky, because it “confuses the marketplace.”

But the head of the Orthodox Union’s kashrut division doesn’t see it that way. Rabbi Menachem Genack, rabbinic administrator and CEO, says he is impressed with the goals and motivation of Hekhsher Tzedek and its founder, Rabbi Morris Allen, a Conservative rabbi in Minnesota.

Rabbi Genack’s concerns are practical, namely the implementation of ethical practices. He raises questions such as who is to determine a fair wage for workers (“is minimum wage sufficient?”) or whether or not a company is polluting the environment. “Those should be determined by the government and its agencies,” he says.

Rabbi Allen has spent more than two decades of his rabbinate promoting kashrut observance among his congregants, including a project he called Chew By Choice. Hekhsher Tzedek is the culmination of that work, and he sees it as “a win-win” for everyone involved with kashrut, predicting that sales will increase, reaching an additional market of people who would support “products made in an ethical way.”

He said he has been heartened by receiving calls from five kosher certifying agencies in the last few days expressing interest in discussions. His goal would be for products to display both a kashrut and Hekhsher Tzedek label.

For now, though, denominational rivalries are still a factor in the current debate, if under the surface. While some believe the Agriprocessors scandal marks an implicit criticism of the Orthodox leadership for not paying more attention to workers’ conditions, others argue that the Conservative movement has no kashrut certification of its own and is lax about kosher standards.

Surely both sides would agree that the Torah calls for observing laws of kashrut (though definitions vary) as well as showing compassion to workers and treating animals with care and consideration.

For example, the Torah forbids an employer from holding back a worker’s wages overnight (Lev. 19:13) and muzzling an ox working in the field (Deut. 25:4).

However you look at it, there is room for communal pride in the tremendous growth of the kosher food industry — and shame that the word “kosher,” meant to stand for purity, has also come to be associated with carelessness, greed and other traits that surely are “treif.”

Gary@jewishweek.org

Keeping Up With Hekhsher Tzedek

2008-08-03T22:08:00.085-05:00

Friday 8/29/2008

5WPR, busted for impersonating a Rabbi and grassroots Jewish organization, issues four sentence apology, Essential Estrogen
5W apologizes, Failed Messiah

Thursday 8/28/2008

Postville revisited, Jewish Light

Tuesday 8/26/2008

Agudath Israel Said to Oppose Hekhsher Tzedek, Yeshiva World

Monday 8/25/2008

Kashrut the Business, Kashrut the Ethical Aesthetic, The Gris Mill

Sunday 8/24/2008

Guest Column: Governor-Agriprocessors must operate responsibly, Des Moines Register
RCA Doublespeak, Failed Messiah

Saturday 8/23/2008

Exploring the ethical meaning of kosher food, Baltimore Sun
Rabbis Debate Kosher Ethics at Meat Plant, The Ledger
Rabbis Debate Kosher Ethics at Meat Plant, Dharma Cafe
Debating Kosher Ethics, LukeFord.net

Friday 8/22/2008

Rabbis Debate Kosher Ethics at Meat Plant, New York Times
Keeping Kosher Food Kosher, ABC2News.com
Kosher Meat, Mom, What's For Dinner

Thursday 8/21/2008

Plant sets a poor example, Jewish Light Online
Kosher ’social seal’ catching on in Israel, Iowa Independent
Lubinsky, Star-K, OU, Hekhsher Tzedek on NPR, Failed Messiah

Wednesday 8/20/2008

Hekhsher Tzedek: Theory and Practice, Jewish Press
Support Grows to Change Kosher Rules, Minnesota Public Radio

Tuesday 8/19/2008

In Israel, kosher extends beyond the kitchen, Christian Science Monitor
Israeli Version Of Hechsher Tzedek Grows Exponentially, Failed Messiah
When Kosher isn't kosher, Jew World Order
The kosher trade - the good, the bad and the ugly, Telegraph.co.uk
In Israel, an ethical seal catches on, Jew and Carrot

Monday 8/18/2008

Every Bite We Take, PicoRob.com

Sunday 8/17/2008

Every breath we take, every bite we eat, JPost

Saturday 8/16/2008

Protection sought for kosher-plant workers, JournalNow.com
‘Certificate of righteousness’ applies kosher justice to workers, Maryland Daily Record
Beyond Kosher, Concord Monitor

Friday 8/15/2008

A Broader Definition of Kosher, Cleveland Jewish News
Agriprocessors is only a pretext, LukeFord.net
Kosher Gate, The Cuban Revolution
A Kosher Way to Treat Employees? CNN International
Is being kosher about the way you treat your workers as well what you eat? , Haaretz

Thursday 8/14/2008

Kosher concept comes under scrutiny, New Zealand Herald
Kosher Fight Turns Rabbis on Each Other, Forward
Exploiting Undocumented Workers Exploits Judaism, Jewcy
More Pressure on Agriprocessors, Workplace Prof Blog
You are what you eat, New Jersey Jewish News
Hekhsher Tzedek III, This is Babylon
Heksher Tzedek, Jpost Talkback

Wednesday 8/13/2008

US Rabbi Aims to Enhance Kosher Conditions, Ynet
Object Lesson, The Jewish Press
Re-thinking Kosher, Ani Talmidah
Those who keep kosher should support HT, Facebook

Tuesday 8/12/2008

Nation Briefing, Daily Herald
Agriprocessors: An Inside View, Emes Ve-Emunah
Herzfeld v. Lewin, Round 2, JTA
A 'kosher' way to treat employees? The St. Lou Jew
Erica's Notes: Twisted Web, CNN.com
Kosher Employment, HR Lori
The Other Shoe Drops: Updates to Previous Posts, The Stiletto

Monday 8/11/2008

Slaughterhouse case fuels kosher justice movement, Associated Press
Slaughterhouse case fuels kosher justice movement, Haaretz Slaughterhouse case fuels kosher justice movement, ABC News
Worker Abuse At Nation's Biggest Kosher Slaughterhouse Prompts Ethics Debate, The Huffington Post
Slaughterhouse case fuels kosher justice movement, Faith in Focus
My 6th Sense, Kosher Today
Kosher with a conscience, Sue's Place
Route 17: The Games of Tisha B'Av, New York Jewish Week
Caso de matadero de aves alimenta movimiento judío de justicia, Univision.com
Orthodox Rabbis Criticized over Postville, Boston Globe

Sunday 8/10/2008

The Forward judges Rubashkins' character, Jewschool

Friday, 8/8/2008

JVNA Newsletter
Rabbis, Activists Fight to Make Iowa Workers' Conditions "Kosher", The Huffington Post
What Tisha B’Av Can Teach Us About AgriProcessors, Jewcy

Thursday, 8/7/2008

Interfaith Voices Podcast, EveryZing (Start playing at 0:37:21)
Kosher Gets Political, Awearness Blog
New Ethical Certification for kosher food, Boys in the Band
The Rabbis Visit Postville: Evidence vs Innuendo, APRPEH
USCJ releases guidelines for ethical kosher certification, The Jewish Advocate
Agriprocessors, About.com

Wednesday, 8/6/2008

A Tale of Two Cities, Rabbi Pinchos Lipschutz
Hekhsher Tzedek Project, KLD Blog
Keeping Kosher, The New York Jewish Week
What Does Kosher Mean, Camp Ramah New England

Tuesday, 8/5/2008

Conservatives release guidelines for ethical kashrut certification, Jewish Journal
New Kosher Certification Implicates Employment Conditions, Storm's California Employment Law
RJ Lashes out at "Kosher-nostra", The Kvetcher

Monday, 8/4/2008

A Rabbi's World: Hekhsher Tzedek, Early Childhood Education and a Few Other Things, The New York Jewish Week
August Newsletter, Jewish Vegetarians of North America
Jews protest, boycott Agriprocessor products, Kashrut certification evolves, Writes Like She Talks

Sunday, 8/3/2008

Hekhsher Tzedek, Derkeiler.com
Hekhsher Tzedek's Animal Welfare Guidelines, Heeb'n'vegan
USCJ Compact for AV, Conservative Jew by Rabbi Jonathan Ginsberg

Saturday, 8/2/2008

Are You Ethically Kosher?, Beliefnet Windows and Doors
Citgo Gasoline Now Under Hekhsher Tzedek, Creedmoorer Chassidus

Friday, 8/1/2008

Abuse of Workers and Animals: Is it Kosher?, Balter's Blog
Certificate of Righteousness, The Stop Shopping Monitor
Closer eye sought on kosher food industry, NorthJersey.com
Conservative "Ethical" Hekhsher Tzedek Kosher Standards, From the Exile
Conservative Jewish Leaders Propose New Kosher Rules, Jewy News
Conservatives seeking 'ethical kashrut' certificate, Jerusalem Post
Exploitation isn't Kosher, World and Global Politics Blog
Getzel Rubashkin Smears Conservative Jews, Failed Messiah
Introducing the Kosher Seal of Justice, In the Meantime
The Kosher Fight for Justice, Jewcy
Marching to End a National Disgrace, Jewschool
Minnesota-Conservative Hekhsher Tzedek Guidelines for Kosher Food Released, Voz is Neias
New: Shmiras Halashon Voting, Kosher Blog
Orthodox Jews Try to Reason With Lubavich Owners and Get Nowhere, The Problems with the Lubavich
Postville, Rabbi Debora S. Gordon
Proposed Kosher Certification Rules, New York Times
USCJ Issues Hekhsher Tzedek Guidelines, In the Moment

July Links

Are You Ethically Kosher?

2008-08-03T16:29:00.002-05:00

Saturday August 2, 2008
posted by Brad Hirschfield @11:05am
Beliefnet Windows and Doors

That's the big question being addressed by Hekhsher Tzedek, an initiative led primarily by rabbis in the Conservative movement, most notably Rabbi Morris Allen of Beth Jacob Congregation in Mendota Heights, Minnesota.

With new guidelines just released in which they set out the criteria which a business must meet in order to gain this group's seal of approval, they are not replacing one form of kashrut with another. In fact, they are not even certifying the ritual/legal process by which the food is rendered kosher. They are offering a complimentary certification which raises awareness about the ethical/legal obligations that business' and employers have according to halacha, Jewish law.

One can agree with them or not, but if you think that Jewish law matters, then this is a good thing. You don't have to buy in to their system to appreciate the significance of their commitment to reintegrating the ethical and ritual aspects of a tradition that arguably never saw the two as distinct from each other any way. In other words, this new initiative is a powerful return to tradition.

I wrote recently about the mistake being made by so many people who have jumped into the ethical kashrut issue with sacred rage about "injustice", and confuse two separate areas of Jewish law, each important and each with their own complex set of details. But Rabbi Allen has managed to nurture this move to heightened ethical awareness without such hyperbole or confusion. And in our world, especially when it comes to religious issues, that's almost a miracle. Here is how he describes the work of Hekhsher Tzedek:

The concept of kosher foods produced by companies that have attained this "God Housekeeping Seal," has tremendous consumer appeal, merging the ritual aspect of kashrut with ethical consciousness, states Rabbi Morris Allen, founder and director of Hekhsher Tzedek. "Hekhsher Tzedek is a holistic celebration of Jewish tradition, uniting ethical practice with ritual observance in the production of Jewish food," he added. "Jewish law is concerned not only about the smoothness of a cow's lung, but also about the safety of a worker's hand as well as the impact that kosher food production has on the environment. Hekhsher Tzedek grows out of Jewish tradition; it does not seek to redefine kashrut as much as enhance it."

I am curious about they are only working with companies that are already certified kosher. I hope it's a function of needing to start somewhere and wanting that "somewhere" to be closer to home. Though, I wonder if there is not a bit of "in your face" attitude toward the Orthodox establishment on display here as well. Of course if they went the other route and started certifying "un-kosher" foods, they would get slammed by those same rabbis as having endorsed food which they themselves would not eat!

Here's an idea: I invite all rabbis who think that this initiative is too narrow because it only addresses those companies that already have kosher certification, to sign a pledge promising to support Heksher Tzedek when it reaches out to certify the ethical behavior of companies producing non-kosher foods. That's right, let's see a promise not to mock Conservative rabbis and their standards of kashrut, before asking them to go out on that limb. Personally, I think that would be the way to go. It may too early for that, but it would be wonderful.

Imagine finally having the courage to endorse what people do on an issue by issue basis and not on the basis of it being a reflection of our own behavior! Imagine an otherwise "non-observant" Jew who becomes a master of ethical kashrut, without having the slightest interest in "traditional kashrut" meeting up with someone who practices kashrut the other way around i.e. great on technicalities of how the animal was slaughtered but couldn't care less about the worker who made that possible. The very definitions of words like religious, traditional, observant, etc would all open up and more people would find more connections to both each other and the tradition.

How bad would that be?

Conservatives issue guidelines

2008-08-02T21:34:00.001-05:00

By Ben Harris Published: 07/31/2008

NEW YORK (JTA) -- The Conservative movement released a policy statement and guidelines for its much-anticipated ethical kashrut certification, outlining the social justice standards companies are expected to meet if their foodstuffs are to qualify for the designation.

According to the document released Thursday, products will be evaluated in five main areas -- employees' wages and benefits, employee health and safety, product development, corporate transparency and environmental impact -- and assessed in part on the basis of information from third-party sources.

Essential to acquiring the Hekhsher Tzedek certification is a company's willingness to engage with the movement's leadership. Hekhsher Tzedek is a joint initiative of the United Synagogue for Conservative Judaism and the Rabbinical Assembly.

“Transparency and a willingness to enter into dialogue with the United Synagogue for Conservative Judaism, the Rabbinical Assembly and their partners will therefore be essential for a company's products to qualify for the Hekhsher Tzedek,” the statement says.

The new guidelines are seen as an important step forward for the initiative, which represents the first effort to brand items as kosher on the basis of ethical criteria separate from the ritual aspects of food production.

It also marks the most significant attempt by Conservative rabbis to influence the national kosher food market, an area traditionally dominated by the Orthodox.

“We believe that we have now demonstrated that it is indeed possible to have verifiable standards in these areas that will allow us to demonstrate that as an enhancement to ritual certification of kosher food, you can ensure that kosher observance is mindful and sensitive to God's creation,” said Rabbi Morris Allen, the founder and director of Hekhsher Tzedek.

Rabbi Michael Siegel, who co-chairs the nine-member commission overseeing the project, told JTA he expects to see the Hekhsher Tzedek label on food products by Jan. 1, 2009.

Though he wouldn't name names, Siegel said the commission already is in talks with several companies who have been receptive to the idea, including a bakery, a ready-made salad producer and a kosher meat purveyor, all of whom would be required to pay a fee for the certification. Two of the companies are nationally known, Siegel said.

In the coming weeks, Heksher Tzedek plans to release a marketing plan and a rabbinic paper on ethical concerns within kashrut by Rabbi Avram Reisner, a commission member.

Some in the kosher world have met the initiative with skepticism, even hostility. These skeptics question what they see as the expansion of the concept of kosher, which traditionally has focused more narrowly on ritual and dietary concerns.

Rabbi Avrom Pollak, the president of Star-K, a kosher certifier that works with more than 1,500 manufacturers, told JTA he is all in favor of treating workers ethically, but expressed doubt that companies would find it in their financial interest to pay for Hekhsher Tzedek.

“What does somehow trouble me a little is the fact that they are devoting all their efforts to kosher food companies,” Pollak said. “I think it should be a much broader effort. All the services that we use and buy should also be subject to the same scrutiny.”

Allen conceived of the idea of Hekhsher Tzedek in 2006, the same year that an expose in the Forward detailed allegations of worker mistreatment at Agriprocessors, which runs the nation's largest kosher meat plant in Postville, Iowa.

The initiative received a boost in May when federal agents raided the Postville plant, arresting nearly 400 illegal workers and prompting another round of allegations against the company. Agriprocessors has denied any wrongdoing.

The Postville raid thrust issues of worker treatment in the production of kosher food to the forefront of a national debate over the parameters of kosher certification. Allen said he envisions a day when consumers will look at the Hekhsher Tzedek label before purchasing food the same way some now look for a kosher label.

“I see the kinds of responses that we're getting now from people across the country, letters that come in, e-mails that come in,” Allen said.

“I do believe that people are eager because I think that we have always believed that in the observance of kashrut, our actions are such that is at the core an act of sanctification. And we want to make sure as Jews that act of sanctification is not just a ritual act.”

Keeping Up With Hekhsher Tzedek - July 2008

2008-08-01T19:00:00.006-05:00

Thursday, 7/31/2008

Proposed Kosher Certification Rules, New York Times
Hekhsher Tzedek Guidelines Released, Failed Messiah
Today's Kashrut, Jewschool
Cleaning Up Kosher, The Pink Unicorn
Group Wants to Monitor Kosher Industry, Forbes (Associated Press)
Ethical Guidelines for Kosher Food Released, Forward
Slaughterhouse 5W: PR Firms Ethics Are Anything but Kosher, PR News Blog
Kosher Klothes, Rejewvenate
Jews Argue over the Ethics of Kashrut, LukeFord.net
Group Wants to Monitor Ethics of Kosher Industry, International Herald Tribune
Group Wants to Monitor Ethics of Kosher Industry, Business Week

Wednesday, 7/30/2008

Hechsher Tzedek and why wrangling matters, Modern Mitzvot
Agriprocessors Roundup, Jewcy
Ethical Kosher Guidelines Released, JTA
It's Not Kosher, The Baltimore Jewish Times
Jews Debate Ethics of Kosher Food Supply, Boston Globe
Jews Debate the Ethics of Kosher Food Supply, Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life
Noted, The Nation

Tuesday, 7/29/2008

Orthodox Leaders to Visit Controversial Slaughterhouse, Forward
Bus Trip to Postville Protest Yields Surprises, New America Media

Monday, 7/28/2008

More on the Immigrant Rights March, Gangbox Construction Workers News Service
Something is really not kosher in Iowa, Beliefnet Windows and Doors
Postville Takes Center Stage in Immigration Debate, Workday Minnesota
Twin Cities Jews Join the Battle, Minneapolis Star Tribune
Marchers target immigration raid: Rabbis also publicize kosher issues at meatpacking plant, San Diego Union Tribune
Iowa Rally Protests Raid and Conditions at Plant, Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refuge Rights

Sunday, 7/27/2008

Expanding the Laws of Kosher, Luke Ford.net
Postville’s Latino immigrants march for civil rights and amnesty - racists hold anti-immigrant counterdemonstration, Gangbox
Iowa Rally Protests Raid and Conditions at Plant, NY Times
Agriprocessor's Saga Continues: Call For Hekhsher Tzedek Builds, Rabbi Arthur Segal
Rubashkins Still in the News, Jewschool

Saturday, 7/26, 2008

No Human Being is Illegal, Znet

Friday, July 25, 2008

The Postville Raid: Local Groups Rally to Help Immigrant Workers, MinnPost

Thursday, 7/24/2008

PR firm’s misconduct on Essential Estrogen documented by trade mag, Iowa Independent
The Kashrus of Kosher, The Jewish Press Blog
PR Firm Accused of Impersonating Rabbi on Blog, Jewish Exponent

Wednesday, 7/23/2008

Elasticizing Kashrut, The Jewish Press

Tuesday, 7/22/2008

5W, Orthodox Jewish group at odds over statement, PR Week

Monday, 7/21/2008

Raid on meat plant haunts town, sparks debate, LaCrosse Tribune
Justice Certification: Hekhsher Tzedek, About.com

Sunday, 7/20.2008

Misconduct by PR firm has Rabbi considering legal action, Letters and Papers from Postville

Friday, 7/18,2008

Misconduct by PR Firm has Rabbi considering legal action, Iowa Independent
A Rush to Judgment on Postville, Israel News

Thursday, 7/17/2008

Agriprocessors' PR company accused of identity theft, Radarsite
Agri, Jewish Simplicity

Wednesday, 7/16/2008

A PR Nighmare, New York Jewish Week
5WPR Scares Holy Man With Sock Puppet, Blames Intern, Gawker

Tuesday, 7/15/2008

Kosher, Magpie Ima

Monday, 7/14/2008

Agriprocessors' PR Firm Accused of Impersonating Rabbi, Jewish Federation of the Berkshires
Last Week in Postville, JTA
Fastest Growing PR Agency vs ethics, The Ethical Optimist
How Fair are Your Tents, John Carrier

Friday, 7/11/2008

No, that wasn’t really Rabbi Allen on our site…, JTA
UPDATE: 5W acknowledges blog misconduct, PR Week

Thursday, 7/10/2008

Kosher Slaughterhouse Management Arrested, Forward
More Problems at Agriprocessors, My Jewish Learning
PR Firm Accused of Impersonating Rabbi, JTA
From Theory to Practice, Washington Jewish Week
Major PR Firm Hired By Rubashkin In Trouble Over Comments Posted On VIN News Site, And Others, Vos iz Neias

Wednesday, 7/9/2008

A new front opens in the Jewish culture wars, Jerusalem Post
Is Agri’s PR firm impersonating Morris Allen?, JTA
Flacks for Kosher Slaughterhouse Accused of Impersonating Company's Critics Online, Forward
So did Agriprocessors PR firm really get busted impersonating the founder of Heksher Tzedek?, Dov Bear
Group End Agriprocessor Boycott, New York Jewish Week
Hekhsher Tzedek: what do you think?, Frum Satire
Lutheran Pastor, Postville's returned to state is was in 15 years ago, Elgin Echo
5W PR Illegally Impersonates Hechsher Tzedek Founder Rabbi Morris Allen, Failed Messiah

Tuesday, 7/8/2008

Is new justice certification for food ethical? Ynet Talkbacks
New York - Morris Allen And His Hekhsher Tzedek Idea Have No Credibility, Vos is Neias

Monday, 7/7/2008

Interview with undercover PETA couple, Jew and Carrot
Postville Update, Standing Firm
Iowa worker raid sparks debate on making of kosher food, Commercial Appeal

Sunday, 7/6/2008

Chabad Rabbi Attacks Hekhsher Tzedek, Failed Messiah
Is new justice certification for food ethical?, Ynet
In wake of Postville raid, US Jewish groups call for immigration reform, Jerusalem Post

Saturday, 7/5/2008

Immigration Raid Pulls Apart Iowa Town, American Conservative Daily

Friday, 7/4/2008

Kashrut, what's it really about? Miriam Erez

Thursday, 7/3/2008

Agriprocessors Responds to 'Unjust' Dialogue, Yeshiva World News

Wednesday, 7/2/2008

Kashrus Gains Threatened by Recent Events at Agriprocessors, Jewish and Breaking News
Rabbi Advocates for Immigrant Employees, Dream Act
Religious Leaders: Immigrants Suffering After Raids, WCF Courier
Raid Spurs Calls for Immigration Reform, JTA
Kashrus Gains Threatened by Recent Events at Agriprocessors, Congregation Toras Chaim
Rhyme and Reason, Rabbi Pinchos Lipshutz
Until Proven Guilty, Agriprocessors and the Rubashkins will Keep Kosher, OpEd News

Tuesday, 7/1/2008

Raid Unsettles Kosher Beliefs, Wall Street Journal
Postville 50 Days Later, Jew and Carrot
Is Rubashkin Meat Kosher? Luke Ford.net
If You Shecht It, They Will Come, Philadelphia Jewish Voice
Raid Unsettles Kosher Beliefs, Jewneric: A New Platform for Jewish Voices
What Makes Meat Kosher?, Wall Street Journal Forum

Jews debate the ethics of kosher food supply

2008-07-30T07:48:00.001-05:00

By Irene Sege
The Boston Globe Staff
July 30, 2008

The friend who told Susan Cetlin earlier this summer that she loves Aaron's brand kosher chicken didn't get the nod of agreement she might have expected.

Instead, Cetlin, a psychologist whose Sharon home is kosher, listed allegations of unsafe working conditions and underpayment against Aaron's parent company, Agriprocessors, the nation's largest producer of kosher meat and the object of a large immigration raid in May. Cetlin is boycotting Agriprocessors, and soon her friend was, too.

The raid on Agriprocessors' Iowa plant has sparked debate in the Jewish community about the role of ethical considerations in the production of kosher food and sets the backdrop against which the moderate Conservative movement will issue guidelines Thursday for an ambitious new "hekhsher tzedek," Hebrew for "certificate of righteousness." The additional stamp would identify producers of kosher foods that meet its standards regarding working conditions, treatment of animals, and the environment.

In rolling out the new certification, the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism and the Rabbinical Assembly, two national umbrella organizations, join a wave of socially conscious buying that has led many consumers to seek fair-trade coffee and sneakers not made by children.

To Conservative Jewish leaders, the new certification symbolizes the embrace of tradition and modern social concerns that defines the denomination.

"Hekhsher tzedek reminds us that kosher is not just about rituals," said Rabbi Barry Starr of Temple Israel in Sharon, where Cetlin is a member. "That's a very powerful niche for the Conservative movement."

For Cetlin, who was raised in a nonobservant Jewish home and considers keeping kosher part of her spiritual journey, the allegations against Agriprocessors have violated her trust in a way that concerns about other products have not. Federal and state authorities are now investigating complaints of illegal working conditions at Agriprocessors, including allegations, detailed in The New York Times, that underage immigrants worked shifts as long as 17 hours.

"Kosher gives me the sense that it's a respectful process," said Cetlin, 52. "It's respecting the life of the animal, as well as the worker. When this situation came up, it felt very uncomfortable. My daughter, who is a vegetarian, thinks the way to avoid all of this is to become a vegetarian. It is so hard to make decisions about what is moral or ethical."

With hekhsher tzedek, the Conservative movement also jockeys for a foothold in a kosher industry dominated by Orthodox Jews, the most traditional branch of Judaism.

To succeed, Conservative officials must persuade an industry that already invites supervisors of the religious aspect of food production into its facilities to accept additional inspectors who focus on ethical issues. At issue are religious dietary laws that specify how animals are slaughtered, prohibit consumption of pork and shellfish, and dictate that meat and dairy not be eaten together. Other portions of Jewish law mandate ethical behavior.

Most Orthodox Jews have kosher homes - 86 percent, according to the National Jewish Population Survey - compared with one-quarter of Conservative Jews. Yet because Conservative Jews outnumber Orthodox Jews, they account for one-third of American Jews with kosher homes. Only 5 percent of Reform Jews, the most liberal denomination, keep kosher.

Dr. Steven Ugent - who lives in Sharon, where he is a member of Temple Israel - sees keeping kosher as more than simply following a biblical commandment. "It's a way to be conscious of who you are and that there's a God every time you eat, and to make a separation between the profane and the holy," the 43-year-old dermatologist said. "When you eat, it's not just a mundane act."

Dr. Ugent is curious about what standards hekhsher tzedek will use. "Clearly ethics are important," he said. "I would pay attention to that kind of thing."

Before the Immigration and Customs Enforcement raid, in which almost 400 workers who were in the country illegally were arrested, Agriprocessors supplied 60 percent of the nation's kosher beef and 40 percent of the kosher poultry. The company, which has been fighting unionization, has hired replacement staff and is now returning to full capacity, said spokesman Menachem Lubinsky.

The production squeeze has been felt here, with purveyors from supermarkets to the Butcherie in Brookline and Larry Levine's Kosher Meat Market in Peabody, two of the area's main kosher grocers, filling their gaps with aternative suppliers. The pipeline is slower, and, with pressures on supply, prices have risen. Todd Levine, co-owner of Levine's, estimates that a quarter of his customers are boycotting Agriprocessors, and Butcherie co-owner Walter Gelerman has fielded a few questions on the subject.

Shortly after the raid, United Synagogue suggested that its members seek alternatives to Agriprocessors, and a number of Conservative rabbis preached on the topic and e-mailed members. The Orthodox social justice group Uri L'Tzedek ended its boycott July 8 after Agriprocessors hired a former US attorney to oversee its compliance efforts. The Conservative advisory remains in effect.

Michael Holloway, a 52-year-old biologist from Sharon, feels that he must finally decide whether to join the boycott, now that he has seen Agriprocessors meat in the supermarket for the first time since the raid.

He is troubled by accounts of Agriprocessor's treatment of workers and concerned about the health of the kosher meat market.

"There are few enough kosher meat producers as it is," he said. "We need that company. I hope I am eventually going to be able to buy their product without feeling remorse. I'll probably be buying less and watching closely."

This month Agriprocessors pledged cooperation with investigators and defended itself in full-page advertisements in a dozen Jewish newspapers around the country, including Boston's Jewish Advocate. "These issues, if they were a problem at some point, are all being addressed," said spokesman Lubinsky.

It is in this climate that United Synagogue has readied its hekhsher tzedek guidelines, culminating a two-year process spurred by stories about Agriprocessors in the Jewish Forward and developed with the help of the Boston consulting firm KLD Research & Analytics.

"This is an example of the Conservative movement at its best," said Rabbi Wes Gardenswartz of Temple Emanuel in Newton, the region's largest Conservative congregation. "It's adhering to an ancient tradition and at the same time living with ethics and sensitivity to other people."

The Minnesota rabbi spearheading the effort has long made encouraging kosher observance a mainstay of his pulpit. "My belief is more people will buy kosher products with hekhsher tzedek because it speaks to their value system on multiple levels," said Rabbi Morris Allen of Beth Jacob Congregation in suburban St. Paul.

The initiative draws mixed response from the Orthodox.

Rabbi Chaim Wolosow of the Chabad Center of Sharon, an outreach arm of the ultra-Orthodox Lubavitch movement, is skeptical. "It's an insult to all the religious people and the Orthodox people and all the people who have the highest standards," he said. "It's saying they don't care about the workers and the animals. This assumes the Orthodox people who give hekhshers have not been doing that."

The Orthodox Union, the umbrella organization that is the country's major certifier of kosher food, is critical, too.

A company indicted or convicted of ethical wrongdoing would lose its approval, said Rabbi Moshe Elefant, chief operating officer of the union's kosher division. "We think it's best left to the government."

Among Orthodox leaders expressing cautious support is Rabbi Gershon Gewirtz of Young Israel of Brookline, the largest Orthodox congregation in New England. Although Gewirtz opposes boycotting Agriprocessors before allegations of what he terms "absolutely intolerable" behavior are substantiated, he sees a place for a thoughtfully executed hekhsher tzedek.

"Their intent is valid," he said. "Companies that deal in religiously sanctioned food items should also follow an outline that is reflective of Jewish law in relationship with their employees. That has to be carefully structured."

In Sharon, meanwhile, Cetlin continues her boycott.

"I'm a more liberal Jew," she said. "To me, having an ethical endorsement would matter as much as the more traditional kosher certification."

Keeping up with Hekhsher Tzedek-June

2008-07-01T01:46:00.001-05:00

Monday, June 30, 2008

There's something bad in this town, Frente Contra Las Redadas Bloga

Sunday, June 29, 2008

If You Schecht It They Will Come, Philadelphia Jewish Voice
Learning from Postville, The Mississippifarian

Saturday, June 28, 2008

There's something bad in this town, Minneapolis Star Tribune

Wednesday, June 25, 2008

A Kosher Dilemma, Forward
Teens Take Lead on Agriprocessors, JSpot

Tuesday, June 24, 2008

BBYO to Steer Clear of Rubashkin's, JTA
Kosher meat giant hopes P.R. campaign will counter boycott, Haaretz

Saturday, June 21, 2008

Iowa meat plant taken to task for abusive practices, Jerusalem Post

Friday, June 20, 2008

Embattled Kosher Meat Giant Fights Back With P.R. Offensive, Forward

Thursday, June 19, 2008

In Heated Meeting, Orthodox Activists Spar With Kosher Meat Company, Forward

Wednesday, June 18, 2008

Chelm is Warsaw, Warsaw is Chelm, Jerusalen
This Week in Postville: What the OU is telling rabbis, JTA
KOL Foods on the Radio, Jew and Carrot

Monday, June 16, 2008

When (and why) the Conservative Movement Blinked, Failed Messiah

Saturday, June 14, 2008

Kosher to Eat is Not the Same as Kosher to Buy, Heeb'n'vegan

Friday, June 13, 2008

Rabbi calls for Orthodox 'Hekhsher Tzedek', JTA
Kosher to Eat is Not the Same as Kosher to Buy, Wisconsin Jewish Chronicle

Thursday, June 12, 2008

Milwaukee - Orthodox Rabbi Raises Halachic Question, Rubashkin Meat Kosher To Eat, But Not Kosher To Buy, Vos is Neias
Op-Ed: Reacting to the Rubashkin Imbroglio, Crown Heights Info

Wednesday, June 11, 2008

Conservative and Reform Movements Despicable, Ludicrous, Spoofs On Kashrus, Vos is Neias
Midwest Jewish Camps to Serve non-Agriprocessors meat this summer, Jewschool

Tuesday, June 10, 2008

Conservative Rabbi Visits Postville, JTA

Friday, June 6, 2008

Kosher Meat Plant's Immigration Woes, Weekend America
Rubashkin and the cost of a Kosher Chicken, Rabbi on a Narrow Bridge

Wednesday, June 4, 2008

Deceptive Jewish Rabbis, And Their “hechsher tzedek” Crap , Vos is Neias

Tuesday, June 3, 2008

More on Agriprocessors, JTA
RCA urges caution on Agriprocessors, JTA

Sunday, June 1, 2008

Keeping kosher and being ethical, too, Jerusalem Post

Keeping Up With Hekhsher Tzedek - May

2008-06-01T01:32:00.004-05:00

Saturday, May 31, 2008

Workers, Documents Paint Stories of Coercion, Sexual Exploitation at Agriprocessors, Iowa Independent
Workers, Documents Paint Stories of Coercion, Sexual Exploitation at Agriprocessors, Essential Estrogen
Rabbi Morris Allen Reports From Postville, Jew and Carrot
In the Diaspora, Treif as Swine, Jerusalem Post

Friday, May 30, 2008

Gentlemen, can you tell me, are our payrolls are kosher? Jewschool
Yashar Koach, Rabbi Jacobs, Rabbi Larry Bach

Thursday, May 29, 2008

Rabbis Pass Living Wage Measure, Forward
Members of the Jewish Community Speak out about Agriprocessors, Standing FIRM

Wednesday, May 28,2008

Pressure Seen Mounting Against Kosher Meat Giant, New York Jewish Week
Kashrut and Ethics, Hekhsher Tzedek

Monday, May 26, 2008

Jewish groups upset by Agriprocessors scandal, Jerusalem Post

Sunday, May 25, 2008

Call for Agriprocessors Boycott Intensifying, JTA

Saturday, May 24, 2008

Update and More, Jewschool
Beef, it's what's for dinner, Make a Fixed Time for Study

Friday, May 23, 2008

Civil Fights: Secular Jews Reclaim Their Heritage, Jerusalem Post
Conservative Movement: We request that you think about not eating Rubashkin product, JTA
Conservative Socialism: Agriprocessors and Hekhsher Tzedek, APRPEH
Eating Meat, Ima Shalom
Conservative Movement Waivers on an Agriprocessor Boycott, Jew and Carrot
Unethical in Iowa, Working Mom Gourmet

Thursday, May 22, 2008

Will plant turmoil trigger fallout, Washington Jewish Week
You shall not abuse a needy and destitute laborer, Hekhsher Tzedek
Parshat Behukotai, Fed Reb
Update, Morning Train

Wednesday, May 21, 2008

Shame on You, Jewschool
Unkosher Behavior, Morning Train

Sunday, May 18, 2008

UFCW v. Agriprocessors business-as-usual, Union News
Would You Like Some Meth with Your Meat? The Notorious R.A.V.

Saturday, May 17, 2008'

jewish leaders alledge widespread labor abuses at postville plant, Gangbox

Friday, May 16, 2008

For Shame, New Jersey Jewish Standard
Raid on Kosher Slaughterhouse Sparks Fears of Meat Shortage, Forward
Experts: Kosher slaughter house owners may be indicted, Jerusalem Post
Business as usual after Rubashkin raid, New Jersey Jewish Standard

Thursday, May 15, 2008

Nation File :: Feds Conduct Largest Raid Of Illegal Workers In US History At Kosher Plant, Also Cite Possible Drug Activity, Deep South Jewish Voice
Ask the Rabbi: Not Sporting ,Jerusalem Post

Wednesday, May 14, 2008

Widespread Worker Abuses Alleged at Agriprocessors, New York Jewish Week
A Light Unto the Nations? Emes Ve'Emunah
Treated like cattle by ICE, Socialist Worker

Tuesday, May 13, 2008

Dignity of Labor, Working Wage and a hechsher tzedek, Magdeburger Joe
Illegal Alien Rabbis, Workers . . . Maybe Even Meth? When is Kosher not Kosher? Israel Jewish News

Monday, May 12, 2008

Agriprocessors gets raided by ICE, Jewschool

Friday, May 9, 2008

'Junk mail' delivers Rabbi a surprise, Minneapolis Star Tribune