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Friday, June 06, 2008

A Rabbi's World: You Are What You Eat

Posted By James Besser

A Rabbi's World:  You Are What You Eat


 

The recent federal raid at the Agriprocessors kosher meat plant in Postville, Iowa, and the accompanying allegations brought against the Rubashkin family and brand, represent a particularly sorry and damaging episode in the cause of religious Judaism in this country.


The Agriprocessors story, at least for me, is not about the hundreds of illegal aliens who were arrested.  That is a separate issue, and a very sad statement on the inability of our government to enact any kind of sane immigration policy.  That they were allegedly mistreated is nothing short of tragic, and a black stain on those who employed them. 


Nor is it about kosher meat or food.  One particular family business is at the center of this story, not kosher food.  That there is Chillul Hashem involved in the story- embarrassment to the cause of religious Judaism in general, and kashrut more specifically- is the collateral damage, if you will, of a particular business' lamentable labor practices. 


The truth is that the Agriprocessors story is but an egregious example of a much bigger issue for us in the traditional Jewish community, namely: what is the connection between the food that we eat, and the values that we espouse as Jews?


To be sure, this is not a new issue.  Vegetarians have been preaching this lesson forever, and many people within the kosher community long ago gave up eating veal, and some all red meat, because of ethical concerns.


But the Agriprocessors incident has brought into sharper focus a different dimension of the same issue, having to deal not with the animals themselves, but with the workers involved in the plants where the food is produced. 


The fundamental question is not whether the food is kosher; that is actually not the question.  No one is questioning the kashrut of the product.  The issue now before us is whether the means by which the food is produced need to meet ethical standards, and whether or not those standards are also part and parcel of Judaism's understanding of what kashrut is all about.


It is exactly this issue that, in the Conservative movement of which I am a part, gave rise to the creation of the Hekhsher Tzedek Commission, a joint project of the Rabbinical Assembly and the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism. 


The raison d'etre of Hekhsher Tzedek is to state clearly and unambivalently that issues like wages and benefits, employee health and safety, environmental impact and the like must also be a part of the kosher equation.

 

Our natural instinct when we think "kosher" is to associate the term with whether or not we may put the food in our mouths.  But kashrut is about holiness- it's all about holiness.


And it stands to reason that if the goal of kashrut is to sanctify ourselves and our lives, then closing our eyes to the abuse of those who are asked to produce the food is simply not acceptable.  The Hekhsher Tzedek Commission's goal is to create a new symbol to be placed on those kosher products whose producers are found to be corporately responsible, and adhering to proper treatment of workers and related employment issues.


Some have alleged that we in the Conservative movement are trying to "muscle in" on the Kashrut industry.  Nothing could be farther from the truth.  Others have said that rabbinic supervisors are ill equipped to do what they see as human resources work, and that we are naïve.  Further, they argue, the kinds of standards that we are asking for in the industry will drive the price of kosher meat up.


Well, that just might be.  But if a lower price for kosher meat and poultry (such that there is such a thing) is possible only by exploiting the most vulnerable sectors of our society, not to mention violating the kinds of laws that virtually every food provision corporation in America is legally obliged to adhere to, then perhaps the time has come to either tighten our belts and pay more, or find other ways to satisfy our appetites.


Yes, I remember Nike, and I deplore sweatshops and unfair labor practices in whatever contexts or countries they rear their ugly heads.  But Nike and its ilk do not pretend to wrap themselves in a proverbial tallit and be about the quest for holiness.  For them, it's all about the money.  And when the kosher food industry becomes all about the money, and loses track of the other values that are inherently a part of the kosher equation, then we are all in trouble, and so is religious Judaism.  Yes, businesspeople are in business to make money.  But how?


Hekhsher Tzedek is an idea whose time has come, and Agriprocessors is the proof text.




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Posted In A Rabbi's World | 3 Comments

Eat less meat

06/26/08 @ 10:48 AM | Posted By Brenda Berry

Mr Greenbaum,

While I agree with you that lower income Jews ought to have the same access to food as wealthier ones, the solution for all Jews, and non Jews as well, is to eat less meat per week than before but to eat meat that is humanely raised and ethically slaughtered and according to halacha.  The meat industry as a whole is problematic for the environment, including as a cause of greenhouse gases.  Even Rabbi Seth Mandel of the OU has said that if Jews ate meat no more than once or twice a week,  maybe only for Shabbat, then the meat industry would not be under pressure to cut corners so much.

And yes, I believe that Heksher Tzedek will eventually seek to add its certification to  non Jewish firms with kosher certification .  In this way Hekhsher tzedek can provide an ohr la'goyim in the realm of ethical standards for food production. 

 

 

Tzedek-Whose Tzedek

06/18/08 @ 04:39 PM | Posted By Yankel Cohen Should rabbis who do not follow Halacha, who they themselves  eat in non kosher restaurants  define Tzedek in the Jewish community.

If there are issues with the meat plant in Iowa let them be resolved by the  Federal Goverment.  They have rules for wages, safety  and who has the right to work. Why should a group of liberal rabbis, who by their very ideology  reject  long held norms of Jewish tradition become the Sanhedrin for the Jewish  world on what is ethical and what is not.

These liberal rabbis are attempting to use Judaism as an approach for social engineering. They are going to define what is a proper wage and what is not. It smells of leftist activism  dressed up as Judaism. The fact that in Iowa the liberal rabbis have teamed up with a union attempting to control the plant makes the issue even more questionable.

If its ethics, why should they begin with a kosher meat producer. If Tzedek is the name of the  game lets first investigate the cleaning  help at JTS. Do the gardeners at the American Jewish University all have health plans  and social security  cards. Do Conservative  Temples in the US check the status of their help. What are the  wage standards, health plans  and work conditions for cleaning people in their Temples.

This smells of an effort for the liberal movements to muscle their way into Kashruth. The traditional community should tell them that they are not interested in rabbis that  personally eat non kosher defining the standards of so called "ethics".

Hekhsher Tzedek - And lofty goal, an untenable alliance

06/17/08 @ 02:06 PM | Posted By Norman Greenbaum

It is funny to see the sheer hypocrisy in all of these calls for a Hechsher Zedek on Agriprocessors.  There are so many issues here of grave concern to the cause of Zedek, yet these people see fit to go after a target, rather than look at a whole picture.

With the rising costs energy, transportation and now, even feed for the animals to be slaughtered, kosher meat is quickly slipping out of the grasp of the average kosher family and into the realm of services for the wealthy alone.  Where is the Tzedek in that for the family of seven in Borough Park, Williamsburg, etc, trying to feed the kids and allow for the spirit of Shabbat meals?  Go after Agriprocessors and we are sure to raise the prices even more – beyond the natural order already in place to do just that.

That the UFCW Union has been working with Agriprocessors’ competitors to raise issues that do not even exist, like company sponsored drug abuse, is an abuse of the ideal of Zedek.  Zedek for whom, a company that cannot compete any other way?

The facts are that Agri has been keeping meat available and “relatively” inexpensive due to their vast production scales and volume.  That has helped Iowa residents maintain jobs, homes and lives while also helping Jewish families near and far also have kosher meat that has previously been a rare commodity.  This raid, now this presumed boycott in  the name of Zedek – justice, just serves a whole lot of injustice to many, many people.

For Zedek, why stop, indeed, even start, with Agriprocessors unless there is an agenda against them here?  How many “good” Jews employ illegal aliens in their homes as housecleaners, nannys etc, and how many do the same in their workplaces, like medical offices, grocery stores, mailrooms and houses of worship?  Not just Jews, mind you. Should we ask for Zedek from the CEO’s of non Jewish firms that obtain Kosher certifications from our Kashrut agencies – General Foods, Entenmanns, Coca Cola?  Have we even looked at them, their hiring practices and compliance standards?  Do we, should we?  Or, is Agriprocessors our target for other reasons?

Rabbi Morris Allen, who is said to eat in non kosher establishments (albeit vegetarian foods) and who approves same sex marriages, appears to violate biblical rules, yet promotes Zedek as a greater ethical good.  He is not a bad guy, but hardly a source for Judaic standards.  What is his motivation here other than to get into the very lucrative kashrut game?  As for Avi Weiss’ motivations?  He just needs an issue to get Chocvei Torah, his yeshiva, standing apart and out from the broader Yeshiva University establishment.  This is his opus, he will chain himself to it and cry until we listen.

Let’s see this for what it is and what it will do to and for Jews.  The Beatles said, “come together”, the Torah teaches “Kol Yisrael Araivin Zeh L’zeh.”  Why are there so many factions seeking to divide Jews for purely selfish reasons?



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