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.
Friday, November 13, 2009
Wednesday, September 9, 2009
New Kosher Food Certification May Be Most Detailed In the Industry
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
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
Wednesday, July 22, 2009
New Owner of Agriprocessors Faces Old Questions About Its Plans For Company
By Rebecca Dube
Published July 22, 2009
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
Wednesday, July 1, 2009
For Some Local Jews, Kosher Isn't Enough
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."
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."
Wednesday, May 13, 2009
The Kaddish debate continues
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
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.
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.
Tuesday, April 7, 2009
Kosher that's not just for food
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)
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.
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