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.
Magen Tzedek: Making Kashrut a Sacred Undertaking for All Jews
Showing posts with label Conservative Judaism. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Conservative Judaism. Show all posts
Thursday, May 27, 2010
Conservatives’ ethical seal nearing kosher marketplace
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 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.”
Thursday, September 11, 2008
Conservative Movement Finds Unity In Promoting New Hekhsher Guidelines
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.
Thursday, May 22, 2008
Reconsidering AgriProcessors Products
Published: 05/22/2008
The leadership of the U.S. Conservative movement is urging Jews to consider not patronizing AgriProcessors, the nation's largest kosher slaughterhouse.
In a joint statement released Thursday evening, the movement's Rabbinical Association and the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism declared themselves "shocked and appalled" at working conditions at AgriProcessors, which is under federal investigation for employing illegal aliens. The groups asked their members "to evaluate whether it is appropriate to consume Rubashkin products until this situation is addressed."
The advisory extends not only to products bought retail but also to meat and poultry bought at restaurants and for private functions such as weddings and bar mitzvahs. The statement falls short of the boycott hoped for by the more activist wing of the Conservative rabbinate, and leaves the decision in the hands of the individual consumer.
Still, Rabbi Morris Allen, head of the movement's hekhsher tzedek commission, said that "it is the first statement from the organized Jewish community that reminds people they need to evaluate the food they purchase and eat" from an ethical perspective.
No other Jewish movement has issued a statement on the issue.
Rabbi Eric Yoffie, head of the Union of Reform Judaism, said it was appropriate that the Conservative movement take the lead because unlike the Reform movement, the Conservative movement calls on its members to keep kosher. Noting his own "deep distress" at the news coming out of Postville, Iowa, where AgriProcessors is located, Yoffie said it is "absolutely" time for the Jewish community to demand similar investigations into all kosher slaughterhouses, because the case "has raised suspicions about all kosher food."
Rabbi Menachem Genack, head of the Orthodox Union's kosher department, the largest kosher certifier of AgriProcessors, said the O.U. is awaiting the outcome of legal proceedings against the company before coming to any decision. If AgriProcessors is found guilty of criminal charges, he said, the O.U. will withdraw its kosher certification. Meat and poultry produced by AgriProcessors is sold under the following kosher and non-kosher labels: Aaron's Best, Aaron's Choice, David's, European Glatt, Iowa Best Beef, Nevel, Rubashkin's, Shor Habor, and Supreme Kosher.
The leadership of the U.S. Conservative movement is urging Jews to consider not patronizing AgriProcessors, the nation's largest kosher slaughterhouse.
In a joint statement released Thursday evening, the movement's Rabbinical Association and the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism declared themselves "shocked and appalled" at working conditions at AgriProcessors, which is under federal investigation for employing illegal aliens. The groups asked their members "to evaluate whether it is appropriate to consume Rubashkin products until this situation is addressed."
The advisory extends not only to products bought retail but also to meat and poultry bought at restaurants and for private functions such as weddings and bar mitzvahs. The statement falls short of the boycott hoped for by the more activist wing of the Conservative rabbinate, and leaves the decision in the hands of the individual consumer.
Still, Rabbi Morris Allen, head of the movement's hekhsher tzedek commission, said that "it is the first statement from the organized Jewish community that reminds people they need to evaluate the food they purchase and eat" from an ethical perspective.
No other Jewish movement has issued a statement on the issue.
Rabbi Eric Yoffie, head of the Union of Reform Judaism, said it was appropriate that the Conservative movement take the lead because unlike the Reform movement, the Conservative movement calls on its members to keep kosher. Noting his own "deep distress" at the news coming out of Postville, Iowa, where AgriProcessors is located, Yoffie said it is "absolutely" time for the Jewish community to demand similar investigations into all kosher slaughterhouses, because the case "has raised suspicions about all kosher food."
Rabbi Menachem Genack, head of the Orthodox Union's kosher department, the largest kosher certifier of AgriProcessors, said the O.U. is awaiting the outcome of legal proceedings against the company before coming to any decision. If AgriProcessors is found guilty of criminal charges, he said, the O.U. will withdraw its kosher certification. Meat and poultry produced by AgriProcessors is sold under the following kosher and non-kosher labels: Aaron's Best, Aaron's Choice, David's, European Glatt, Iowa Best Beef, Nevel, Rubashkin's, Shor Habor, and Supreme Kosher.
Wednesday, August 22, 2007
Of Church and Steak: Farming for the Soul
While Of Church and Steak: Farming for the Soul is not directly speaking about Hechsher Tzedek, it is being posted here to show how the relationship between religion and food is changing, and not just in Judaism. The Conservative movement has already succeeded in being taken seriously even as the Hechsher Tzedek rules are further refined and developed. There is much yet to do before the first Hechser Tzedek is placed on the first product, but as the following article clearly demonstrates, the work which we are doing is sacred work and is making a difference in terms of how people understand the religious imperative of what makes something truly fit for consumption.
By JOAN NATHAN
August 22, 2007 New York Times
Howard S.D.
NEAR a prairie dotted with cattle and green with soy beans, barley, corn and oats, two bearded Hasidic men dressed in black pray outside a slaughterhouse here that is managed by an evangelical Christian.
What brought these men together could easily have kept them apart: religion.
The two Hasidim oversee shehitah, the Jewish ritual slaughtering of meat according to the Book of Leviticus. The meat is then shipped to Wise Organic Pastures, a kosher food company in Brooklyn owned by Issac Wiesenfeld and his family. When Mr. Wiesenfeld sought an organic processor that used humane methods five years ago, he found Scott Lively, who was just beginning Dakota Beef, now one of the largest organic meat processors in the country.
Mr. Lively adheres to a diet he believes Jesus followed. Like Mr. Wiesenfeld, he says the Bible prescribes that he use organic methods to respect the earth, treat his workers decently and treat the cattle that enter his slaughterhouse as humanely as possible.
“We learn everything from the Old Testament,” Mr. Lively said, “from keeping kosher to responsible capitalism.”
Humane, sustainable practices like Mr. Lively’s are articles of faith for many Americans concerned with the way food gets from farm to plate. But they are even more deeply held matters of faith for a growing number of farmers and religious groups. In the past few years protecting the environment has emerged as a religious issue. Now, something similar is taking place in the way people of faith view their daily bread.
Christians, Jews and Muslims who see food through a moral lens are increasingly organized and focused on showing their strength. The Religious Working Group on the Farm Bill, a national coalition of more than a dozen religious organizations, is lobbying Congress for legislation to help small farms. The National Catholic Rural Life Conference is helping congregations and universities in the Midwest buy local produce from family farmers.
Environment-minded Jews are asking the leaders of Conservative Judaism to rewrite their kosher certification rules to incorporate ethical concerns about workers, animals and the land. Hazon, the Jewish environmental organization, has set up community-supported agriculture programs, or C.S.A.’s, in which customers purchase shares of a farm’s harvest.
“This is the first time I have seen such a deep and growing involvement of the faith community,” said Brother David Andrews, who is on sabbatical from his job as executive director of the National Catholic Rural Life Conference and has followed these kinds of issues for 30 years.
If this nascent cause was taken up by large numbers of churches and synagogues, the economic effect alone could be profound. “The religious movement is a huge force,” said Arlin S. Wasserman, the founder of Changing Tastes, a consulting firm in St. Paul that advises food companies and philanthropic organizations on trends in food and agriculture. “Already, religious institutions oversee the production of $250 billion per year in food if you bundle together halal, kosher, and institutional buying.
“Religious leaders have been giving dietary advice for decades and centuries, telling us to eat fish on Friday or to keep kosher in your home. What we are seeing now are contemporary concerns like the fair treatment of farm workers, humane treatment of animals and respect for the environment being integrated into the dietary advice given by the churches.”
Religious officials say agricultural issues seem to be particularly appealing to younger people.
“Food and the environment is the civil rights movement for people under the age of 40,” said the Rev. John Wimberly, pastor of the Western Presbyterian Church in Washington.
The church recently helped restore a small farmers’ market called the Fresh Farm Market at Foggy Bottom, using its facility to house tents, signs and carts. At the end of the day parishioners glean the food left at the market for their soup kitchen.
The ideas behind faith-based farming relate to the principles of several popular diet books that take inspiration from the Bible, like “Holy Cow! Does God Care About What We Eat?” by Hope Egan (First Fruits of Zion, 2005); “What Would Jesus Eat?” by Don Colbert (Thomas Nelson, 2002); and “The Maker’s Diet,” by Jordan S. Rubin (Siloam Press, 2004). All advocate a return to what they see as the healthy eating practices and humane livestock treatment described in the Bible.
Mr. Lively, who follows the Maker’s diet, slaughters about 45 steer a day at Dakota Beef. Larger facilities will slaughter 2,000 or more.
“We take time to be sure the animal has been processed humanely,” he said. “This is not only important for our humane handling standards, but it is also very much biblical in our minds.”
The slaughterhouse weds ancient practices with modern insights and technology. Much of the plant was planned with the help of Dr. Temple Grandin, a designer of humane livestock facilities and professor of animal sciences at Colorado State University. She suggested changes like shielding the animals from humans milling about and nestling them in a comfortable head-holder as Tal Ginter, the shohet, or kosher slaughterer, wields the knife that slices their jugular vein, rather than first stunning the animals, as is a common commercial practice.
“It is not a horrible thing,” said Mr. Ginter, who worked in the slaughterhouse until recently under the supervision of Crown Heights Kosher and the Orthodox Union. “It looks bloody, but according to the Bible and the Torah, you have to be mindful of the animal and let it die as fast as you can, to cause less pain.”
Many of the ideas in the faith-based agriculture movement were expressed 30 years ago by advocates of eco-kashrut, a Jewish environmental consciousness movement. Jewish groups like Kosher Conscience in New York and blogs like the Jew & the Carrot (jcarrot.org), which is sponsored by Hazon, are still in the forefront. Two years ago the W. K. Kellogg Foundation, which has long been involved in agriculture issues, gave the Alliance for Jewish Renewal a two-year, $200,000 grant to start the Sacred Foods Project, which developed ethical guides to food buying.
For some religious people, change starts from the ground up, beginning with the way they treat the land. Dr. Adnan Aldayel, a Saudi Arabian financial consultant living in New Rockford, N.D., runs what he believes is the nation’s only organic halal producer, Dakota Halal. “We try to raise our animals the proper way, the right way,” he said. “We are the custodians of the ground.”
Environmentally sensitive farming has been taken up by at least 50 orders of nuns in the United States and Canada. Their number has increased about fivefold in the past decade, said Sarah McFarland Taylor, who recently published a book about this movement, “Green Sisters: A Spiritual Ecology” (Harvard University Press, 2007).
Among them is Sisters Hill Farm, a seven-acre organic farm in Stanfordville, N.Y., operated by the Sisters of Charity of New York. When they began working the land in 2000, it had not been cultivated since 1940. The sisters sell some of their vegetables at a stand on the farm and some through a C.S.A. based at the College of Mount Saint Vincent in the Bronx.
“We decided to revive this farm so that the sisters could have a place to go to from the city to do something in a sustainable way to care for the earth,” said Sister Mary Ann Garisto, director of ecological concerns for the Sisters of Charity.
For many who farm according to religious principles, the treatment of animals is a great concern. Catherine and Myron Horst of Dickerson, Md., wrote about the problem on their Bible study Web site, biblicalresearchreports.com, in an article called “Farming Based on the Word of the God.”
“The secular corporate business world and the state universities have dismissed God from the farming picture,” they wrote. The Horsts wanted to alter that picture when they took over a 38-acre farm seven years ago.
“We asked the Lord what we were to do with the farm,” said Mr. Horst, a born-again Christian.
So he and his wife put their chickens out to pasture during the day, gather the eggs by hand, and move them back to shelters at night. It is far more work then keeping them cooped up or caged, but for the Horsts the Bible’s promise of dominion “over every living thing” entails responsibilities as well as rights.
Faith-based farming can also mean taking responsibility for the hired hands. Roy Brubaker, a Mennonite who grows strawberries, blueberries and vegetables on his 20-acre farm near Mifflintown, Pa., said: “My faith tells me that workers should be fairly paid. I have never paid the minimum wage. That is not the biblical standard for a living wage.”
Joel Salatin, who is considered a guru of organic agriculture, said he has seen a change in the people who visit his Polyface farm in Virginia.
“Ten years ago most of my farm visitors were earth muffin tree-hugger nirvana cosmic worshipers,” Mr. Salatin said. “And now 80 percent of them are Christian home schoolers.”
By JOAN NATHAN
August 22, 2007 New York Times
Howard S.D.
NEAR a prairie dotted with cattle and green with soy beans, barley, corn and oats, two bearded Hasidic men dressed in black pray outside a slaughterhouse here that is managed by an evangelical Christian.
What brought these men together could easily have kept them apart: religion.
The two Hasidim oversee shehitah, the Jewish ritual slaughtering of meat according to the Book of Leviticus. The meat is then shipped to Wise Organic Pastures, a kosher food company in Brooklyn owned by Issac Wiesenfeld and his family. When Mr. Wiesenfeld sought an organic processor that used humane methods five years ago, he found Scott Lively, who was just beginning Dakota Beef, now one of the largest organic meat processors in the country.
Mr. Lively adheres to a diet he believes Jesus followed. Like Mr. Wiesenfeld, he says the Bible prescribes that he use organic methods to respect the earth, treat his workers decently and treat the cattle that enter his slaughterhouse as humanely as possible.
“We learn everything from the Old Testament,” Mr. Lively said, “from keeping kosher to responsible capitalism.”
Humane, sustainable practices like Mr. Lively’s are articles of faith for many Americans concerned with the way food gets from farm to plate. But they are even more deeply held matters of faith for a growing number of farmers and religious groups. In the past few years protecting the environment has emerged as a religious issue. Now, something similar is taking place in the way people of faith view their daily bread.
Christians, Jews and Muslims who see food through a moral lens are increasingly organized and focused on showing their strength. The Religious Working Group on the Farm Bill, a national coalition of more than a dozen religious organizations, is lobbying Congress for legislation to help small farms. The National Catholic Rural Life Conference is helping congregations and universities in the Midwest buy local produce from family farmers.
Environment-minded Jews are asking the leaders of Conservative Judaism to rewrite their kosher certification rules to incorporate ethical concerns about workers, animals and the land. Hazon, the Jewish environmental organization, has set up community-supported agriculture programs, or C.S.A.’s, in which customers purchase shares of a farm’s harvest.
“This is the first time I have seen such a deep and growing involvement of the faith community,” said Brother David Andrews, who is on sabbatical from his job as executive director of the National Catholic Rural Life Conference and has followed these kinds of issues for 30 years.
If this nascent cause was taken up by large numbers of churches and synagogues, the economic effect alone could be profound. “The religious movement is a huge force,” said Arlin S. Wasserman, the founder of Changing Tastes, a consulting firm in St. Paul that advises food companies and philanthropic organizations on trends in food and agriculture. “Already, religious institutions oversee the production of $250 billion per year in food if you bundle together halal, kosher, and institutional buying.
“Religious leaders have been giving dietary advice for decades and centuries, telling us to eat fish on Friday or to keep kosher in your home. What we are seeing now are contemporary concerns like the fair treatment of farm workers, humane treatment of animals and respect for the environment being integrated into the dietary advice given by the churches.”
Religious officials say agricultural issues seem to be particularly appealing to younger people.
“Food and the environment is the civil rights movement for people under the age of 40,” said the Rev. John Wimberly, pastor of the Western Presbyterian Church in Washington.
The church recently helped restore a small farmers’ market called the Fresh Farm Market at Foggy Bottom, using its facility to house tents, signs and carts. At the end of the day parishioners glean the food left at the market for their soup kitchen.
The ideas behind faith-based farming relate to the principles of several popular diet books that take inspiration from the Bible, like “Holy Cow! Does God Care About What We Eat?” by Hope Egan (First Fruits of Zion, 2005); “What Would Jesus Eat?” by Don Colbert (Thomas Nelson, 2002); and “The Maker’s Diet,” by Jordan S. Rubin (Siloam Press, 2004). All advocate a return to what they see as the healthy eating practices and humane livestock treatment described in the Bible.
Mr. Lively, who follows the Maker’s diet, slaughters about 45 steer a day at Dakota Beef. Larger facilities will slaughter 2,000 or more.
“We take time to be sure the animal has been processed humanely,” he said. “This is not only important for our humane handling standards, but it is also very much biblical in our minds.”
The slaughterhouse weds ancient practices with modern insights and technology. Much of the plant was planned with the help of Dr. Temple Grandin, a designer of humane livestock facilities and professor of animal sciences at Colorado State University. She suggested changes like shielding the animals from humans milling about and nestling them in a comfortable head-holder as Tal Ginter, the shohet, or kosher slaughterer, wields the knife that slices their jugular vein, rather than first stunning the animals, as is a common commercial practice.
“It is not a horrible thing,” said Mr. Ginter, who worked in the slaughterhouse until recently under the supervision of Crown Heights Kosher and the Orthodox Union. “It looks bloody, but according to the Bible and the Torah, you have to be mindful of the animal and let it die as fast as you can, to cause less pain.”
Many of the ideas in the faith-based agriculture movement were expressed 30 years ago by advocates of eco-kashrut, a Jewish environmental consciousness movement. Jewish groups like Kosher Conscience in New York and blogs like the Jew & the Carrot (jcarrot.org), which is sponsored by Hazon, are still in the forefront. Two years ago the W. K. Kellogg Foundation, which has long been involved in agriculture issues, gave the Alliance for Jewish Renewal a two-year, $200,000 grant to start the Sacred Foods Project, which developed ethical guides to food buying.
For some religious people, change starts from the ground up, beginning with the way they treat the land. Dr. Adnan Aldayel, a Saudi Arabian financial consultant living in New Rockford, N.D., runs what he believes is the nation’s only organic halal producer, Dakota Halal. “We try to raise our animals the proper way, the right way,” he said. “We are the custodians of the ground.”
Environmentally sensitive farming has been taken up by at least 50 orders of nuns in the United States and Canada. Their number has increased about fivefold in the past decade, said Sarah McFarland Taylor, who recently published a book about this movement, “Green Sisters: A Spiritual Ecology” (Harvard University Press, 2007).
Among them is Sisters Hill Farm, a seven-acre organic farm in Stanfordville, N.Y., operated by the Sisters of Charity of New York. When they began working the land in 2000, it had not been cultivated since 1940. The sisters sell some of their vegetables at a stand on the farm and some through a C.S.A. based at the College of Mount Saint Vincent in the Bronx.
“We decided to revive this farm so that the sisters could have a place to go to from the city to do something in a sustainable way to care for the earth,” said Sister Mary Ann Garisto, director of ecological concerns for the Sisters of Charity.
For many who farm according to religious principles, the treatment of animals is a great concern. Catherine and Myron Horst of Dickerson, Md., wrote about the problem on their Bible study Web site, biblicalresearchreports.com, in an article called “Farming Based on the Word of the God.”
“The secular corporate business world and the state universities have dismissed God from the farming picture,” they wrote. The Horsts wanted to alter that picture when they took over a 38-acre farm seven years ago.
“We asked the Lord what we were to do with the farm,” said Mr. Horst, a born-again Christian.
So he and his wife put their chickens out to pasture during the day, gather the eggs by hand, and move them back to shelters at night. It is far more work then keeping them cooped up or caged, but for the Horsts the Bible’s promise of dominion “over every living thing” entails responsibilities as well as rights.
Faith-based farming can also mean taking responsibility for the hired hands. Roy Brubaker, a Mennonite who grows strawberries, blueberries and vegetables on his 20-acre farm near Mifflintown, Pa., said: “My faith tells me that workers should be fairly paid. I have never paid the minimum wage. That is not the biblical standard for a living wage.”
Joel Salatin, who is considered a guru of organic agriculture, said he has seen a change in the people who visit his Polyface farm in Virginia.
“Ten years ago most of my farm visitors were earth muffin tree-hugger nirvana cosmic worshipers,” Mr. Salatin said. “And now 80 percent of them are Christian home schoolers.”
Wednesday, June 6, 2007
Rabbi’s Campaign for Kosher Standards Expands to Include Call for Social Justice
By
MENDOTA HEIGHTS
A dozen years ago, Rabbi Morris Allen stood before his congregation in this Twin Cities suburb to announce a program called Chew by Choice. As Conservative Jews, the members of his synagogue were bound by religious law to eat only kosher food, but as typical Americans, relatively few did so. So the rabbi asked them just to stop eating flagrantly impermissible foods like pork and shellfish as the first step toward fuller observance of the dietary strictures.
The campaign at his synagogue, Beth Jacob Congregation, ultimately won Rabbi Allen an invitation to lecture at an Orthodox yeshiva in
In the last year, however, Rabbi Allen has extended his concern with kosher standards from adherence to religious ritual to commitment to social justice. His drive to create a “hechsher tzedek,” a justice certification, on the basis of how kosher food companies treat their workers, has brought him into intense conflict with the Orthodox authorities who traditionally have dominated the certification process.
Last month, the hechsher tzedek received formal endorsement from the Rabbinical Assembly, the national association of Conservative rabbis. In voting to support Rabbi Allen’s initiative with an unspecified amount of “volunteer and financial support,” the assembly invoked a verse from Deuteronomy declaring, “You shall not abuse a needy and destitute laborer, whether a fellow countryman or a stranger.”
The biblical reference fit with Rabbi Allen’s own line of argument. With kosher meatpacking plants heavily dependent on Latino immigrant labor, he has maintained, it is no longer sufficient for kosher certification to be granted solely on the basis of proper Jewish methods of inspecting and slaughtering animals.
“As concerned as we are about how an animal gets killed, we need to be equally concerned about how a worker lives,” Rabbi Allen said in an interview several weeks ago at his synagogue. “We need to be certain that the food we are obligated to eat is produced in a way that demonstrates concern with those who produce it.”
While the catalyst for Rabbi Allen’s action was a series of articles in The Forward weekly newspaper about accusations that workers at a large kosher slaughterhouse in
By religious tradition, and in some cases state law as well, kosher certification generally rests with Orthodox boards. Each council, or “vaad,” will put its insignia on an approved product, allowing a consumer to know which products are meat, which are dairy and which are neutral. The Orthodox Union, the largest force in certification, oversees more than half the kosher items in circulation.
So the entrance of the Conservative movement into the field represents a challenge to the Orthodox authorities not only on ethical grounds but also on market share.
Even before activity began on the hechsher tzedek, Conservative Jews tended not to follow the Orthodox model in insisting that meat be not just kosher but “glatt” as well. The term means “smooth” and refers to the fact that a slaughtered animal’s lungs had no defect. In practice, glatt meat has been perceived as somehow more kosher than kosher, and it is invariably more expensive, too.
Still, the current friction might never have emerged had it not been for a lengthy investigative report by Nathaniel Popper in The Forward last May. Quoting union activists, a local Roman Catholic priest and several workers who were cloaked by pseudonyms, Mr. Popper accused the AgriProcessors packing plant in
The owners of AgriProcessors disputed the portrayal, even taking out a full-page ad in The Forward to rebut it. But Rabbi Allen, who had been involved in getting Twin Cities stores to buy kosher meat from the
“We weren’t able to verify everything Popper wrote,” Rabbi Allen recalled, “but what we did find was equally painful and filled with indignities.”
His study group specifically criticized AgriProcessors, which has been resisting efforts at unionization, in three areas. Its starting wage of $6.25 an hour came to about $3 less than unionized kosher slaughterhouses pay. It gave workers safety training in English, even though many were fluent only in Spanish. And it provided only one option for health-care coverage at a cost of $50 per week for a family.
By the time the United Synagogue threw its support behind the hechsher tzedek last December, both the concept and Rabbi Allen had come under widespread attack from Orthodox figures. Rabbi Asher Zeilingold of St. Paul, who had collaborated with Rabbi Allen in the past, emerged as a very public defender of AgriProcessors, issuing a report that characterized The Forward’s accusations as “completely unfounded, without any basis in fact.”
In an arrangement that is relatively common in kosher certification, Rabbi Zeilingold is paid by AgriProcessors to oversee the plant.
The trade magazine Kosher Today quoted Rabbi Zeilingold decrying Rabbi Allen’s “deceptive behavior.” A certification council tied to the Satmar Hasidic sect denounced the hechsher tzedek. A prominent rabbi writing an opinion column in The Jewish Press, a weekly newspaper with a largely Orthodox readership, described the social justice certification as an “alien imposition.”
Rabbi Menachem Genack, the chief executive of the Orthodox Union’s kosher division, has taken a more carefully modulated stance.
“The issues raised — workers’ rights, safety, environmental issues — are not mundane issues,” Rabbi Genack said last week in a telephone interview. “The question is one of implementation. These issues are best dealt with within the mandate of other agencies — federal and state. We believe they’re handling it properly and have the expertise and the authority to handle it.”
Such arguments have plainly not swayed the Conservative movement. Now that the Rabbinical Assembly has endorsed the hechsher tzedek in principle, Rabbi Allen said, the next step is to formulate the specific standards each workplace would be required to meet. His goal is to have that list drafted by Rosh Hashanah in early September, the holiday that begins Judaism’s period of reflection and atonement.
Sunday, April 8, 2007
Forward Articles on Hechsher Tzedek
Forward 50
Rabbis Move Ahead With New Certification Plan
Orthodox Slam Effort To Monitor Conditions at Kosher Factories
Conservative Rabbis Pledge Groundbreaking System for Monitoring Working Conditions at Kosher Plants
In Iowa Meat Plant, Kosher ‘Jungle’ Breeds Fear, Injury, Short Pay
Rabbis Move Ahead With New Certification Plan
Orthodox Slam Effort To Monitor Conditions at Kosher Factories
Conservative Rabbis Pledge Groundbreaking System for Monitoring Working Conditions at Kosher Plants
In Iowa Meat Plant, Kosher ‘Jungle’ Breeds Fear, Injury, Short Pay
Hechsher Tzedek In The News
Keeping Kosher, The New York Jewish News
Jews debate the ethics of kosher food supply
Raid Unsettles Kosher Beliefs
A rush to judgment on Postville?
Agriprocessors' PR company accused of identity theft
PR firm's meat plant meat plant messages misleading
A PR Nightmare
Flacks for Kosher Slaughterhouse Accused of Impersonating Company’s Critics Online
Meat Company’s P.R. Firm Acknowledges Responsibility of ‘Senior Staff Member’ in Online Deception
Admission Comes on Heels of Effort To Put Blame on ‘Intern’
PR firm faces scrutiny
5W Acknowledges Blog Misconduct
Widespread Worker Abuses Alleged At AgriProcessors
Jews Going Beyond 'Kosher
Expanding the definition of kashrut
Compassionate Conservatism
Eco-kashrut supporters turn their attention to kosher meat
The Diaspora: Hechsher Tzedek
Conservatives set to approve ethical certification system for kosher food
Conservatives go for ethical hechsher
Rabbi Allen is among most influential Jews
Holiness and Justice: A Fair Trade Approach to Keeping Kosher
Rethinking Kashrut: An Interview with Rabbi Morris Allen
'Eco-kosher' adds 'green' issues to Jewish dietary laws
Eco-Kosher Fulfills Law On All Levels
Jewish Week
Broadening the Definition of Kashrut
Kosher Certification of a Different Kind
Runaway kosher certification
More Than Laws Of Slaughter
Expanding the definition of 'kosher'
Beyond basic kashrut: Tifereth Israel project part of growing eco-kosher movement
Eco-Kosher Movement Aims To Heed Tradition, Conscience
How does God require employers to treat employees?
Does kosher extend beyond the treatment of animals?
Conservatives And Kashrut
Group proposes symbol reflecting workplace conditions to join kosher labels
National Jewish Group Proposes Working Kosher
Rabbi’s Campaign for Kosher Standards Expands to Include Call for Social Justice
Rabbis Move Ahead With New Certification Plan
What Happens There...
Report of Commssion of Inquiry
Hisachdus Denounces Call For Non-Orthodox Certifications
Rabbi Friendship In Tatters
"Tzedek Hechsher" Not a Kosher Issue, Many Rabbis Assert"
Jewish Ledger
Orthodox Slam Effort To Monitor Conditions at Kosher Factories
Conservative Movement to Provide "Tsedek Hekhsher"
Conservative Rabbis Pledge Groundbreaking System for Monitoring Working Conditions at Kosher Plants
In Iowa Meat Plant, Kosher ‘Jungle’ Breeds Fear, Injury, Short Pay
My Vist To Postville
Jews debate the ethics of kosher food supply
Raid Unsettles Kosher Beliefs
A rush to judgment on Postville?
Agriprocessors' PR company accused of identity theft
PR firm's meat plant meat plant messages misleading
A PR Nightmare
Flacks for Kosher Slaughterhouse Accused of Impersonating Company’s Critics Online
Meat Company’s P.R. Firm Acknowledges Responsibility of ‘Senior Staff Member’ in Online Deception
Admission Comes on Heels of Effort To Put Blame on ‘Intern’
PR firm faces scrutiny
5W Acknowledges Blog Misconduct
Widespread Worker Abuses Alleged At AgriProcessors
Jews Going Beyond 'Kosher
Expanding the definition of kashrut
Compassionate Conservatism
Eco-kashrut supporters turn their attention to kosher meat
The Diaspora: Hechsher Tzedek
Conservatives set to approve ethical certification system for kosher food
Conservatives go for ethical hechsher
Rabbi Allen is among most influential Jews
Holiness and Justice: A Fair Trade Approach to Keeping Kosher
Rethinking Kashrut: An Interview with Rabbi Morris Allen
'Eco-kosher' adds 'green' issues to Jewish dietary laws
Eco-Kosher Fulfills Law On All Levels
Jewish Week
Broadening the Definition of Kashrut
Kosher Certification of a Different Kind
Runaway kosher certification
More Than Laws Of Slaughter
Expanding the definition of 'kosher'
Beyond basic kashrut: Tifereth Israel project part of growing eco-kosher movement
Eco-Kosher Movement Aims To Heed Tradition, Conscience
How does God require employers to treat employees?
Does kosher extend beyond the treatment of animals?
Conservatives And Kashrut
Group proposes symbol reflecting workplace conditions to join kosher labels
National Jewish Group Proposes Working Kosher
Rabbi’s Campaign for Kosher Standards Expands to Include Call for Social Justice
Rabbis Move Ahead With New Certification Plan
What Happens There...
Report of Commssion of Inquiry
Hisachdus Denounces Call For Non-Orthodox Certifications
Rabbi Friendship In Tatters
"Tzedek Hechsher" Not a Kosher Issue, Many Rabbis Assert"
Jewish Ledger
Orthodox Slam Effort To Monitor Conditions at Kosher Factories
Conservative Movement to Provide "Tsedek Hekhsher"
Conservative Rabbis Pledge Groundbreaking System for Monitoring Working Conditions at Kosher Plants
In Iowa Meat Plant, Kosher ‘Jungle’ Breeds Fear, Injury, Short Pay
My Vist To Postville
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