Deborah Goldstein and her family are considering kashering their home, but she told her rabbi that ethical and health considerations will trump kashrut should she be forced to choose.
July 31, 2008
Jeff Lefkowitz of Rockaway Township and his family have become more careful over the last few years about the products they buy.
They have moved away from chemicals; they eat more organic foods and use vinegar to clean many surfaces in their home.
Now they are extending their scrutiny to a new area: the kosher foods they eat.
With concerns about the ethics of the nation’s top kosher meat producer mounting and options limited, they are considering abstaining from eating meat altogether.
“Not being kosher is not an option. We will continue to have a kosher home,” said Lefkowitz. “But from a spiritual standpoint, we may stay kosher and use less meat, or we might even simply go kosher organic and not use meat at all.”
Meanwhile, across the community in South Orange, Deborah Goldstein and her family were considering making their home kosher. Goldstein grew up in a kosher home and wanted that for her family, but she was concerned about the sustainability and ethical implications of kosher meat. She went to speak with her rabbi, Francine Roston, at Congregation Beth El in South Orange.
“I was very frank with Rabbi Roston,” said Goldstein. “If I had to choose between kosher meat and meat that is local and grass-fed and organic, I’d choose the latter. It’s more important for me to support my environment and my health than to keep kosher.”
Devorah Kimelman-Block, frustrated with the kosher meat industry, decided to establish her own kosher organic label featuring grass-fed, sustainable meat.
The recent immigration raid on the Agriprocessors kosher meat plant in Iowa and allegations that its workers were abused have put a spotlight on the ethics of the kosher meat industry and pushed the eco-kashrut movement closer to the mainstream. For some, environmentally sustainable, organic products trump kosher foods manufactured with pesticides and chemicals or that in their production use an unacceptably large “carbon footprint.”
For others, the goal is to encourage kosher manufacturers and those who certify them to demand new definitions of “kosher” — beyond the traditional methods of slaughter and preparation and including notions like environmental friendliness and humane treatment of workers.
With its promotion of a Hekhsher Tzedek, a kashrut seal that would certify the ethics of food manufacturing, the Conservative movement’s rabbinic leadership, not just the laity, is behind some of the push. But lay members of the movement are also focusing on finding alternatives.
Locally, Conservative rabbis and their congregations are also taking on the issue. Several rabbis, including Avi Friedman at the Summit Jewish Community Center and Mark Mallach at Temple Beth Ahm Yisrael in Springfield, spoke about the ethics underpinning kashrut from the pulpit either on a Shabbat or during Shavuot.
“If purveyors of kosher meat are not living a life that is Torah true, it undermines the kedusha of the meat,” said Mallach in a telephone interview.
In response to people like Lefkowitz, who approached him with their concerns, Rabbi Benjamin Adler at White Meadow Temple in Rockaway devoted his July bulletin column to Hekhsher Tzedek.
And as a result of people like Goldstein approaching Roston with their concerns, Beth El invited Devorah Kimelman-Block to speak on Aug. 2 during Shabbat services (see sidebar). A year and a half ago, Kimelman-Block, a member of a Conservative synagogue in the Washington, DC, area, established a kosher organic meat label known as KOL Foods. She calls it “a sustainable alternative” to the established kosher meat industry.
The law’s evolution
Some Orthodox groups are also calling for supervision that includes ethical standards. Uri L’Tzedek, an Orthodox group devoted to social action, says it represents observant Jews who insist that “the standards of kashrut of our food be matched by the kashrut of our ethics.”
Jeff Lefkowitz and his family are thinking about abstaining from eating meat to avoid non-organic kosher meat produced under what he considers questionable ethical conditions.
Critics of the movement say that overseeing ethics should be left to federal and state agencies.
“All of the issues the Hekhsher Tzedek raises — the environment, animal welfare, worker welfare, worker safety — are all relevant and important issues, but they fall under different federal and state agencies,” said Rabbi Menachem Genack, head of the kashrut division at the OU, the largest kosher certifying agency in the country. “We at the OU don’t have any specific expertise in that area to determine what the standards should be.”
Calling ethical standards “amorphous,” he asked: “What will be the standard? If minimum wage is set at $7, will Hekhsher Tzedek say it has to be $10?” Pointing out that all of these concerns are biblically based, he said, “They are valid concerns, but implementation is impractical and inappropriate.”
Adler, however, views Hekhsher Tzedek as part of the evolution of halachic, or Jewish legal, standards. Principles of kashrut and ethics aren’t new to Jewish life, he said; what is new are the systems by which they are delivered.
“Two hundred years ago, there was no hekhsher,” or kosher stamp provided by a certifying agency, he said. “It’s a modern concept created when our modern system of food packaging was created. Two hundred years ago, you bought your meat from a merchant and you decided whether you trusted that merchant’s kashrut. Now you have to rely on an agent. If we can [trust the agent] for kashrut, we have to have that for other concepts as well.”
These other concepts include basic Jewish ethics, he said. Relatively new to the community, he is considering changing the policy of the kitchen at his synagogue if it is viable to include only meat with the Hekhsher Tzedek included.
Hekhsher Tzedek is a joint project of the Rabbinical Assembly and United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism under the direction of Rabbi Morris Allen. It was introduced to the Conservative rabbinate at the Rabbinical Assembly convention in February and is expected to be unveiled this fall. The seal will be placed as an additional mark on products already designated kosher and will reflect adherence to specific criteria in the areas of wages and benefits; employee health, safety, and training; responsible product development and marketing; corporate transparency and integrity; and environmental impact.
Roston began thinking about bringing Kimelman-Block to the community after first encountering her at the 2008 Rabbinical Assembly Convention.
“I really believe that this kind of product would serve the needs of our community,” whose members are conscious of health and ethical issues, said Roston. “I also believe that it will bring more people to the practice of kashrut who are on the fence. This was confirmed by a meeting with a few congregants who came to me in the past few months to ask about setting up a kosher home and shared their hesitancy about kosher meat because of health and ethical reasons.”
When Goldstein approached her, Roston put her in touch with Kimelman-Block, who said she was ready to expand her business into New Jersey.
“I believe a significant percentage of my congregants keep kosher to varying degrees, and I am seeking to help them move up the ladder of kashrut and align their ethical beliefs with their halachic observance,” said Roston.
“I think this will provide a compelling option for current kashrut observers and…will bring a number of people to kashrut observance because they want to see a higher priority given to ethical practice.”
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