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This week:
Hyperchondriac
and
I Have Fun Everywhere I Go
Welcome Authors
Brian Frazer
 &
Mike Edison
who are posting all week.
Coming up:
  • 10/13:
    Rabbi Levi Brackman and Sam Jaffe
  • 10/20:
    Jonathan Garfinkel
  • 10/20:
    Rabbi Robert Levine
  • 10/27:
    Danit Brown
  • 10/27:
    Joshua Henkin
  • 11/03:
    Craig Glazer
  • 11/10:
    Max Gross
  • 11/17:
    Seth Greenland

FAITHHACKER
Corrupt Kashrut: A Dilemma
by Tamar Fox, October 25, 2007
5 comments
TAGS:

On Monday Amy and I had coffee in Chicago, and we also met up with an old writing friend of mine who currently works for a bread company supervising the line at a factory where they make rolls. Several types of rolls are made at the factory, and among other things, the rolls are certified kosher. A rabbi stops by to check things in the factory every once in a while, and my friend shook his head while explaining that the rabbi was generally bribed with both money, and baked goods. The plant is plenty kosher, but without a hefty donation and some doughnuts, the rabbi won’t give his stamp of approval.
Not Kosher Enough?: Just add thisNot Kosher Enough?: Just add this
Part of me would like to do some research and report this particular rabbi to the kashrut organization to which he belongs. But I’m not sure anything would happen then. And I wonder if the company would lose it’s hasgacha as a result, thus rendering its products unkosher to a large community of Orthodox Jews in the area. That seems morally iffy, though of course I think the rabbi in question is on much less stable ground than I am.

I honestly don’t know who should be in charge of investigating this kind of thing, (you’d think the Chicago Jewish News would be a good place to start, but it’s about the worst Jewish paper I’ve ever read) and I can’t figure out what the potential fall out—both good and bad—would be if I made things public.

This kind of kashrut dilemma is not uncommon. Check out the great post about the kashrut business at UnOrthodox Jew, and some discussion over at Orthomom, too. There’s also A Mashgiach Speaks Out, but he sometimes gets a little too shrill for my taste.

Anyway, I’m interested to hear what you guys think I should do.



Tamar Fox has an MFA from Vanderbilt University in Nashville, but she still doesn't like sweet tea. Born and raised in Chicago, she's also lived in Iowa City, Dublin, Oxford, and Jerusalem. When she's not rocking out at honky tonks she teaches


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5 comments | leave a comment

Dov Akiva Isaac

10/25/07 5:18 pm
Comments: 28
Friends: 3

Not Surprising

Well, it is Chicago, where it is considered perfectly kosher to be corrupt.

But seriously, I think that both the mashgiach and the bread company are at fault.  The mashgiach should be reported to his organization for extorting the bread company and the bread company should apologize for betraying their customers' trust by continuing to sell their products with a questionable hechsher. I think that you should write to the Chicago Jewish News.

I also wonder if this happens more often than we hear about. 



Soccer

10/26/07 12:56 am

I think you should...

Call Rabbi Asher Lopatin and ask his advice.



Ismail

01/23/08 1:53 pm

"Anyway, I’m interested to

"Anyway, I’m interested to hear what you guys think I should do."

1. Purchase whistle.

2. Press same to lips.

3. Exhale sharply

I'm not Jewish, and the only dietary imperative I follow is that my food must taste sensational. But if I put myself in the shoes of folks who take kashruth regulations seriously, and who rely upon the bona fides of a religious figure, then I think that the rabbi in question is trivializing their faith, both in a deity and in him. An injury to the ability to trust is about as deep a psychological wound as humans can endure.

Halachically innocent as I may be, it seems to me that, despite the factory being kosher (and who really knows, given what this rabbi has already revealed about his character), the sages who codified Jewish law couldn't have had in mind that it was..err, kosher...for someone to withhold his certification unless he was bribed. To my mind, the temporary inconvenience to the Orthodox population of the factory closing (I have enough faith in the market to assume that the vacuum would soon be filled) is minor compared to allowing this man's unfairness and cynicism to go unchallenged.

When you enjoy the place in your community accorded to a certifying authority, you really need to be held to a higher standard. Everybody's weak and enjoys the occasional dalliance with the sordid, but clockwork extortion? That's a different story. 

That's my .02 

 

 

  



Adam Shprintzen

01/23/08 2:42 pm
Comments: 342
Friends: 16

All of which really helps

All of which really helps make the argument for vegetarianism to try to be as kosher as possible (if one buys the argument that the heart of kashrut is an unwavering principle looking to keep the welfare of animals in mind).

 

I think anyone who has read the book about Postville, Iowa cannot be surprised by any of these revelations at all; those who would practice shady business practices are not far from also exploiting their employees or abusing its animals.  Moreso, however, I wonder where Orthodox religious leaders are in this debate. I am happy to say, at least, that the Conservative movement has made some sort of an attempt to address these issues with the movement towards the heksher tzedek...but we shall see what comes of that.



Anonymous

01/23/08 2:10 pm

I have heard that what you

I have heard that what you describe is a very common practice .  In fact the kashrut gig for rabbi's is considered a great source of income in Israel.  Just ask around and I think you will find it is not unusual at all.