Hazon’s friends Devora Kimelman-Block, founder of Kol Foods (a kosher, organic, grass-fed meat company) and Rabbi Morris Allen, Director of Hekhsher Tzedek, joined American University Radio to discuss the situation at Agriprocessors and explore the questions:

“If food meets the strict rules elaborated in religious texts, does it matter how food arrives at our plates? And where do workers’ rights and other ethical considerations factor into kosher food production?”

Listen here.

On the same page, you can also find a segment featuring Jennifer 8 Lee, author of the Fortune Cookie Chronicles which was reviewed on The Jew & The Carrot.

Here’s the latest news from Uri L’Tzedek, the modern Orthodox organization that circulated a letter in the days following the Agriprocessors raid calling for higher standards of justice and ethics from Agri (and by extension other kosher food producers). It’s a powerfully-written letter - definitely worth the read. Find the back story here.

Friends,

Yeshar kochechem.

Thanks to your efforts, over 1200 kosher consumers, rabbis, educators, and activists have no signed on the petition. Our collective call for justice has been heard by the synagogues, day schools, hillels, and summer camps that have stopped purchasing Rubashkins meat. It’s being in heard in the debates raging in Jewish listserves and blogs about immigration, workers’ rights, and kosher food. It’s being heard in the coverage of this movement in the Forward, The Nation, The JTA, The Jewish Week The Des Moines Register, and other national media outlets.

We are making our voices heard, and we are making change. But there is still critical work left to do.

Read more »

The JTA reported today that after last month’s raid on Agriprocessors, production has “slowed to a crawl” and kosher meat is in short supply across the country. The frenzy of media coverage has slowed down some too, though the issue is still very much on the minds of Jewish individuals and organizations struggling to grasp what lasting impact a raid of this proportion might have on the Jewish community.

In the midst of a confusing time, I had the chance to speak with Zalman Rothschild - a former mashgiach (kosher supervisor) at Agriprocessors. Rothschild represented an insider’s voice - someone who worked in the plant, spent Shabbat meals at the Rubashkins’, and could offer a perspective on the raid that I had not yet read. I was excited - and also terrified by the opportunity. Would he be incredibly defensive or hostile? Would he embody the mythic “Agriprocessors monster” that has been uncovered (or created, depending on one’s perspective) by the media? And most importantly, could he impact my views - a progressive, vegetarian Jew who is wary of industrial food in general and the kosher industry in particular - on the situation in Postville?

The short answers are no, no and yes, respectively. For the complete version, check out the full interview below the jump.

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I found this in my inbox today - a little note from Kosher Today (the kosher industry’s spokes-organization) that indicates exactly how little they care about anything except whether “its good for the Jews.” Be forewarned, gentle readers - if you have a sensitive stomach or any sort of soul, the following passage will leave you feeling queasy.

Kosher Community Looks Beyond Agriprocessors Raid

“New York…For most retailers around the country, the recent raid at the Postville Agriprocessors plant is about supply and price, but otherwise they do not see any repercussions for the industry as a whole. For the most part, retailers say the supply has been virtually uninterrupted and prices have stayed the same. Agri products are featured in many ads in advance of the holiday of Shavuos (June 9-10) and most retailers say that they have not seen any change in consumer habits as a result of the federal raid in Postville. There is no evidence of any boycott of Agri products whatsoever, they say.

Mendy Bauman of Glatt Mart in Flatbush told Jewish journalists that virtually none of his customers even bothered to ask which of his meats were from Agri. Sources in Postville say that Agri has been adding laborers and stepping up production with every passing day.

Read more »

Yesterday, Hazon organized a conference call with Rabbi Morris Allen for our staff, board, and volunteer leaders of our food programs. Rabbi Allen is the founder of Hekhsher Tzedek, and and just came back from visiting Postville, Iowa along with his daughter, fellow Rabbi, Harold Kravitz, and his daughter, and the chair of Allen’s synagogue’s social justice committee.

We asked him to brief us on the current situation with Agriprocessors, the mood in Postville, and the Jewish response - from an on-the-ground perspective.

This is what he saw and reported: Read more »

Here’s a roundup of the latest from the Agriprocessors scandal:

Take a hike, son. Amidst the recent flurry of calls from Jewish communal leaders to boycott Agriprocessors’ products (including the Uri L’tzedek boycott, which Hazon is supporting), the company’s founder Aaron Rubashkin started looking for a new CEO to replace his son, Sholom. Read the full story at The JTA here.

Dancing with Sholom. One of the most interesting articles I’ve read since the raid is writer Ben Harris’ account of his personal interactions with Sholom Rabushkin, as noted on The JTA’s blog, The Telegraph.

Uri L’tzedek. Read the full text of Uri L’tzedek’s call for boycott below the jump. It’s pretty impressive, if I do say so myself.

Read more »

The Conservative Movement, which has publicly announced its support of Rabbi Morris Allen’s Hekshsher Tzedek initiative, seems hesitant to call for a full boycott on Agriprocessors after last week’s raid.

The JTA reported on Wednesday that: Calls this week by activist rabbis for a limited boycott have been muted out of concern that a boycott could be actionable and might discourage Jews from keeping kosher because kosher meat would be harder to access. Like KRG on Jewschool, I personally find that stance to be pathetic and frustrating. What sort of mixed up priorities must we have to turn an embarrassed eye from a very real and very serious affront on human rights because it might lead to someone to eat non-kosher meat. Ach…

But then yesterday, The Conservative Movement came out with a different statement that, while shrouded in somewhat vague language, seems to be calling for something like a boycott:

Read more »

Earlier this week, The Jew & The Carrot posted about the raid of Agriprocessors kosher meat processing plant. Thanks to Josh Frankel for this guest post (originally on Jewschool) and an opportunity to help.

The Rubashkin’s raid made big news earlier in the week, and we were angry. We were furious, filled with righteous indignation, ready to destroy the kosher meat industry, to throw out kashrut, to bash Orthodoxy until the last black hat disappeared from Iowa. But, now, it’s time to help.

With hundreds of worker’s arrested, thousands of their family members are now in limbo. They have no money, no income, and no resources. They are frightened to apply for work, frightened to go shopping, and their kids aren’t going to school. Charities in Postville are pitching and do what they can to help these people, and unfortunately not-surprisingly, Agriprocessors isn’t helping out. I don’t often ask people to give tzedakah, and if I do, it’s a casual request. This is different. Anyone who has ever eaten kosher meat in this country has benefited from the hard, poorly compensated work these people have done, and now that they are in desperate need it is our turn to help.

Find out how below the jump.

Read more »

The Jew & The Carrot blogger, Tzimmes Maker, told me that a guy she knew in college wanted to start an organization called J-PETA: Jewish People for the Eating of Tasty Animals. Well, Hannah and Phillip Schein would definitely identify as “J-PETA” members, but not in quite the same way as the carnivorous college kid.

Last week, The Forward profiled the Scheins, a kosher-keeping couple that was responsible for taking undercover videos of Agriprocessors‘ slaughter houses on behalf of the PETA. Ever wondered how PETA and other animal-rights organizations get their hands on all that incriminating footage? Check out the article below the jump:

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Agriprocessors - the controversial kosher meat company - has recently been hit with a barrage of fines, citations, accusations and legal troubles, coming from all fronts including all three branches of the US government, as well as civil society.

Here’s a rundown of the latest:

Violations of Workers’ Rights. On March 20, the Iowa Division of Labor Services issued a $182,000 fine for 39 citations to the Postville, IA plant of Agriprocessors, the world’s largest kosher meat processor, for violations of worker health and safety regulations including labeling of hazardous chemicals, emergency response issues and programs for respirator use and blood borne pathogen issues. The company has 15 days to respond to the citations and fines. Although counsel for Agriprocessors said “any valid concerns raised by the Division of Labor Services have been immediately addressed,” the citations resulted from two inspections, one as recent as Feb 11, 2008.

Read more »

YehuditBrachah reports on Jewschool about a new Nathan Cummings Foundation grant for Hechsher Tzedek. The budding Conservative movement initiative started by Rabbi Morris Allen. According to Allen’s blog, a group of Rabbis and lay leaders who have been working on the project will be presenting at the upcoming Conservative movement biennial convention in Orlando. Both the grant and the increasing momentum within the Conservative movement around the important issue of food justice in Kashrut should be exciting for both observers of kashrut and those concerned about food justice alike! (even better for those of us who fall into both categories!)

The beginnings of the Hechsher Tzedek originated with Allen’s first trip to the Agriprocessors’ kosher meat plant in Postville, IA–which produces meat under the label Rubashkin’s. Now a variety of potential ethical issues around the Agriprocessors’ plant have been coming to light– including the newest, which is a potential violation of precautions to prevent the spread of BSE, or Mad Cow Disease.

The Daily Forward continues its coverage of the UFCW campaign to bring Agriprocessors’ violations into the public eye. In conjunction with the Jewish Labor Committee, UFCW orchestrated a leafletting action outside Trader Joe’s that source Agriprocessors’ kosher meat last Wednesday. The UFCW leaflet included claims about violations of mad cow safety rules, a claim that was subsequently disputed by Sholom Rubashkin on the Agriprocessors’ website and in Yeshiva World News.

Also from Yeshiva World News: Osem has reportedly “recalled tens of thousands of bags of Bamba, Bissli, and Dubonim snacks” because of a small toy prize inside the package with 3.5 times the allowable level of lead. Maybe babies shouldn’t be fed Bamba anymore…

Stay tuned for updates on the UFCW campaign.

11.26.07 Update: The Jewish Advocate reports on last week’s leafletting action outside Trader Joe’s in Brookline, MA, organized by the Jewish Labor Committee.

Yesterday, my co-worker came into the office and put a copy of the Jewish Daily Forward on my desk. The entire back page was filled with an advertisement, headed by the warning, “Kosher Food Safety Alert.” A few pointed blurbs followed, which exposed several health and safety violations against kosher meat producer, Agriprocessors. Included among them:

“Agriprocessors has been cited more than a dozen times between July 2006 and January 2007 by the USDA for fecal and bile contamination in one of its processing plants.”

“In 2006, the USDA FSIS has cited Agriprocessors more than five times for violations of “mad cow” safety rules.”

The ad, which was paid for by the United Food and Commercial Workers and also ran in The Jewish Week, did not specifically call for a mass boycott of Agriprocessor’s products (though it did warn customers shopping for Thanksgiving turkeys at Trader Joes to check for the Agriprocessors label). Perhaps this was a strategic move on the part of the UFCW in hopes of coming across as a source of information as opposed to a hot-headed activism-focused - and therefore easy to dismiss- organization.

Regardless, there’s also a practical reason not to call for a boycott - for many meat-eating kosher keepers, Agriprocessors is the only option.

Read more »

Last Sunday, I attended Kosher Fest, the yearly gathering of kosher food and beverage purveyors and other food professionals (held in New York City, naturally). Kosher Fest is no informal synagogue social – it’s a two-day mega event that features the newest, best, and flashiest in kosher food. Page 11 of the 84-page Kosher Fest program guide displays some “impressive facts” including the dollar value of kosher produced goods in the US - $10,500,000,000. In other words, if you make kosher food you’re either at Kosher Fest, or you’re missing out.

Precisely because it’s the “see and be seen” event of the Jewish food year, Kosher Fest serves as an annual barometer of the kosher industry – its health, its growth, and its trends. More interestingly, as I ambled down the aisles of shiny displays, I began to notice how the state of kosher food uncannily mirrors the state of today’s Jewish community.

Read more »

X-posted from Jewschool, Josh Frankel covers the growing Uri L’tzedek social justice beit midrash in Washington Heights. This week, the beit midrash covered food issues, including Agriprocessors:

Avi Lyon, director of the Jewish Labor Committee, told stories from his visit to Rubashkin’s meat’s AgriProcessors plant, in Iowa, and poor working conditions there, from intimidating workers not to speak to outsiders, to charging workers for their smocks and not paying them for the time required to get into and out of their safety equipment, to the high injury toll. Mike Schultz led a group brainstorm of any and all problems of workers’ rights or being an ethical kosher consumer that were really bothering the people in the room, and people had a lot to say, with a lot of fervor. Steven Exler outlined the cycle of community organizing, presented more facts on Agriprocessors, and asked people what they would be willing to do about it. Shmuly closed out the night by offering multiple opportunities for “homework,” ways to start acting on what we had talked about. 10 people signed up to table for workers’ rights at this weekend’s convention of kosher food producers, KosherFest. Others are planning to start working on pressuring local food providers to carry other meat options. Several people wanted to work on generating more of a halachic discourse on tzedek questions among the poskim.

The batei midrash will continue every 3 or 4 weeks, open and accessible to all, and now Uri L’Tzedek is starting to move into providing support and partnership for those who are ready to take the lead and get it done in the community. Started by three YCT students, Aaron Finkelstein, Mike Schultz, and Shmuly Yanklowitz along with the generous support of a Herbert Lieberman Award. For more information, contact Aaron Finkelstein.