The Right Fit

The Jewish press has been rocked lately by a raid that took place at a plant in Iowa that is the largest kosher slaughterhouse in America. On May 12, 2008 U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrested hundreds of undocumented workers at the AgriProcessors plant in Postville, Iowa, which produces meat under the Rubashkin's label. For years the plant has been under scrutiny for alleged unsafe working conditions and worker

mistreatment.   Finally, it seems, the federal government stepped in. The raid raises many questions for the kosher consumer. Will prices rise? Is the food we are eating safe? Should we be eating this food given these ethical questions?

The Conservative movement has begun to address these questions. A few weeks ago, the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism and the Rabbinical Assembly, the international body of Conservative rabbis, issued a statement “request[ing] that consumers of kosher meat evaluate whether it is appropriate to buy and eat meat products produced by the Rubashkin's label.” (You can find the statement on the Web site of the Rabbinical Assembly, http://www.rabbinicalassembly.org/.)  Is it appropriate for those who eat kosher meat to buy food that is produced under questionable conditions?

Kashrut is a system designed to bring holiness into the process of eating. Rather than just stuff whatever is closest and tastiest into our mouths, kashrut requires us to evaluate the fitness of the food we consume. In fact, kosher, or kasher in Hebrew means “that which is fit.” When we decide to keep kosher we decide to subject our food to an external system that will determine if it is appropriate. This is what distinguishes one who keeps kosher from one who does not. The non-kosher consumer asks, “Is this food something that I will enjoy or help make me physically fit?” The kosher consumer asks, “Is this food fit to eat according to Jewish law, and will I enjoy it or will it make me physically fit?”

It seems that the meat produced by AgriProcessors is not fit according to Jewish law, which demands: “You shall not abuse the needy and destitute laborer” (Deuteronomy 24:14) Of course those who do not keep kosher can ask themselves whether the food they are eating is appropriate as well, but while they make decisions on a case by case basis, kashrut is an external system of rules. The lynchpin to this process is the hekhsher, the certification of kashrut. Because we cannot be at the plant where the food is made, we depend on the symbol on the package to tell us the food fits the rules. But can that little symbol tell us the product was made ethically?

The answer right now is no, but the Conservative movement has begun an initiative called heksher tzedek (http://www.hekhshertzedek.org/), “to display a seal on already designated kosher foods that reflects production benchmarks consistent with Jewish ethical standards, including how companies treat their employees.” The heksher tzedek will be a wonderful tool and is the next step in kashrut, allowing us to take holiness in our food to another level. What is so exciting about the initiative is that it is an area for Conservative Judaism to truly make a mark. The Reform movement is committed to social justice but not kashrut while the Orthodox world is committed to kashrut but has not always taken a stand on social justice. As a result, the Conservative movement is the only one that has made a strong statement on AgriProcessors. We can be proud that ours is a movement that thrives at the point where Jewish law and social justice meet. So for now, with heksher tzedek on the horizon, it is up to us to determine whether Rubashkin's, or any other product, is the right fit.

Bididut,
Rabbi Benjamin J. Adler