Shalom everyone,
This update/Jewish Vegetarians of North America (JVNA) Online Newsletter has the following items:
1. Introduction/Background Considerations
2. JVNA Press Release on “Hekhsher Tzedek”
3. Sample Letter on “Hekhsher Tzedek”
4. Boston Globe Summary Article
5. Conservatives Issue Guidelines for “Hekhsher Tzedek” Certificate
6. Jewish Groups Endorse “Hekhsher Tzedek” Campaign
7. Analysis by the Shalom Center/One Conclusion: Eat Far Less Meat!
8. NY Times Editorial re Agriprocessors
Some material has been deferred to a later update/newsletter to keep this one from being even longer.
[Materials in brackets like this [ ] within an article or forwarded message are my editorial notes/comments.]
Opinions expressed do not necessarily represent the views of the JVNA, unless otherwise indicated, but may be presented to increase awareness and/or to encourage respectful dialogue. Also, material re conferences, retreats, forums, trips, and other events does not necessarily imply endorsement by JVNA or endorsement of the kashrut, Shabbat observances, or any other Jewish observances, but may be presented for informational purposes. Please use e-mail addresses, telephone numbers, and web sites to get further information about any event that you are interested in. Also, JVNA does not necessarily agree with all positions of groups whose views are included or whose events are announced in this newsletter.
As always, your comments and suggestions are very welcome.
Thanks,
Richard
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1. Introduction/Background Considerations
The issues discussed in this special JVNA newsletter will be increasingly in the news in the next few week, at least. So, please be on the lookout for articles in your local Jewish and secular publications, and please use the material below for your letters to editors and talking points.
The material below is just a sample of recent material on the issues, so please use the Internet to get additional material if you wish.
As indicated in previous messages, we require not just “band-aids” but substantial changes in the entire food system, including a major switch toward veganism, to avoid the unprecedented catastrophe that the world is rapidly approaching.
We must keep in mind a number of things as we go forward: People are innocent until proven guilty, so we should not rush to judgment before judicial decisions are made; It is not just conditions at the Postville, Iowa kosher slaughterhouse that are allegedly problematic, but conditions at most if not all slaughterhouses as well; we must be careful to see that anti-Semitism is not a factor behind charges of improper actions; we should strive to keep our criticisms within Jewish teachings for proper admonishment. But, bottom line, as far as I am concerned: we must speak out against injustices, to people and animals, and we must continue to diligently work toward sharply reducing animal-based diets and agriculture, because they have many negatives, contradict basic Jewish teachings, and contribute to global warming and other threats to all of humanity.
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2. JVNA Press Release on “Hekhsher Tzedek”
JEWISH GROUP COMMENDS CONSERVATIVE MOVEMENT FOR “HECHSHER TZEDEK” CAMPAIGN: URGES FURTHER STEPS
For Immediate Release:
August3, 2008
Contact:
Richard H. Schwartz, President of the Jewish Vegetarians of North America (JVNA)
president@JewishVeg.com Phone: (718) 761-5876
Jewish Vegetarians of North America (JVNA) issued the following statement today:
We commend the Conservative movement for its ambitious new "hekhsher tzedek," ("certificate of righteousness") campaign which will provide an additional stamp on kosher foods that meet its standards for working conditions, treatment of animals, the environment and other Jewish values..
However, as praiseworthy as their actions are, we respectfully urge the Conservative movement to go further to avoid implicitly providing a stamp of approval to the continuation of the animal-based diets and agriculture that are:
o contributing to an epidemic of diseases in the Jewish and other communities;
o contributing to global warming and other environmental problems that threaten humanity and all of creation;
o violating basic Jewish mandates to preserve human health, treat animals with compassion, protect the environment, conserve natural resources, help hungry people and pursue peace.
The Hekhsher Tzedek brochure properly indicates that “Companies that work with animals should have policies and practices in place to insure they are treated humanely at all points of the production cycle.” (Emphasis added.) Based on that statement, which is consistent with Judaism's beautiful teachings on compassion to animals, we respectfully urge the Conservative movement and other Jewish organizations to speak out against the many abuses of animals on factory farms - for example, the killing of male chicks immediately after birth at egg laying hatcheries; the crowding of hens in spaces so small they can't raise even one wing; the debeaking of the hens to avoid harmful pecking; the artificial impregnation of female cows annually so they will constantly be able to give milk; the removal of calves almost immediately after birth, often to produce veal in a very cruel process; and MUCH more.
Another important requirement for getting a Hekhsher Tzedek certificate is meeting standards for “environmental impact.” This is also commendable since Judaism has such powerful teachings on sustainability and conservation. Hence we also urge the Conservative movement and other Jewish leaders to consider: the many negative environmental effects of raising 60 billion farmed animals worldwide (over 10 billion in the U.S. alone) for slaughter annually; that, according to a 2006 UN FAO report, 'livestock' agriculture emits more greenhouse gases (18 percent in CO2 equivalents) than all the cars, planes, ships and other forms of transportation worldwide combined (13.5 percent); and the contributions of the production of meat and other animal products to rapid species extinction, widening water shortages, destruction of tropical rainforests and other valuable habitats, and many more environmental threats.
And since another of Hekhsher Tzedek's criteria is properly health and safety standards, we also urge consideration of the strong links of meat and other animal products to heart disease, several forms of cancer and many more chronic, degenerative diseases.
"We need an ethical stamp of approval on nutritious plant foods - organic beans, whole grains, veggie burgers and more - that don't take the lives of innocent animals, that aren't the worst dietary contributors to global warming, the worst polluters and resource drainers and the most scientifically- incriminated dietary risk factors of the nation's deadliest diseases," said JVNA president Richard H. Schwartz. “This is especially important at a time when Israel faces the worst drought in history and a 2007 Israel Union for Environmental Defense report projects that global
warming will cause severe heat waves and storms, up to 30 percent less rainfall and severe flooding from a rising Mediterranean Sea.”
JVNA would very much welcome respectful dialogues/debates with Hekhsher Tzeek rabbis and, indeed, all rabbis on “Should Jews be Vegetarians?” Such discussions would constitute a kiddush Hashem (a sanctification of G-d's Name) because it would show the applicability of eternal Jewish teachings to dietary issues.
Rather than directly or indirectly endorsing the general continuation of present practices that are so harmful in so many ways, it is essential that our rabbis and other Jewish leaders increase awareness that a major shift toward plant-based diets is essential to avoid the unprecedented catastrophe that the world is rapidly approaching and to move our precious, but imperiled, planet to a sustainable path.
Further information about these issues can be found at the JVNA web site JewishVeg.com. We will provide complimentary copies of its new documentary A SACRED DUTY: APPLYING JEWISH VALUES TO HELP HEAL THE WORLD to rabbis and other Jewish leaders who will contact us (president@JewishVeg.com) and indicate how they will use them to involve their congregations on the issues. The entire movie can be seen and further information about it can be found at ASacredDuty.com.
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3. Sample Letter on “Hekhsher Tzedek”
Dear Editor:
As president of Jewish Vegetarians of North America (JVNA), I commend the Conservative movement for its ambitious new "hekhsher tzedek," ("certificate of righteousness") campaign which will provide an additional stamp on kosher foods that meet its standards for working conditions, treatment of animals, the environment and other Jewish values..
However, as praiseworthy as their actions are, I respectfully urge the Conservative movement to go further to avoid implicitly providing a stamp of approval to the continuation of the animal-based diets and agriculture that are:
o contributing to an epidemic of diseases in the Jewish and other communities;
o contributing to global warming and other environmental problems that threaten humanity and all of creation;
o violating basic Jewish mandates to preserve human health, treat animals with compassion, protect the environment, conserve natural resources, help hungry people and pursue peace.
We need an ethical stamp of approval on nutritious plant foods - organic beans, whole grains, veggie burgers and more - that don't take the lives of innocent animals, that aren't the worst dietary contributors to global warming, the worst polluters and resource drainers and the most scientifically- incriminated dietary risk factors of the nation's deadliest diseases. This is especially important at a time when Israel faces the worst drought in history and a 2007 Israel Union for Environmental Defense report projects that global warming will cause severe heat waves and storms, up to 30 percent less rainfall and severe flooding from a rising Mediterranean Sea.
[*** one or both of the next 2 paragraphs may be omitted for space considerations.]
JVNA would very much welcome respectful dialogues/debates with Hekhsher Tzeek rabbis and, indeed, all rabbis on “Should Jews be Vegetarians?” Such discussions would constitute a kiddush Hashem (a sanctification of G-d's Name) because it would show the applicability of eternal Jewish teachings to dietary issues.
Further information about these issues can be found at the JVNA web site JewishVeg.com. We will provide complimentary copies of its new documentary A SACRED DUTY: APPLYING JEWISH VALUES TO HELP HEAL THE WORLD to rabbis and other Jewish leaders who will contact us (president@JewishVeg.com) and indicate how they will use them to involve their congregations on the issues. The entire movie can be seen and further information about it can be found at ASacredDuty.com.
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4. Boston Globe Summary Article
Below is a recent article in the Boston Globe. It initially motivated me to write the press release above and later the above letter and finally to send out this special JVNA newsletter.
Below that is material about the Hekhsher Tzedek initiative.
The Boston Globe
Jews debate the ethics of kosher food supply
Globe Staff / July 30, 2008
http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2008/07/30/jews_debate_the_ethics_of_kosher_food_supply/
The friend who told Susan Cetlin earlier this summer that she loves Aaron's brand kosher chicken didn't get the nod of agreement she might have expected.
Instead, Cetlin, a psychologist whose Sharon home is kosher, listed allegations of unsafe working conditions and underpayment against Aaron's parent company, Agriprocessors, the nation's largest producer of kosher meat and the object of a large immigration raid in May. Cetlin is boycotting Agriprocessors, and soon her friend was, too.
The raid on Agriprocessors' Iowa plant has sparked debate in the Jewish community about the role of ethical considerations in the production of kosher food and sets the backdrop against which the moderate Conservative movement will issue guidelines Thursday for an ambitious new "hekhsher tzedek," Hebrew for "certificate of righteousness." The additional stamp would identify producers of kosher foods that meet its standards regarding working conditions, treatment of animals, and the environment.
In rolling out the new certification, the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism and the Rabbinical Assembly, two national umbrella organizations, join a wave of socially conscious buying that has led many consumers to seek fair-trade coffee and sneakers not made by children.
To Conservative Jewish leaders, the new certification symbolizes the embrace of tradition and modern social concerns that defines the denomination.
"Hekhsher tzedek reminds us that kosher is not just about rituals," said Rabbi Barry Starr of Temple Israel in Sharon, where Cetlin is a member. "That's a very powerful niche for the Conservative movement."
For Cetlin, who was raised in a nonobservant Jewish home and considers keeping kosher part of her spiritual journey, the allegations against Agriprocessors have violated her trust in a way that concerns about other products have not. Federal and state authorities are now investigating complaints of illegal working conditions at Agriprocessors, including allegations, detailed in The New York Times, that underage immigrants worked shifts as long as 17 hours.
"Kosher gives me the sense that it's a respectful process," said Cetlin, 52. "It's respecting the life of the animal, as well as the worker. When this situation came up, it felt very uncomfortable. My daughter, who is a vegetarian, thinks the way to avoid all of this is to become a vegetarian. It is so hard to make decisions about what is moral or ethical."
With hekhsher tzedek, the Conservative movement also jockeys for a foothold in a kosher industry dominated by Orthodox Jews, the most traditional branch of Judaism.
To succeed, Conservative officials must persuade an industry that already invites supervisors of the religious aspect of food production into its facilities to accept additional inspectors who focus on ethical issues. At issue are religious dietary laws that specify how animals are slaughtered, prohibit consumption of pork and shellfish, and dictate that meat and dairy not be eaten together. Other portions of Jewish law mandate ethical behavior.
Most Orthodox Jews have kosher homes - 86 percent, according to the National Jewish Population Survey - compared with one-quarter of Conservative Jews. Yet because Conservative Jews outnumber Orthodox Jews, they account for one-third of American Jews with kosher homes. Only 5 percent of Reform Jews, the most liberal denomination, keep kosher.
Dr. Steven Ugent - who lives in Sharon, where he is a member of Temple Israel - sees keeping kosher as more than simply following a biblical commandment. "It's a way to be conscious of who you are and that there's a God every time you eat, and to make a separation between the profane and the holy," the 43-year-old dermatologist said. "When you eat, it's not just a mundane act."
Dr. Ugent is curious about what standards hekhsher tzedek will use. "Clearly ethics are important," he said. "I would pay attention to that kind of thing."
Before the Immigration and Customs Enforcement raid, in which almost 400 workers who were in the country illegally were arrested, Agriprocessors supplied 60 percent of the nation's kosher beef and 40 percent of the kosher poultry. The company, which has been fighting unionization, has hired replacement staff and is now returning to full capacity, said spokesman Menachem Lubinsky.
The production squeeze has been felt here, with purveyors from supermarkets to the Butcherie in Brookline and Larry Levine's Kosher Meat Market in Peabody, two of the area's main kosher grocers, filling their gaps with aternative suppliers. The pipeline is slower, and, with pressures on supply, prices have risen. Todd Levine, co-owner of Levine's, estimates that a quarter of his customers are boycotting Agriprocessors, and Butcherie co-owner Walter Gelerman has fielded a few questions on the subject.
Shortly after the raid, United Synagogue suggested that its members seek alternatives to Agriprocessors, and a number of Conservative rabbis preached on the topic and e-mailed members. The Orthodox social justice group Uri L'Tzedek ended its boycott July 8 after Agriprocessors hired a former US attorney to oversee its compliance efforts. The Conservative advisory remains in effect.
Michael Holloway, a 52-year-old biologist from Sharon, feels that he must finally decide whether to join the boycott, now that he has seen Agriprocessors meat in the supermarket for the first time since the raid.
He is troubled by accounts of Agriprocessor's treatment of workers and concerned about the health of the kosher meat market.
"There are few enough kosher meat producers as it is," he said. "We need that company. I hope I am eventually going to be able to buy their product without feeling remorse. I'll probably be buying less and watching closely."
This month Agriprocessors pledged cooperation with investigators and defended itself in full-page advertisements in a dozen Jewish newspapers around the country, including Boston's Jewish Advocate. "These issues, if they were a problem at some point, are all being addressed," said spokesman Lubinsky.
It is in this climate that United Synagogue has readied its hekhsher tzedek guidelines, culminating a two-year process spurred by stories about Agriprocessors in the Jewish Forward and developed with the help of the Boston consulting firm KLD Research & Analytics.
"This is an example of the Conservative movement at its best," said Rabbi Wes Gardenswartz of Temple Emanuel in Newton, the region's largest Conservative congregation. "It's adhering to an ancient tradition and at the same time living with ethics and sensitivity to other people."
The Minnesota rabbi spearheading the effort has long made encouraging kosher observance a mainstay of his pulpit. "My belief is more people will buy kosher products with hekhsher tzedek because it speaks to their value system on multiple levels," said Rabbi Morris Allen of Beth Jacob Congregation in suburban St. Paul.
The initiative draws mixed response from the Orthodox.
Rabbi Chaim Wolosow of the Chabad Center of Sharon, an outreach arm of the ultra-Orthodox Lubavitch movement, is skeptical. "It's an insult to all the religious people and the Orthodox people and all the people who have the highest standards," he said. "It's saying they don't care about the workers and the animals. This assumes the Orthodox people who give hekhshers have not been doing that."
The Orthodox Union, the umbrella organization that is the country's major certifier of kosher food, is critical, too.
A company indicted or convicted of ethical wrongdoing would lose its approval, said Rabbi Moshe Elefant, chief operating officer of the union's kosher division. "We think it's best left to the government."
Among Orthodox leaders expressing cautious support is Rabbi Gershon Gewirtz of Young Israel of Brookline, the largest Orthodox congregation in New England. Although Gewirtz opposes boycotting Agriprocessors before allegations of what he terms "absolutely intolerable" behavior are substantiated, he sees a place for a thoughtfully executed hekhsher tzedek.
"Their intent is valid," he said. "Companies that deal in religiously sanctioned food items should also follow an outline that is reflective of Jewish law in relationship with their employees. That has to be carefully structured."
In Sharon, meanwhile, Cetlin continues her boycott.
"I'm a more liberal Jew," she said. "To me, having an ethical endorsement would matter as much as the more traditional kosher certification."
Most Orthodox Jews have kosher homes - 86 percent, according to the National Jewish Population Survey - compared with one-quarter of Conservative Jews. Yet because Conservative Jews outnumber Orthodox Jews, they account for one-third of American Jews with kosher homes. Only 5 percent of Reform Jews, the most liberal denomination, keep kosher.
Dr. Steven Ugent - who lives in Sharon, where he is a member of Temple Israel - sees keeping kosher as more than simply following a biblical commandment. "It's a way to be conscious of who you are and that there's a God every time you eat, and to make a separation between the profane and the holy," the 43-year-old dermatologist said. "When you eat, it's not just a mundane act."
Dr. Ugent is curious about what standards hekhsher tzedek will use. "Clearly ethics are important," he said. "I would pay attention to that kind of thing."
Before the Immigration and Customs Enforcement raid, in which almost 400 workers who were in the country illegally were arrested, Agriprocessors supplied 60 percent of the nation's kosher beef and 40 percent of the kosher poultry. The company, which has been fighting unionization, has hired replacement staff and is now returning to full capacity, said spokesman Menachem Lubinsky.
The production squeeze has been felt here, with purveyors from supermarkets to the Butcherie in Brookline and Larry Levine's Kosher Meat Market in Peabody, two of the area's main kosher grocers, filling their gaps with aternative suppliers. The pipeline is slower, and, with pressures on supply, prices have risen. Todd Levine, co-owner of Levine's, estimates that a quarter of his customers are boycotting Agriprocessors, and Butcherie co-owner Walter Gelerman has fielded a few questions on the subject.
Shortly after the raid, United Synagogue suggested that its members seek alternatives to Agriprocessors, and a number of Conservative rabbis preached on the topic and e-mailed members. The Orthodox social justice group Uri L'Tzedek ended its boycott July 8 after Agriprocessors hired a former US attorney to oversee its compliance efforts. The Conservative advisory remains in effect.
Michael Holloway, a 52-year-old biologist from Sharon, feels that he must finally decide whether to join the boycott, now that he has seen Agriprocessors meat in the supermarket for the first time since the raid.
He is troubled by accounts of Agriprocessor's treatment of workers and concerned about the health of the kosher meat market.
"There are few enough kosher meat producers as it is," he said. "We need that company. I hope I am eventually going to be able to buy their product without feeling remorse. I'll probably be buying less and watching closely."
This month Agriprocessors pledged cooperation with investigators and defended itself in full-page advertisements in a dozen Jewish newspapers around the country, including Boston's Jewish Advocate. "These issues, if they were a problem at some point, are all being addressed," said spokesman Lubinsky.
It is in this climate that United Synagogue has readied its hekhsher tzedek guidelines, culminating a two-year process spurred by stories about Agriprocessors in the Jewish Forward and developed with the help of the Boston consulting firm KLD Research & Analytics.
"This is an example of the Conservative movement at its best," said Rabbi Wes Gardenswartz of Temple Emanuel in Newton, the region's largest Conservative congregation. "It's adhering to an ancient tradition and at the same time living with ethics and sensitivity to other people."
The Minnesota rabbi spearheading the effort has long made encouraging kosher observance a mainstay of his pulpit. "My belief is more people will buy kosher products with hekhsher tzedek because it speaks to their value system on multiple levels," said Rabbi Morris Allen of Beth Jacob Congregation in suburban St. Paul.
The initiative draws mixed response from the Orthodox.
Rabbi Chaim Wolosow of the Chabad Center of Sharon, an outreach arm of the ultra-Orthodox Lubavitch movement, is skeptical. "It's an insult to all the religious people and the Orthodox people and all the people who have the highest standards," he said. "It's saying they don't care about the workers and the animals. This assumes the Orthodox people who give hekhshers have not been doing that."
The Orthodox Union, the umbrella organization that is the country's major certifier of kosher food, is critical, too.
A company indicted or convicted of ethical wrongdoing would lose its approval, said Rabbi Moshe Elefant, chief operating officer of the union's kosher division. "We think it's best left to the government."
Among Orthodox leaders expressing cautious support is Rabbi Gershon Gewirtz of Young Israel of Brookline, the largest Orthodox congregation in New England. Although Gewirtz opposes boycotting Agriprocessors before allegations of what he terms "absolutely intolerable" behavior are substantiated, he sees a place for a thoughtfully executed hekhsher tzedek.
"Their intent is valid," he said. "Companies that deal in religiously sanctioned food items should also follow an outline that is reflective of Jewish law in relationship with their employees. That has to be carefully structured."
In Sharon, meanwhile, Cetlin continues her boycott.
"I'm a more liberal Jew," she said. "To me, having an ethical endorsement would matter as much as the more traditional kosher certification."
© Copyright 2008 Globe Newspaper Company.
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5. Conservatives Issue Guidelines for “Hekhsher Tzedek” Certificate
Conservatives issue guidelines for ethical kosher certification
By Ben Harris Published: 07/31/2008
NEW YORK (JTA) -- The Conservative movement released a policy statement and guidelines for its much-anticipated ethical kashrut certification, outlining the social justice standards companies are expected to meet if their foodstuffs are to qualify for the designation.
According to the document released Thursday, products will be evaluated in five main areas -- employees' wages and benefits, employee health and safety, product development, corporate transparency and environmental impact -- and assessed in part on the basis of information from third-party sources. Essential to acquiring the Hekhsher Tzedek certification is a company's willingness to engage with the movement's leadership. Hekhsher Tzedek is a joint initiative of the United Synagogue for Conservative Judaism and the Rabbinical Assembly.
"Transparency and a willingness to enter into dialogue with the United Synagogue for Conservative Judaism, the Rabbinical Assembly and their partners will therefore be essential for a company's products to qualify for the Hekhsher Tzedek," the statement says.
The new guidelines are seen as an important step forward for the initiative, which represents the first effort to brand items as kosher on the basis of ethical criteria separate from the ritual aspects of food production.
It also marks the most significant attempt by Conservative rabbis to influence the national kosher food market, an area traditionally dominated by the Orthodox.
- - -
Allen conceived of the idea of Hekhsher Tzedek in 2006, the same year that an expose in the Forward detailed allegations of worker mistreatment at Agriprocessors, which runs the nation's largest kosher meat plant in Postville, Iowa.
The initiative received a boost in May when federal agents raided the Postville plant, arresting nearly 400 illegal workers and prompting another round of allegations against the company. Agriprocessors has denied any wrongdoing.
The Postville raid thrust issues of worker treatment in the production of kosher food to the forefront of a national debate over the parameters of kosher certification. Allen said he envisions a day when consumers will look at the Hekhsher Tzedek label before purchasing food the same way some now look for a kosher label.
- - -
Full story:
http://www.jta.org/cgi-bin/iowa/news/article/2008073107312008ekhshertzedek.html
OR:
http://tinyurl.com/55k4f9
Min Ha'Aretz
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6. Jewish Groups Endorse “Hekhsher Tzedek” Campaign
CONSORTIUM OF JEWISH GROUPS RESPOND TO PLIGHT OF IMMIGRANT WORKERS IN POSTVILLE IN WAKE OF FEDERAL RAID ON AGRIPROCESSORS
ENDORSE HEKHSHER TZEDEK NEW ETHICAL CERTIFICATION INITIATIVE
OF THE CONSERVATIVE MOVEMENT
http://www.hazon.org/go.php?q=/food/agriprocessorsStatement.html
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: Heather Wolfson hwolfson@mazon.org
New York, NY (June 27, 2008) - In the wake of last month's federal raid on the Agriprocessors meat processing facility in Postville, Iowa, where hundreds of illegal immigrants were arrested, a consortium of Jewish groups devoted to social justice have issued a statement calling for a response to the “human tragedy” of the raid and urging cooperation to work towards a “long term structural change,” within the kosher meat industry.
These groups include: Hekhsher Tzedek of the Rabbinical Assembly and United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism; Jewish Community Action, of St. Paul, MN; MAZON: A Jewish Response to Hunger; Hazon; KOL Foods; Jewish Council on Urban Affairs; Jews United for Justice and the Progressive Jewish Alliance.
Kosher meat is processed at the plant under the Aaron and David label of the Rubashkin company. An investigation is currently pending against the company on a variety of charges including employing under-age workers, sexual harassment and worker abuse and others.
The Agriprocessors facility has long been the subject of investigation by watchdog groups concerned about the wellbeing of workers. Among this group are rabbis from the Conservative movement, including Rabbi Morris Allen, founder of the new kosher ethical certification initiative, Hekhsher Tzedek.
In releasing the following statement, the consortium reaffirms its commitment to comprehensive immigration reform and worker justice as well as an end to raids as an enforcement tool.
The group is also united in endorsing Hekhsher Tzedek, viewing it as an ethical guideline for companies that produce kosher food. The disturbing allegations against Agriprocessors and Rubashkin's presents a compelling case for the necessity of certification process such as Hekhsher Tzedek.
The working guidelines for Hekhsher Tzedek will be released within the next few days.
Even prior to the federal raid in May, the appropriateness of consuming Rubashkin's products had been questioned by those familiar with the allegations of unfair worker treatment. Following the raid, the Rabbinical Assembly and United Synagogue issued a statement urging its constituents to seek kosher alternatives to Rubashkin's and affiliated products.
The May 22nd statement read, in part:
The allegations about the terrible treatment of workers employed by Rubashkin's have shocked and appalled members of the Conservative Movement as well as all people of conscience. As Kashrut seeks to diminish animal suffering and offer a humane method of slaughter, it is bitterly ironic that a plant producing kosher meat be guilty of inflicting any kind of human suffering.
Statement by the Consortium on the Federal Raid of Agriprocessors
On May 12th, 2008, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), an agency of the federal government, conducted the largest single-site immigration raid in this country's history. The raid was at the Agriprocessors plant in Postville, Iowa, the nation's largest kosher meat supplier.
We support efforts undertaken by a wide variety of Jewish groups to respond to the human tragedy of the raid and to work together for long term structural change. We believe that kashrut can serve as a means for holiness only if the relationship between ritual and ethical law is understood.
During the raid, more than 390 people were detained, and more than 250 arrested and charged. The majority of these people are immigrants from Guatemala and Mexico. This raid, while not the first of its kind, was the first raid in which those arrested were convicted of felonies and sentenced to five months in prison before being deported. This raid has torn families apart and has violated our own nation's laws regarding due process of law and humane treatment of residents, whether citizens or non-citizens.
Immediate Response Needed
While many men are serving prison sentences, women with small children are serving five months of house arrest. Unable to work, unable to support their families, and unable to leave Postville, they are desperate. Postville's church leadership and others are providing immediate relief to the affected families, but these families also need your financial support. To help, send your check either to Hazon, Jewish Community Action or the Jewish Council on Urban Affairs:
Jewish Community Action
2375 University Avenue W., #150
St. Paul, MN 55114
attn: Postville
Hazon
45 West 36th St, 8th floor
New York, NY 10018
“Postville donation”
Jewish Council on Urban Affairs
610 S. Michigan Ave., Suite #500
Chicago, IL 60605
Attn: Postville
The full amount of your contribution will be sent to Postville.
Long Term Solutions Needed for Immigrants
By using raids as a mean of intimidation, Immigration and Customs Enforcement is trying to show that it is tough on those who violate U.S. immigration law. Postville's residents are seeing their community's economic base suffer, even as new immigrants arrive to fill vacant jobs and in need of scarce housing.
Raids are not a solution to our broken immigration system. Instead, Comprehensive Federal Immigration Reform (CFIR) is needed to protect the rights of people and to create a true and accessible path to citizenship. CFIR would provide a path to citizenship, emphasize family reunification, legalize future migration, protect human rights, ensure dignity and due process, and protect workers and employers.
As Jews, our history compels us to stand up for justice, whether it affects us directly or indirectly. We stand by immigrant communities who-much like our own-have come to this country seeking a better life for themselves and their families, oftentimes escaping violence, war, and crushing poverty. Together, we are organizing communities for comprehensive federal immigration reform and to avert future raids.
Long Term Solutions Needed in the Production of Kosher Food
Because of allegation of worker injustice, inhumane treatment of animals, and other concerns, many Jewish individuals and organizations have expressed concerns about Agriprocessors products and have suggested solutions. Across denominational lines, Jewish people continue to demonstrate the significance of kashrut's ritual and ethical dimensions.
We urge Agriprocessors' leadership to fulfill its stated desire to improve plant conditions.
We endorse Hekhsher Tzedek, a new initiative that is creating guidelines that would improve working conditions, treatment of employees, environmental standards, humane treatment of animals, and to ensure appropriate product development, corporate integrity, and appropriate business practices in kosher food-producing businesses.
Hekhsher Tzedek would bring certified kosher food into compliance with the Torah's tradition of ethical laws and the Jewish community's commitment to social justice.. Hekhsher Tzedek will seek endorsement from all producers of kosher food and will have its symbol serve as an indicator of a product's acceptability. Only food already certified as kosher would be eligible to receive a Hekhsher Tzedek. We hope that this initiative will serve as an ethical model throughout the entire food industry.
We also endorse the continued creation and strengthening of local sustainable kosher food production, via food co-ops, Community-Supported Agriculture (CSA) programs, farmers' markets, and regional initiatives to increase the supply of pasture-raised, humanely-slaughtered kosher meat.
We encourage you not only to make a donation, to support people in need in Postville, but also to follow-up in your own families and communities. There will be a symposium on the future of the kosher meat industry at Hazon's Food Conference in December 2008, to which you're warmly invited.
For more information on the issues raised in this statement, please be in touch with one or more of the organizations listed below:
Hekhsher Tzedek
Beth Jacob Congregation
1179 Victoria Curve
Mendota Heights, MN 55118
www.hekhshertzedek.org
Jewish Community Action
2375 University Avenue West, Suite 150
St. Paul, MN 55114
www.jewishcommunityaction.org
MAZON: A Jewish Response to Hunger
1990 South Bundy Drive
Suite 260
Los Angeles, CA 90025
www.mazon.org
Jewish Council on Urban Affairs
610 S. Michigan Ave., Suite #500
Chicago, IL 60605
312-663-0960
www.jcua.org
Hazon
45 West 36th Street
8th Floor
New York, NY 10018
www.hazon.org
Progressive Jewish Alliance
5870 West Olympic Boulevard
Los Angeles, CA, 90036
323- 761-8350
www.pjalliance.org
KOL Foods
Devora Kimelman Block
Silver Spring, MD 20910
917- 864-7965
www.kolfoods.com
Jews United for Justice
1413 K Street. NW, 5th fl.
Washington, DC 20005
202-408-1423
info@jufj.org
For further information about the consortium's statement, please contact Heather Wolfson at MAZON: A Jewish Response to Hunger at hwolfson@mazon.org.N
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7. Analysis by the Shalom Center/One Conclusion: Eat Far Less Meat!
Forwarded message from Arthur Waskow, Director of the Shalom Center:
Chevra --
Most of the time, as a society we walk in darkness, wounded by walking blindly into an economic barbed-wire fence here, an environmental open manhole there. Once a generation -- if we are lucky, once a decade - there is a flash of lightning in the dark that lights up the truth of our country's politics.
For some of us, Katrina was such a flash of lightning. And now, for some of us, an allegedly kosher meatpacking plant oddly located, far from Jews, in Postville, Iowa.
Even in the dark, there is usually some prophetic voice warning of oncoming damage.
In this case, prophetic calls to apply "eco-kosher" and "ethical kosher" standards not only to food but also to such consumables as coal, oil, plastics went back to the work of Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi in the mid-'70s and my own book Down-to-Earth Judaism: Food, Money, Sex and the Rest of Life in the mid-'90s.
Calls for Jewish support for unionization and workers' rights went back to 1911 and the 1930s, and the continuing work of the Jewish Labor Committee.
Calls for a compassionate Jewish approach to immigration law went back to the work of HIAS, the Jewish Funds for Justice, the Jewish Council on Urban Affairs (in Chicago) in two different Jewish coalitions on immigration policy (one moderately liberal, one more progressive) in the mid-'00s.
All these warnings called out the necessity of action; few of the Jewish public saw the light.
And then came Postville - not just one lightning flash but a thunderstorm, flash after flash lighting up broader and broader aspects of oppression.
(For reports from various perspectives on these eye-opening flashed of light, see -- http://www.shalomctr.org/taxonomy_menu/1/128/4/164)
First, PETA filmed the torturous killing of animals who were supposed to be ritually slaughtered in a virtually painless way. Indeed, that was exactly what made their meat kosher for observant Jews (and some other folks who hoped to be getting purer food). For some, under-cover films made of the torture suddenly lit up the whole structure of kosher certification in America, putting it deeply in doubt. Were the Orthodox certification bodies paying no attention? Were the fees they were paid by producers dulling their responses to violations of Jewish law and simple humane decency?
Then -- stirred by the kosher factor to look more closely at this plant -- a Jewish newspaper, the Forward, and the Jewish Labor Committee began to report rank illegal oppression of the Postville workers - many of them undocumented Guatemalan migrants who were afraid to protest for fear of deportation. That lightning flash revealed not only Postville but a little of what was true about the broader world of immigrant workers.
Whereupon, ironically tipped off by the Forward story, the Federal Migra raided the plant. They charged hundreds of the workers with criminal offenses, sent them to prison, and deported hundreds more. The raid decimated Postville's community, and when an official broke the customary silence, flashed a searing light on how Federal agents behave toward powerless "illegals": no time or lawyers allowed to shape a defense, families shattered.
But -- they brought no charges against the rich and powerful owners despite visible evidence of crimes they had committed far worse than those charged to the penniless immigrants. After all, the owners made massive political contributions.
Now larger sections of the Jewish community responded: calls for boycotts of Postville's unkosher meat; a somewhat beefed-up effort by the Conservative denomination to establish "hekhsher tzedek," its own version of an eco-kosher standard; a march of support and collections of money for the workers and their families; some renewed concern about the paralyzed campaign for a comprehensive and compassionate immigration law; (less, but some) renewed interest in stronger pro-labor legislation;
And wider parts of America woke up as well: a lead editorial in the New York Times quoted the court reporter of the kangaroo trials who described "the saddest procession I have ever witnessed, which the public would never see" - because cameras were forbidden.
"Driven single-file in groups of 10, shackled at the wrists, waist and ankles, chains dragging as they shuffled through, the slaughterhouse workers were brought in for arraignment, sat and listened through headsets to the interpreted initial appearance, before marching out again to be bused to different county jails, only to make room for the next row of 10."
Beyond these awakenings, there are three areas in which The Shalom Center seeks a broader vision from a broader community - one that draws on Jewish wisdom but is not restricted to the Jewish world:
1. Repairing an unjust "justice system" in which the wealthy are not required to obey the law, while the poor, the powerless, and the desperate are sent to prison for minor offenses, without the opportunity to defend themselves. All Jewish wisdom and all Jewish history teaches: Do not shrug off a system of injustice! In this case: why have the owners not been charged with numerous violations of labor law and immigration law, while desperate workers are sent to prison?
2. Facing the truth that immigration is not a narrowly "domestic" issue. So long as poverty, powerlessness, and environmental destruction in Mexico and Central America drive people to despair, there will be greater numbers of immigrants to the USA than our laws, our economy, and our culture can compassionately sustain. The pressure is a set-up for driving unemployed white and Black Americans into hostility against Hispanic Americans, while the rich and powerful chortle. We must use trade agreements and all other negotiating frameworks to insist on high wages, health and safety standards, and environmental protections for ALL OF US in Anglo and Latino-America, and we must support transnational pressure to those ends by unions, environmentalists, religious communities, and others.
3. Achieving ecological respect and sanity through reducing the amount of meat we eat. -- We have been reawakened to the first two factors of three aspects of eco-sanity: ; how animals are killed, and how they live their lives (so eco-kashrut must forbid factory farming, etc); Still deeper: It is all too clear that the obsession of many people with eating a great deal of meat is a twin to our addiction to oil and coal as a way to poison the planet. Huge farms of cows and pigs pour methane - an even more dangerous global-scorching agent than CO2 - into the atmosphere. And the obsession with meat forces us into factory farming, to meet the demand. To heal our earth as well as our own bodies, we must return to our forebears' diet of eating meat no more than once or twice a week. [My (JVNA) emphasis]
We must go beyond the lightning flashes over Postville -- to a steady, open, sacred light of clarity about the dangers and the damages the lightning has revealed. The light of systemic change is what the Torah calls for.
]*** Yes, and I believe that change includes a major shift to more sensible, nutritious vegan diets.]
Shalom, salaam, peace - Arthur
* Rabbi Arthur Waskow is director of The Shalom Center
http://www.shalomctr.org and the author of Down-to-Earth Judaism: Food, Money, Sex, and the Rest of Life (Morrow: write Office@shalomctr.org for how to receive free copies with a personal inscription.)
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8. NY Times Editorial re Agriprocessors
'The Jungle,' Again
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/01/opinion/01fri1.html?ex=1218427200&en=7b8fbcd325b102f7&ei=5070&emc=eta1
Published: August 1, 2008
A story from the upside-down world of immigration and labor:
NY Times
A slaughterhouse in Postville, Iowa, develops an ugly reputation for abusing animals and workers. Reports of dirty, dangerous conditions at the Agriprocessors kosher meatpacking plant accumulate for years, told by workers, union organizers, immigrant advocates and government investigators. A videotape by an animal-rights group shows workers pulling the windpipes out of living cows. A woman with a deformed hand tells a reporter of cutting meat for 12 hours a day, six days a week, for wages that labor experts call the lowest in the industry. This year, federal investigators amass evidence of rampant illegal hiring at the plant, which has been called “a kosher 'Jungle.' ”
The conditions at the Agriprocessors plant cry out for the cautious and deliberative application of justice.
In May, the government swoops in and arrests ... the workers, hundreds of them, for having false identity papers. The raid's catch is so huge that the detainees are bused from little Postville to the National Cattle Congress fairgrounds in Waterloo. The defendants, mostly immigrants from Guatemala, are not charged with the usual administrative violations, but with “aggravated identity theft,” a serious crime.
They are offered a deal: They can admit their guilt to lesser charges, waive their rights, including the right to a hearing before an immigration judge, spend five months in prison, then be deported. Or, they can spend six months or more in jail without bail while awaiting a trial date, face a minimum two-year prison sentence and be deported anyway.
Nearly 300 people agree to the five months, after being hustled through mass hearings, with one lawyer for 17 people, each having about 30 minutes of consultation per client. The plea deal is a brutal legal vise, but the immigrants accept it as the quickest way back to their spouses and children, hundreds of whom are cowering in a Catholic church, afraid to leave and not knowing how they will survive. The workers are scattered to federal lockups around the country. Many families still do not know where they are. The plant's owners walk freely.
This is enforcement run amok. As Julia Preston reported in The Times, the once-silent workers of Agriprocessors now tell of a host of abusive practices, of rampant injuries and of exhausted children as young as 13 wielding knives on the killing floor. A young man said in an affidavit that he started at 16, in 17-hour shifts, six days a week. “I was very sad, and I felt like I was a slave.”
Instead of receiving merciful treatment as defendants who also are victims, the workers have been branded as the kind of predator who steals identities to empty bank accounts. Accounts from Postville suggest that that's not remotely what they were. “Most of the clients we interviewed did not even know what a Social Security number was or what purpose it served,” said Erik Camayd-Freixas, a Spanish-language interpreter for many of the workers. “This worker simply had the papers filled out for him at the plant, since he could not read or write Spanish, let alone English.”
The harsh prosecution at Postville is an odd and cruel shift for the Bush administration, which for years had voiced compassion for exploited workers and insisted that immigration had to be fixed comprehensively or not at all.
Now it has abandoned mercy and proportionality. It has devised new and harsher traps, as in Postville, to prosecute the weak and the poor. It has increased the fear and desperation of workers who are irresistible to bottom-feeding businesses precisely because they are fearful and desperate. By treating illegal low-wage workers as a de facto criminal class, the government is trying to inflate the menace they pose to a level that justifies its rabid efforts to capture and punish them. That is a fraudulent exercise, and a national disgrace.
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Opinions expressed do not necessarily represent the views of the JVNA, unless otherwise indicated, but may be presented to increase awareness and/or to encourage respectful dialogue. Also, material re conferences, retreats, forums, trips, and other events does not necessarily imply endorsement by JVNA or endorsement of the kashrut, Shabbat observances, or any other Jewish observances, but may be presented for informational purposes. Please use e-mail addresses, telephone numbers, and web sites to get further information about any event that you are interested in. Also, JVNA does not necessarily agree with all positions of groups whose views are included or whose events are announced in this newsletter.
Opinions expressed do not necessarily represent the views of the JVNA, unless otherwise indicated, but may be presented to increase awareness and/or to encourage respectful dialogue. Also, material re conferences, retreats, forums, trips, and other events does not necessarily imply endorsement by JVNA or endorsement of the kashrut, Shabbat observances, or any other Jewish observances, but may be presented for informational purposes. Please use e-mail addresses, telephone numbers, and web sites to get further information about any event that you are interested in. Also, JVNA does not necessarily agree with all positions of groups whose views are included or whose events are announced in this newsletter.
FAIR USE NOTICE
The material on this site is provided for educational and informational purposes. It may contain copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. It is being made available in an effort to advance the understanding of vegetarian, environmental, nutritional, health, economic, social justice and human rights issues etc. It is believed that this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have an interest in using the included information for educational or research purposes. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use', you must obtain permission from the copyright owner. The information on this site does not constitute legal, technical or medical advice.
The material on this site is provided for educational and informational purposes. It may contain copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. It is being made available in an effort to advance the understanding of vegetarian, environmental, nutritional, health, economic, social justice and human rights issues etc. It is believed that this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have an interest in using the included information for educational or research purposes. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use', you must obtain permission from the copyright owner. The information on this site does not constitute legal, technical or medical advice.