Elasticizing Kashrut,Editorial Board

We certainly hold no brief for any company or business enterprise shown to have run afoul of the law. And if AgriProcessors has done so in terms of employing undocumented workers, it will, and should, have to suffer the consequences.

But in pursuing some of the threads running through the AgriProcessors controversy, one is struck by how the basic concepts of shechita and kashrut -- the laws governing the slaughter and consumption of animals - have been appropriated and rendered well nigh unrecognizable by those with a rather elastic (and in some case agenda-driven) view of what kashrut should entail.

It will be recalled that several years ago, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) sent in some private investigators to shoot video footage of the slaughtering process at the AgriProcessors plant in Postville, Iowa. The images they produced were obviously gory -- animal slaughter is not a pleasant thing.

Given that AgriProcessors is the largest kosher slaughterer in the U.S., the videos became a cause celebre. And while some violations were subsequently found and corrected, the matter did not end there. The AgriProcessors story was spun not so much as the alleged violations of an individual company but as an indictment of the kosher slaughter enterprise in its entirety. Questions were raised as to how the work product of a company could be deemed "kosher" if the animals were treated in a way that offended PETA's sensibilities.

Some time later, the Forward did an "expose" on AgriProcessors' alleged mistreatment of employees. The story was based largely on interviews with workers and union organizers who were in the midst of a bitter fight to unionize the plant. Again there was questioning as to how the AgriProcessors product could be considered "kosher" if there was worker abuse -- which was accepted as fact.

At that point the Conservative movement came up with the notion of a "Hechsher Tzedek" which would add to the definition of "kosher" by determining what hourly wage, vacation time, shift scheduling, coffee breaks, lunch breaks, etc., were "just" and then coupling the performance of a company in those areas with its adherence to kosher food standards in order to round out a new, comprehensive standard of kashrut.

Just recently, Conservative rabbi David Lincoln, during a panel discussion on The Jewish Channel concerning AgriProcessors, offered this bit of charming commentary:

I think there's a general feeling that in the Orthodox community, in many Orthodox communities, and especially the more haredi -- more extreme Orthodox -- communities, there's more concern for the strict rules of halacha, for how you cut the animal's throat and how you examine the lungsthey're not really concerned about whether you're stealing, or whatever, or going into court and perjuring themselves.

Finally, last week The New York Times ran an editorial which in effect tied the AgriProcessors controversy to the Bush administration's immigration policies - policies that the Times, of course, roundly condemns.

The fact remains that no one has challenged AgriProcessors in terms of its conformity to the laws governing the production of kosher food. Rather, there have been attempts to graft onto those laws issues that, while important in and of themselves, simply do not relate to kashrut as it is properly and historically understood.

Read Comments (3)

Kashrus at AGRI always ignored
Date 08:07, 07-24, 08

Rabbi Yudel Shain has addressed some of the Kashrus concerns at AgriRubashkinSupremeAarons et al over the past few years.

One of the most recent ones is the fact that KAJ left because of kashrus reasons as is evidenced in their Oct 16th letter to Rubashkin. The fact they KAJ is not coming forward in the open & stating clearly "we were lied to, there are serious kashrus issues at Rubashkin" does not in any way shape or form change the cold facts.

The PETA video shoes clearly serious kashrus violations. The tracea process & the outcme should have made the animals a non-kosher status. The fact that some or all of the certifiers refused to come to that conclussion does not change the cold facts-I do consider myself in at least the same league of an expert in schechita as any of of the other Rubashkin experts.

The common mislabeling including "intentional-mislabeling" is a serious kashrus violation regardless of the statement that the rubashkin Certifier Rabbi MM Weis Mandel stated to the Wall Street Journal that there is no kashrus supervission at the cutting & packaging does not change nor have a bearing on the acceptability of a flawed kashrus or rather no kashrus.

I could go on with many more serious kashrus concerns over the years but I don''t want to encourage any one to initiate a suit for consumer fraud as I have been reading lately.

Yudel Shain

Elastic Kashrut
Date 10:07, 07-24, 08

Serious questions have surfaced regarding yashrus AND kashrus standards at Agri. No Rabbi is present in the area of the plant where packaging occurs, according to Rav Weismandl in statments he has made. Since this company packages both kosher and non-kosher meat the potential for a mix-up is all but guaranteed. In other words, consumers of Agri meat may have consumed non-kosher product intended for lets say, Trader Joe's. Furthermore, a credible professional journalist has recorded an interview with former shipping supervisor at Agri who stated that they regularly repackaged old meat and put new freshness dates on products which were shipped out. All in all AGriprocessors and those who supervised their kashrus seemed to have a rather elastic view of yashrus and kashrus in Postville. Ultimately the consumer must decide wether or not this company violates the kosher standards they expect. In other words, would you buy hamburger from this company?

Mitzva Haba Al Yideai Aveira
Date 03:07, 07-27, 08

As Yishayahu ranted to Am Yisrael - who asked for your korbanot and your chagim. He insited b'sheim Hashem that there are mitzvot which go hand in hand with keeping a Torah life; mitzvot bein adam lamakom can not be truly fulfilled without mitzvot bein adam l'chaveiro. Remember Hillel and the guy standing on one foot. Can you make a bracha over a stollen etrog. Can you imerse in a mikva while holding on to an unclean varments? Tovel v'sheretz byado?

Torah must be im derech eretz to be Torah. We are commanded to be am kadosh; or lagoyim. Menshlichkeit is far more important than whether or not one eats meat.

Simcha Plisner