Last week - exactly a year after allegations of exploitation and abuse at the Agriprocessors kosher meatpacking plant in Postville, Iowa made national headlines - Uri L'Tzedek, an Orthodox social justice movement, announced the creation of Tav HaYosher, a new ethical seal for kosher restaurants.

"After seeing the pain and suffering inflicted by our own kosher industry on the stranger and the poor, the very people the Torah demands we protect, we realized we needed to be proactive and make a change," said Shmuly Yanklowitz, Uri L'Tzedek's founder and co-director.

Yanklowitz, who is also a rabbinical student at Rabbi Avi Weiss's Yeshivat Chovevei Torah, told The Jewish Press that his inspiration was not the Conservative movement's controversial Hekhsher Tzedek, but the Orthodox Israel-based Tav Chevrati, which has issued its ethical seal of approval to over 350 restaurants.

Pressed by The Jewish Press about the similarities between Tav HaYosher and Hekhsher Tzedek, Yanklowitz stressed that "we're not redefining kashrus, chas v'shalom. A place is totally kosher whether it has our seal or not. We're merely saying that klal Yisrael cares not only about Yoreh De'ah, but also about Choshen Mishpat. It's not about kashrut, it's about ethics."