by Kol Ra'ash Gadol · Monday, July 14th, 2008
On a prior post this week, commenter balabusta linked us to a video from the NYT that I’m sorry to say I had missed. The video is disheartening in that it reveals quite a bit that generally has been missing from the whole Agri commentary on the Jewish side of the question. It’s not only our outrage at the workers being treated unfairly by Agri at this point (not to mention being abused, as is clear from the variety of investigations) but the very fact that the racial component is being ignored, but even more clearly that the illegal immigrants are actually being railroaded into pleading guilty for crimes which are almost certainly Agri’s.
While everyone following this story along with us here at Jewschool from the beginning, now years ago, can see that we nearly qualify at apoplectic at the combination of injustice and chillul hashem that’s being done, listening to the words of this translator, who in all his years has not been moved to speak out -until now- makes me sad and angry all over again.
It’s too early for the boycott to be called off. The workers are being charged with social security fraud and aggravated identity theft, the court is using the greater charge to browbeat the workers into pleading guilty for the lesser charge. If they refuse to plead guilty, they are told, instead of five months in prison and then deportation (forever, with no chance to return legally) they will have 6-8months in prison, with the possibility of two years more if they lose. Most of them are the sole economic support for their families and thus are choosing to plead guilty, despite the fact that many of them - according to the translator- clearly have no idea what a social security number is or what it’s used for (and are apparently ashamed of looking ignorant about it, most cannot read or write, and when asked what the number is say they don’t know, the factory people put it there.
In other words, of the crimes of social security fraud and aggravatedidentity theft, it is Agri who should be on trial, not the workers. If Agri wants their boycott lifted, some signs of tshuvah are in order. Confession (to God and to the victim(s), Apology, Restitution and Failure to Repeat the offense when given another chance. In order for us to even think about taking them seriously, they need to admit publicly that it is they, Agri, who are behind these offenses and not allow people who are innocent of these crimes to be tried and deported for them. The workers may be guilty of illegally entering the country, but they are almost certainly not guilty of what they are being accused. There are no signs of tshuvah yet from Rubashkin. Thus we should not be revoking the boycott.
I can’t even begin to say how disgusted I remain with this whole episode, how much harm the American Jewish community’s consumption of excess amounts of meat has done to other people, and that Agri will allow their workers to take the fall for them… well, it’s despicable.
by Kol Ra'ash Gadol · Thursday, June 12th, 2008
Check out jcarrot for a fascinating interview with a former Agriprocessors mashgiach. It’s very openminded and worth reading; although peculiar in its breeziness - I don’t know how else to say it. read for yourselves.
by rokhl · Tuesday, June 10th, 2008
One of the cool things about working for a magazine like Jewish Currents is that for the editors and readers of Currents, radical Jewish history isn’t just history, it’s a part of their lives. The editorial board of Currents is still run as a collective (of which I’m now a member), and the magazine has always been a vehicle for the voices of its readers, rather than a platform for the editorial board. If we covered labor and union issues, it was because a great part of our readership was union members- teachers, civil servants, wall paper hangers as well as union organizers and labor agitators.
Henry Foner fits into many of those aforementioned categories. He’s been a high school teacher, union organizer (Joint Board, Fur, Leather and Machine Workers Union), Jewish Currents editorial board member and writer, as well as a victim of the New York State communist purges of the early 1940s.
Tomorrow, Wednesday, June 11, at 6 pm, Henry Foner will be honored for his decades of service, as well as his achievements as a songwriter and bard of the organized labor world. Taking place at the Workmen’s Circle (45 East 33rd St) we will also be celebrating a new exhibit on the Labor Arts website called “Play it Again, Sam”: The Lost Chords of the Labor and Progressive Movements.
Henry Foner and his colleagues young and old will be performing songs like “Shoot the Strudel to me Yudel”, “Capitalist Boss” and “Song of the Pennies and Selling Union.”
Here’s a wonderful bio of Henry from Tamiment Library, after the jump
More »
by Kol Ra'ash Gadol · Thursday, May 29th, 2008
A new internet startup called G.ho.st (pronounced like the spook, and an acronym for “Global Hosted Operating System”) offering “free web-based virtual computing for every human being” wants to give users a free,way to access their desktop and files from any computer with an Internet connection. To do so, g.ho.st uses services like Google Docs, Zoho and Flickr.
It has a Palestinian office in Ramallah, with about 35 software developers, and a smaller Israeli team in the Israeli town of Modiin. The CEO, Dr. Zvi Schreiber, said “he wanted to create G.ho.st after seeing the power of software running on the Web. He said he thought it was time to merge his technological and commercial ambitions with his social ones and create a business with Palestinians.”
G.ho.st also has a philanthropic component: a foundation that aims to establish community computer centers in Ramallah and in mixed Jewish-Arab towns in Israel. The foundation is headed by Noa Rothman, the granddaughter of Yitzhak Rabin, the Israeli prime minister slain in 1995.
“It’s the first time I met Palestinians of my generation face to face,†said Ms. Rothman, 31, of her work with G.ho.st. She said she was moved by how easily everyone got along. “It shows how on the people-to-people level you can really get things done.â€
Investors have put $2.5 million into the company so far, a modest amount. Employing Palestinians means the money goes farther; salaries for Palestinian programmers are about a third of what they are in Israel.
But Dr. Schreiber, who initially teamed up with Tareq Maayah, a Palestinian businessman, to start the Ramallah office, insists this is not just another example of outsourcing.
“We are one team, employed by the same company, and everyone has shares in the company,†he said.
NYT article
by Kol Ra'ash Gadol · Wednesday, May 28th, 2008
JTA breaking news: The U.S. Supreme Court upheld the right to sue employers for retaliating against employees bringing bias complaints. Lots of Jewish organizations signed on as friends for this one.
It’s a pretty important ruling, but I wonder how this works together with the inability to bring suit for employment discrimination after 180 days (e.g. you discover after five years, that you, a woman, make less than any of your male co-workers…but can’t sue because your first paycheck is more than 180 days into the past). Just curious, anyone find this kinda odd?
by Kol Ra'ash Gadol · Tuesday, May 27th, 2008
Week Six, Day Three
Tiferet of Yesod
Reported in Vos Is Neias, Rabbi Shmuel Herzfeld, of Ohev Sholom the National Synagogue in Washington, D.C., has called for the Vaad Harabonim of Washington to temporarily suspend Rubashkin’s meat in the stores and caterers that it supervises. So far the Vaad has not responded; it will be interesting to see if they do. Why? A quick view at the comments section might be edifying: Rabbi Herzfeld is dismissed as “a talmid of ‘Rabbi’ Avi Weiss;” apparently in some circles that’s enough to have your smichah be questionable.
But more than that, Rabbi Herzfeld, despite his innovative programming, energy and, let’s face it, success in reviving a dying shul, has not won him the kudos of the local Orthodox leadership. Aside from a minor scrap over his shul taking the name “the National Synagogue,” Rabbi Herzfeld has also put himself outside the pale by becoming the first Orthodox rabbi in DC to join the Washington Board of rabbis and sit down at the table with non-Orthodox rabbis and call them colleagues.
I’d like to think that instead of him being tarred with yet another reason to keep him on the outside of his Orthodox colleagues’ circles, this would be an opportunity for them to show some leadership on this issue, and also offer the opportunity for them to show some spine over politics. Rabbi Herzfeld isn’t the only rabbi out there -Orthodox or Conservative- who is working on trying to get some movement happening, but I do hope that he might help the DC area to move on this matter more effectively.
In other Rubashkin’s news, the CEO of Rubashkin, Sholom Rubashkin, will resign as head of Agriprocessors Inc. after a search for a new CEO is completed
by Kol Ra'ash Gadol · Friday, May 23rd, 2008
My bad, the Conservative movement has come out with a new statement that, um, well, I’m not sure exactly what it suggests: I think it says that I might perhaps maybe consider taking into account the halachot on obligations to workers, treatment of other human beings, dina d’malchuta dina and the like and consider maybe perhaps possibly not buying Rubashkin’s. If I want to.
Seriously:
In a joint statement released Thursday evening, the movement’s Rabbinical Association and the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism declared themselves “shocked and appalled†at working conditions at AgriProcessors, which is under federal investigation for employing illegal aliens. The groups asked their members “to evaluate whether it is appropriate to consume Rubashkin products until this situation is addressed.â€
Well, I am being a little harsh.
I had such high hopes for Hekhsher Tzedek, and even though we haven’t really seen much on that happen in the last year and a half I still do. I just really want to see the Conservative movement stand up and do something to show their seriousness. Of course, specific rabbis are absolutely taking stands on this, including advising their congregants not to buy Rubashkin’s brands and not allowing it in their synagogues. And this is true for both Conservative and Orthodox rabbis.
So maybe the truth is that the boycott will have to be, for the institutions, puk chazei; go out and see - that the movement will have to be grassroots, led by local leaders who really deserve the name by showing their communities what it means to take a serious moral stand on something. It may simply be that institutions aren’t really set up to make moral stands.
So perhaps it’s time for the leaders of movements simply to follow. So I’m going to echo Josh Frankel’s excellent suggestions (Please read for yourself) and repeat this part myself: don’t buy from Rubashkin brands until they straighten up their act. I want to see them put standards in place to protect their workers: find a way to make legal all those people whom they’ve brought in illegally, since they deliberately sought out illegal workers so that they could be treated with less care and paid less; unionize their entire operation - no arguments; fire the abusers and replace them with people who receive training in the ethical halachot and to understand that if it isn’t all followed the meat is no good - and this should absolutely include the mashgichim.
When they’ve done tshuvah (repented) by apologizing to both their consumers and their employees, made reparation to their employees, and fixed the problems that led to the abuse in the first place, then we should forgive them and go back to buying from them. But not until then.
Here is the full text of the Conservative movement’s statement: More »
by Kol Ra'ash Gadol · Wednesday, May 21st, 2008
Week Five, Day Three
Tiferet of Hod
Week Five, Day Four
Netzach of Hod
So much for Hekhsher Tzedek. Apparently politics wins out over justice.
In a not very surprising move, the Conservative Movement has decided not to boycott Rubashkin.
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.
Actionable? Are you kidding? Seriously, what would be pure enough to get something started? Let’s see, we have major violations of Dina d’malchuta dina, loads of other, amazingly varied halachic violations that have now gone on for years - and in theory have actually spurred the Conservative movement to the unusual action of attempting to actually do something (follow-through apparently being a little slow, ahem). The moral and halachic violations range from abuse of workers’ labor to sexual abuse; apparently there are allegations of the drug methamphetamine being produced at the site, and that rabbinic supervisors, specifically have abused plant workers. Not to mention child labor violations, identity theft, illegal weapons sales, and I’m sure I’ve missed a few.
So, what would be enough to get the Jewish world to move? Can anyone possibly believe that they are totally innocent? That poor old Rubashkin’s is being railroaded? I mean, reality check: When is the Jewish community going to get off its collective Butt?
If for no other reason, we should be boycotting because this will make people look at us and say, if that’s what Jews do, I want no part of it. Note to the Conservative movement: This includes your followers whom you are trying so valiantly to get to keep kosher. IMO, more people will quit keeping kosher over your spinelessness than over the lack of available kosher meat. The folks who keep kosher now aren’t going to stop for this reason. Not to mention that all those young folks you’re trying to attract: they’re leaving because they look and see that something is seriously wrong here. As a Jew, I am embarrassed and ashamed about the lack of response from all the movements, but CJ, your Hekhsher Tzedek plans give you a special responsibility. Live up to it. Stand up for something, already.
And, Hey, Orthodoxy, you have a chance here to outmoral the left: get up and do something, will you? Somebody? Anybody? Before all the holiness drains out of the world?
by Kol Ra'ash Gadol · Monday, May 19th, 2008
Week Five, Day two
Gevurah of Hod
According to the latest news, yes, there’s more, if you can stand it. The Des Moines Register reports that there was sexual abuse and an expectation of sexual favors, according to the workers,
If a worker wanted, say, a promotion or a shift change, “they’d be brought into a room with three or four men and it was like, ‘Which one do you want? Which one are you going to serve?’†said McCauley in an interview today with Des Moines Register editors and reporters.
To be fair, it should have been obvious that somethignlike this would be revealed - with all the other garbage going on behindthe scenes, this particular form of abusing the powerless should have been an obvious add-on feature.
RadioIowa mentions that America’s Voice, a group pushing for immigration reform, is asking Congress to investigate the owners of the Postville plant.
Mark Lauritsen, international vice president of the United Food and Commercial Workers Union (UFCW) says reading the information on the Postville raid shows “shameful” action by the plant’s owners. Lauritsen says what’s ultimately shameful is that nearly 400 “hardworking men and women” are in detention, while the people who exploited them are free to roam the streets and start the cycle over again.
Lauriston says Agriproccessors has gotten away with the labor violations for too long. Lauritsen says: “There is not one other meatpacker operator in this country that has the same sustained long record of law violations as Agriprocessors, not one. They’re acting like a renegade in an already tough industry. It’s not good for the industry, it’s not good for the workers who work in it.” Sharry and Lauritson say the national strategy of ‘attrition through enforcement’ remains an ineffective solution to the immigration issue.
I hope they’re successful, but after all this time, who knows - it’s not like there haven’t already been tons of investigation worthy crimes over the past several years, with a pattern of disregard for the law. Again, our only quesiotn should be, where the hell is the Jewish community, and why didn’t we insist on OU’s hashgachah (supervision) being pulled with much greater force. Our lack of courage and refusal to go without meat is a chillul hashem - an embarrassment to God’s name.
by Kol Ra'ash Gadol · Sunday, May 18th, 2008
Week Five, Day One
Chesed of Hod
Since the most recent debacle at Rubashkin’s, documented widely, with a focus on the huge immigration raid detaining nearly 400 of the slaughterhouse’s 968 employees and sending many of the remaining into hiding (and not to mention so many other violations of so many varieties of American law and halachah that the mind boggles), the Postville Plant has reopened on essentially a skeleton crew.
SInce, according to the Forward, it is producing less than half its usual output, and Agriprocessors produces more than half of glatt kosher beef in the USA and the greatest share of glatt kosher poultry, and Postville produces 85% of that beef, instead of American Jews wondering how we’ve come to such a pass; that after several years of people reporting violation after violation of Jewish law, human rights, and American law, how is it that the Orthodox Union hasn’t revoked its supervision; how is it that there isn’t an outcry against such practices, against the kosher meat industry from within the Jewish community - and for that matter - why haven’t we been more carefully examining the actual kashrut of let us say, the organization behind the meat (cf. Rabbi David Berger, author of The Rebbe the Messiah, and the Scandal of Orthodox Indifference)?
How is it that we are actually even thinking about whether or not we’ll get enough meat?
At the Hazon food conference late last year, Rabbi Yehuda ben Chemhoun, a prominent shochet of 27 years, and Rabbi Seth Mandel, the senior mashgiach at the Orthodox Union, both spoke of how they limited their own intake of meat, and Rabbi Mandel said plainly that he felt that the kosher meat industry in this country was broken, at least in part because people were expecting to eat too much meat. Instead of meat being something to have occasionally, for shabbat and holidays, people -because of its easy availability- are eating meat every day, sometimes at every meal. And this is sick: it is sick beause it leads us to an industry of waste and cruelty, and to health problems from over indulgence and also to health problems from eating the flesh of animals being treated badly throughout their lives - and through their deaths.
Although I rarely eat meat, I am not a veg. But how can we continue to support an industry that causes this much pain not only to animals, but to human beings. Our sages argue about what the purpose of our kashrut restrictions of meat and shechita are: some say it is because animals feel emotionally as we do, and it is wrong to be cruel to them; some say that it is because we are to learn from the example of our care with animals that all the more so we need to take care of other human beings, to teach compassion.
What Rubashkin’s has revealed is that it cares about neither. So, the only question left is: how long will we allow it to continue, and what will we decide to do now?
by Kol Ra'ash Gadol · Tuesday, April 29th, 2008
Week two, Day three
Tiferet of Gevurah
PETA is offering a 1 million Dollar reward to the first scientist to to produce and bring to market in vitro meat.
I give them full points for consistency. Of course, it doesn’t solve the problems of the use of resources to produce meat. It also raises all kinds of questions (and to be honest, although I’ve occasionally had a burger, the idea of meat produced by humans creeps me out especially knowing all the really awful stuff behind and alongside Genetically modified food- which currently is mostly herbiferous).
But of course, the really great questions have already been asked by Jewish Star Trek fans, who pondered the matter via the replicator: Could one eat a kosher cheeseburger? Who would be qualified to supervise the meat, since in theory there might still be animals around that people schechted? Would it be kosher to eat pork produced this way? How about human flesh? The questions are endless.
If it was liver, do you still have to broil it within an inch of destruction?
PETA: You have challenged us; now we challenge you to answer these question for us!
by Kol Ra'ash Gadol · Thursday, March 6th, 2008
The Forward reports on the not terribly new news that it is now possible to eat a kosher cheeseburger by putting parve soycheese on a burger (or, also, of course, although not at a meat restaurant, by putting real cheese on a soyburger, or even soycheese on a soy burger). SO what’s the news exactly? Well, apparently a real meat kosher restaurant has begun offering said real meat with fake cheese burger at its location. The Forward excitedly noted that in the original New York Post article, Jackie Mason, the comedian, is nauseated by the prospect of eating a cheeseburger. Rabbi Basil Herring, the executive vice president of the Rabbinical Council of America is also not thrilled at the prospect, although his complaint is at least not ridiculous. He’s worried about marit ayin - that some young kid might walk into the restaurant and see people eating cheese on a burger and think that it’s Kosher.
I will note that, while Marit ayin is a legitimate problem, there are ways one could take care of this quite easily. For example, posting a giant sign everywhere in the restaurant saying something like, “This is a meat-serving kosher establishment. No dairy products of any kind are served here. ‘Cheese’ in the ‘cheeseburgers’ is completely pareve and contains no dairy ingredients.
Tanchuma Shmini 12, Hullin 109b:
“God said to Moshe: Warn Israel not to eat bad things, and they
shouldn’t mislead you by saying that God forbade Israel to eat good
things. God said that everything I have forbidden to you, I have
permitted something else in its place… I forbid pork, and permit the
tongue of the fish known as shibbuta which has a similar taste to pork… And why? To give a good reward to Israel for keeping my mitzvot.”
But not only that! The Yerushalmi Kiddushin 4:12 says:
“In the future, we will all have to answer to God for all that our eyes saw of God’s wonderful world but did not partake of.â€
Dude, it’s kosher! If the kid isn’t old enough to read, she’s not old enough to be by herself in a restaurant without parental oversight to explain what soycheese is.
So, Jackie, Rashi quotes Sifra Kedoshim,11: 22 on Leviticus 20:26 (And I have distinguished you from the [other] peoples to be mine), saying,
“Rabbi Eleazar ben Azaria says: How do we know that a person should not say: ‘I am disgusted with pig meat, it is impossible for me to eat’ but rather he should say: ‘I can, but what can I do? My Father in Heaven has decreed upon me (that it’s not permitted). The verse says: “And I have distinguished you from the other peoples to be mine,” that your separation from them should be for My Name’s sake— he separates himself from sin and so accepts on himself the yoke of the Kingdom of Heaven.”
On the other hand, who the hell thinks Jackie Mason ought to be cited as a source of halakhic - or any other- advice?
By the way, I just can’t help myself here, does anyone else think Al Lewis (grandpa Munster), Jackie Mason, separated at birth? Although I hear the late Al Lewis was a fabulous and lovely guy.
by Rooftopper Rav · Tuesday, February 26th, 2008
I’m too tired to really comment, but here’s the update on the egg roll strike story from two weeks ago:
Yesterday’s The World reported that Israeli sushi restaurants planned to go on a “sushi strike” today in phase two of their protest against Israel’s plan to eliminate work permits for foreign chefs. (Okay, really their plan is to challenge the new Israeli policy in court, but this is more fun, if totally counterproductive.)
Best line in the story comes from the Israeli owner of Sakura, a Japanese restaurant in Jerusalem: [Israelis just want to be normal.] “Being normal means you can eat sushi whenever you want…kosher or not kosher…”
by Kol Ra'ash Gadol · Wednesday, February 20th, 2008
Okay, in the realm of the totally trivial:
Hasbro is trolling for business for their new international edition of Monopoly. To do this, they have instituted a vote in which people may go their website and vote for which cities they wish to appear. I have received umpteen mails about this that I should vote for Jerusalem to appear, and that seemed reasonable to me, as it is an important international city in many ways. So one day when I was being a slacker and not working on what I should have been I went over and voted for Jerusalem, Israel.
However, if you go over there now what you will find is not “Jerusalem, Israel” but simply “Jerusalem” a format in distinction to that of any other city: lacking a country.
If you believe that Hasbro should cease to opine on political matters, you may tell them so here, a URL that I include because it’s a pain to find any way to email them directly.
by Rooftopper Rav · Wednesday, February 13th, 2008
After years of trying to attract foreign [read: Asian] workers to Israel, the country seems to be reversing policy… at least when it comes to Asian restaurants. Today’s Ha’aretz reports that in an attempt to create more jobs for native Israelis, Israel’s government plans to decrease the number of work permits it issues to Asian chefs by about 50% next year and then stop issuing the permits altogether the following year. In response, Asian restaurants across Israel have declared a “spring roll strike,” to be followed by sushi and noodle strikes in coming weeks. Israeli Ministry of Industry, Trade, and Labor lawyer Shoshana Strauss was quoted in Ha’aretz with the brilliant line, “Everyone can make Chinese food it’s not impossible to learn.”
I don’t know whether to laugh or cry. On a purely culinary level this is absurd. Israel’s Asian food already tends toward the awful. So awful, in fact, that senior Chinese Embassy official Xuan Chan broke with diplomatic protocol a few years ago and publicly called Israeli Chinese restaurants “disgusting.” (Thai, Chinese, and to a lesser extent Japanese food in Israel seems to mean sauteed meat and veggies or noodles with either a fluorescent pink or yellow sugary sauce dumped on top. Sushi is definitely better, but could be better.) If Asian chefs are currently cooking in Israel’s Asian restaurants– which I’m skeptical about, at least in half of the Asian places I’ve been to– they’re cooking to perceived local tastes, not to Asian standards. I’m doubtful that Israeli chefs would do better. I’m also somewhat skeptical that there are 900 (the number of Asian chef permits currently issued by the government) Israelis who’d be thrilled to jump into an Asian cooking job retraining program, should the government dream one up, which is also highly unlikely, but who knows.
Anyone else want to comment on Israeli labor policy vis-a-vis foreign and Palestinian workers?
Asian restaurants across the country went on a one-day spring roll strike on Tuesday in protest over government plans to rid kitchens of foreign chefs, and said sushi and noodles would be the next items off the menu.
The restaurants are angry at the state’s plans to purge Japanese, Chinese and Thai eateries of Asian cooks and replace them with Israelis as part of a broader program to cut the number of foreigners working in Israel.
The Ethnic Restaurant Organization said the country’s 300 Asian restaurants refused to serve spring or egg rolls - among their most popular dishes - on Tuesday, and planned a follow-up strike in two weeks for sushi and noodles.
“Today there is no egg roll and in two weeks time there will be no sushi and noodles,” Arnon Volosky, head of the organization, told Reuters.
More »
by Aliza · Wednesday, January 23rd, 2008
In a move heard loudly around the environmental world, the Israeli government has reached a deal with Project Better Place and Renault-Nissan for the three partners to create an electric car infrastructure throughout the holy land by 2011. Israel is cited as the perfect site for such a project due to its small size and the fact that electric cars currently can not go long distances without being recharged. The tax incentives and system are expected to make the electric car cheaper than using fuel for most drivers, given the increasing cost of fuel.
Using the pre-paid cellphone system as model, Renault-Nissan will build battery recharging stations around the country, and the government will provide tax incentives to purchasers. One of the impetuses behind the project, Idan Ofer, of Project Better Place, hopes this can be a model that will eventually go international. “If Israel will ever produce a Nokia, it will be this,†he told the NYTimes.
by Kol Ra'ash Gadol · Sunday, January 20th, 2008
And how often do I get to post from my favorite blog, Consumerist, on Jewschool? I’m gonna grab this baby and run with it:
We all know that people have been -for quite some time- acting under the mistaken notion that kosher = healthy. I seem to recall some major war in Poland between two different rabbis and their organizations over who got to oversee Polish vodka production because people there were convinced that kosher meant better product.
Now, Chinese exporters are betting that kosher certification can convince foreign consumers that their wares are safe. It’s just another marketing tool for them, of course.
Consumerist quotes the San Jose Mercury News:
Many Chinese companies were unfamiliar with the concept: One furniture maker asked for kosher certification, drawing a polite rebuff. Another facility asked to get certified as kosher even though it was smoking eel on site, a kosher no-no. The company was turned down; it is now building a separate, kosher-only facility.
And many companies weren’t ready for the grilling the rabbis gave them on their first visits to their plants, seeing it as a sign of distrust. “In China, everything works on relationships,” said Grunberg of the Orthodox Union, which certifies more than 400,000 products worldwide.
The News, also notes that according to the OU, Kosher certifications by rabbis have doubled to more than 300 in China in the past two years. Originally, it was apparently to get access to the kosher market, $11.5 billion U.S a year, but after the rash of problems with contaminated pet food, toothpaste, seafood and the like, Chinese exporters have turned to kashrut certification in order to assure people that their product is safe.
There might be some benefit to having kashrut oversight: since 2001, the Orthodox Union has required makers of products it certifies as kosher to place a code on their packages identifying the plant where it was made so the product can be traced in a recall. However, since September of this year, all Chinese food exports have been required to have this code by Chinese regulators.
It doesn’t especially bother me, really, though, I must admit. While I don’t think that hashgacha is likely to make the products safer (or at least not much) at least there’s the possibility that there will be more interesting products at my local cheapo grocery that I can buy. I can’t tell you how excited I was when I found some very tasty red bean flavored steamed buns with a nice OU on them!
by Kol Ra'ash Gadol · Tuesday, January 8th, 2008
As usual, Failed Messiah has scooped an interesting tidbit on Rubashkin. Seems that a few days ago, NLRB heard an appeal from Rubashkin and found against them that if one’s employees vote to unionize, one cannot claim that undocumented aliens are prohibited from unionizing because they do not qualify as “employees†protected by the National Labor Relations Act, and thus refuse to bargain with them or recognize the vote.
Since the NLRB under the recent administrations has acted more and more partisanly - i.e. finding almost uniformly against labor, or handing out slaps on the wrists so light the companies have to scratch after because the contact tickles, I can only say, the case must have been unbelievably chutzpadik, which a few words from Circuit Judge Tatel seems to confirm, “Because the company’s argument ignores both the Act’s plain language and binding Supreme Court precedent, we deny its petition for review.…”
See FM for more: good work, dude!
Every day in every way, Rubashkin finds new ways to improve! Congrats on your award for Worst Ongoing Scandal; it’s nothing if not well deserved!
