The Kosher Fad is Sure to Fade
When I was growing up as one of the only Jews in most of the places I lived, including college at a Catholic university, I would frequently attract as friends converts-to-be who wanted to ask me all about my faith. Why these people wanted to convert was always a mystery to me. Jewish culture inherits so much baggage, I felt, and so many nonsensical rules that are outside the realm of normal American, nominally-Christian frameworks. They were converting depite the barriers because it called to them spiritually. But noticeably, health was never a reason why.
Yet KosherToday and newspapers everywhere report the soaring demand for kosher food. Ynet reports today, “In the last decad, [sic] kosher food sales in American supermarkets have reached a growth rate of 15 percent as opposed to a four percent growth rate for food that is not kosher. Eleven million Americans buy kosher food, and they are responsible for a yearly turnover of $9 billion. What’s interesting in all this data is that there are only just over six million Jews in America and even fewer keep kosher.” And why? 55 percent of kosher shoppers do so because they believe it’s healthier.
But it’s not just a matter of healthy perceptions either — I believe it’s increasingly from unhealthy perceptions that comes from celebrity fads and an unawareness of what kosher really is. As Ynet points out, kashrut’s prominence has been aided by Madonna’s patronage of a kosher restuarant which she shares with Sasha Baren-Cohen, Paris Hilton’s request for kosher jail food, and Donald Trump’s insistance on either organic or kosher food. So is kosher on the same level as organic?
“Americans like the fact that kosher food is prepared under the watchful eyes of supervisors, often more than one, and kosher restaurants in Manhattan are proud to announce that ‘all the food here is prepared under strict supervision’. This impresses the customers, even if the watchful eyes are those of a kashrut supervisor who is only making sure that the dairy and meat utensils stay separate from each other.”
Which is my point: kosher is not organic, nor is it healthier or local or more humane, and this bubble is sure to pop.
You can see this surge in kosher as “better in general” prick the spines of those who know differently. I speculate that PETA’s assault on the reputation of kosher meat processing plants aims to contradict the misperception that kosher equals organic, or humane, or healthier. Their basic position is that eating meat is wrong, and damaging the perception that kosher slaughter is more humane is useful in pulling out the rug beneath conscientious carnivores. Kosher slaughter isn’t necessarily more humane — which should bother all of us who care, but shouldn’t be the reason I do kosher in the first place. PETA’s sideline sensationalism aside, we should expect to see a phenomenon similar to the debate over circumcision — is it beneficial or not, which seems to change every decade — where kosher food will likely pick up counter-movements challenging it’s claims to belonging in the food movement pantheon.
Kosher is not necessarily organic, local, humane or healtheir. (Which makes DC’s Tuv Ha’Aretz all the more smart and laudable.) Kashrut supervision enforces meat/dairy separations, types of animals eaten, and the preparation thereof, and only those concerns. This has led to the Tzedek Hechsher’s desire to address broader, contemporary questions, which I wholly support. But as an example, eating meat is eating meat. I eat meat and I eat kosher when I can, but I don’t salve my conscience with foolery that it’s anything more than what it is: a set of very, very bizarre rules set by rabbis centuries ago ostensibly to keep Jews separate from other nations, for the sake of communing more deeply and tightly as a community with God.
Convert friends of mine made the choice to join the Children of Israel not for health reasons, but spiritual ones. We would do well to remember the same and understand that what goes up must come down, as the kosher fad is sure to do.
(Read the full Ynet article here. X-posted to The Jew & The Carrot.)
You write about kosher meat issues, and never — ever– give Failed Messiah credit, whether through mention or link. Why? I admit, I am not as concerned about the meat issue as Failed Messiah or yourselves, but I am very concerned that you are not crediting the guy who did the actual research.
Not okay.
http://failedmessiah.typepad.com/failed_messiahcom/2007/07/breaking-usda-c.html
http://failedmessiah.typepad.com/failed_messiahcom/2007/07/understanding-t.html
http://failedmessiah.typepad.com/failed_messiahcom/2007/07/the-usda-coveru.html
http://failedmessiah.typepad.com/failed_messiahcom/2007/07/the-ou-lies-aga.html
http://failedmessiah.typepad.com/failed_messiahcom/2007/07/ou-lies-meat-ho.html
http://failedmessiah.typepad.com/failed_messiahcom/2007/07/the-ou-speaks-a.html
I don’t agree that this is “Just†a fad, though it may be in part a fad. I see people gravitating towards kosher as part of a broader reaction to our cultures disconnection from food. We are an educated people who are constantly bombarded with news about obesity, disease, and to a lesser extent the environment, animal welfare, and social justice issues. I choose to believe that along with all the faddiness, it’s our basic-goodness (G-dliness) bubbling up (in many cases through our subconscious) and drawing many of us towards Kosher, not to mention organic, fair-traded and ethically produced foods. I think you might be giving too much credit to Madonna and the hip New York restaurant crowd and not enough to the rest of us who are trying to reestablish a conscious connection to the food we eat. You are right, what goes up must come down and the fad part surely will but I am hopeful that the rest (underlying goodness of it) is here to stay.
You are also right that kosher does not always equal healthy and this needs to be addressed. But none of it really means anything, unless people are thinking about their food in more sacred, ethical, environmental and/or healthy ways and in my opinion connecting to Kosher is one important part of doing just this.
Thanks for an interesting post and for getting me thinking about this important topic.
I think TikkunGer has a very good broader point when he notes that the current interest in kosher is driven by many people “trying to reestablish a conscious connection to the food we eat.”
But this doesn’t detract at all from Kung Fu Jew’s central argument which is, as I understand it, that anyone who comes to kosher expecting it to mean that the food so certified is somehow better for us or the environment is guaranteed to be disappointed.
As I often say, being aware of how we sustain ourselves–a central purpose of kosher, I would say–nowadays should lead one to organic and fair trade (etc.) and not to kosher. Unless, of course, one wants to keep kosher for all the traditional reasons. And nothing wrong with that. Those are just different reasons.
Actually, there is some health info missing from this discussion unfortunately. Eating kosher in many instances IS healthier than not. One specific scenario jumps out… when meat is made kosher the idea is that there should be no blood in the meat. This greatly reduces the unhealthy effects of eating meat (nitrates, nitrites etc.), especially in regard to cancers of the digestive tract. So, unless you have health issues with salt, eating kosher meat IS healthier than regular meat… And if cancer is your fear, it’s even better than organic.
Great food for thought 🙂 but agree with TikkunGer about not a fad. I think the more people know, they more they’ll go and make better choices.. The “madonna fad†part might fade which is probably a good thing and the “real substance†will continue.
Shalom
gp in montana
Um… Yirmiyahu, last I checked kosher hot dogs were full of nitrates.
Actually, there is some health info missing from this discussion unfortunately. Eating kosher in many instances IS healthier than not. One specific scenario jumps out… when meat is made kosher the idea is that there should be no blood in the meat. This greatly reduces the unhealthy effects of eating meat (nitrates, nitrites etc.), especially in regard to cancers of the digestive tract. So, unless you have health issues with salt, eating kosher meat IS healthier than regular meat… And if cancer is your fear, it’s even better than organic.
Do you have a source for this claim?
As far as I’ve seen, it is false claim that kosher meat is healthier for the reasons you state.
Of course you have no legitimate source.
Lookie here:
http://books.nap.edu/openbook.php?record_id=9038&page=35
Two words: mad cow.
And, yes, the salt in kosher meat would be a huge concern for me (that is, if I were still eating meat).
Excuse me Shmarya,
“Of course you have no legitimate source.”
I have no source I can link to for you, because I learned it in my MicroBio class on Cancer, and in the textbook written by my professor. Perhaps I misquoted exactly what it is that comes out with the blood (perhaps it was the nitrates/nitrites), but I can say with certainty that he said it was healthier than meat just plain slaughtered (ie. non-kosher meat).
I appreciate the debate over this and I agree that there are a lot of things about the kashrut industry that need to be changed, particularly in regard to the treatment of the animals. I personally avoid Aaron’s as a result of what FailedMessiah has written about. But Shmarya, read the quote from Rav Soloveitchik at the bottom of these response boxes, and don’t suggest ever again that I am merely spouting BS. I don’t appreciate it, thanks.
Laila tov
and by “perhaps it was the nitrates…” I meant perhaps it WASN’T.