It was funny, because as I was reading it I kept wondering what sort of rabbi is he? This is The New York Times.
He made a statement about the kashrut of the food:
This poses a grave problem and calls into question whether the food processed in the plant qualifies as kosher.I would really like more proof according to Jewish Law. But this is Shiloh Musings, and as I mentioned, his article appears in The New York Times.
You see, there is precedent for declaring something nonkosher on the basis of how employees are treated. Yisroel Salanter, the great 19th-century rabbi, is famously believed to have refused to certify a matzo factory as kosher on the grounds that the workers were being treated unfairly. In addition to the hypocrisy of calling something kosher when it is being sold and produced in an unethical manner, we have to take into account disturbing information about the plant that has come to light.
Also, recently a link to lists explaining which kosher restaurants in Jerusalem are actually kosher, even though they all have certification. It all makes me nervous. Who really knows what goes on in these food factories and restaurant kitchens?
3 comments:
There are certain halachic issues about which the accepted practice is to be "unreasonably" lenient. These issues include agunot, eruvim for shabbat - and eating in restaurants.
I do not think that somebody who sees themself as especially from, always being machmir just in case, should be willing to eat in any kosher restaurant, anywhere.
I say this based on my experience working as a mashgiach for the main kashrut organization in a large city in the American northeast.
The rest of us can carry on eating in restaurants - preferably ones with a mehadrin hechsher from a known organization, if I understand the situation in Israel correctly.
from->frum
ariel, thanks for the info
I remember hearing years ago from some non-religious Jew who had worked in an American kosher (not religious) camp. He told me that the goyim in the kitchen were extremely careful about the regulatons. They had no personal "issues" with it. Here with the fear of terrorism and the prevalence of Arabs in the kitchen, it's more frightening.
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