SAN FRANCISCO (JTA) — One year after a massive immigration raid at the largest kosher meatpacking plant in the United States, an Orthodox social justice organization announced the first seven recipients of its seal of ethical business practice.
Uri L’Tzedek recognized six kosher restaurants and a kosher supermarket in Manhattan with a Tav HaYosher, or ethical seal.
Mike’s Bistro, Mike’s Pizzeria and Italian Kitchen, Cafe Nana, Hewitt Dining, Your Heights Cafe, Hartley Kosher Deli and Supersol of the Westside are displaying the seal in their windows.
Uri L’Tzedek, which was founded by rabbinical students at the liberal Orthodox Yeshivat Chovevei Torah in New York, timed its announcement to May 12, the anniversary of the 2008 raid at Agriprocessors in Postville, Iowa.
The ensuing scandal and ongoing court cases generated widespread discussion of the ethical dimensions of kosher food production, and spurred several new social justice initiatives. They include the Tav HaYosher, envisioned for kosher eateries, and the Conservative movement’s Magen Tzedek, a proposed social justice program for food manufacturers.
Uri L’Tzedek developed the Tav HaYosher project last summer to shine a spotlight on kosher restaurants that treat their workers well, pay fair wages, give adequate work breaks and maintain a safe work environment. It is based on a similar Israeli ethical seal, Tav Chevrati, that has been given to more than 350 kosher and non-kosher restaurants in that country.
“Given recent events in the kashrut industry, it is imperative that we implement a system that will prevent abuse and exploitation,” Uri L’Tzedek’s Web site explains.
Noting that “thousands” of New York restaurant workers are paid below minimum wage, denied overtime pay and subjected to unsafe working conditions, the statement continues, “we must ensure these abuses are not taking place in kosher restaurants.”
In Los Angeles, a similar initiative spearheaded by three Orthodox rabbis gave its first compliance certificate to two restaurants and two synagogues right before Passover.
“There’s a huge cultural shift taking place….Thousands have signed on to say they will only buy from these places. The spirit of volunteerism in the young Jewish community is very strong.” Read more here.
Yes, there is a cultural shift afoot even in the most conservative wing of organized Judaism. And that is what is worth watching when it comes to religion, ethics, and the question of social contract globally between reactionary religions and, well, the rest of us. The fact is that it is generally the case that the most common sense conclusions of the liberal society, such as the equal worth of men and women, or the absurdity of prejudice based on skin color, or based on affiliation by creed, usually filter through to conservative religious bastions, BUT over agonizingly long spans of time. The great scandal of traditional Jewish ethics, the one that requires the most attention, is the question of treatment of non-Jews according to Jewish law. Secondarily, there is the problem of all religions making their favorite exclusive dogmas far more important than, say, animal torture, which is also forbidden by Jewish law but not extended forcefully to the global marketplace. In comes Jewish progressives decades ago, even centuries ago, and say that Jewish ethics applies equally to treatment of non-Jewish workers. Some Orthodox embrace this even in the nineteenth century, like my favorite philosopher Samuel David Luzzatto, on whose work I focused my dissertation and other writings. But all reactionary religions do what they do best in history—they react strongly, and negatively, to the world around them, always seeking reasons to withdraw, suspect, as a way of keeping their people inside and away from others. And so the twentieth century, with all its effusive genocide of Jews, drove humanitarianism way back in the psychology of its most conservative adherents. And yet, progressive, common sense Enlightenment thinking, always seeps through to the universal capacity to reason and ultimately see undeniable truths. Workers’ rights, workers who are created in the image of God according to most monotheistic readings, are common sense and decent, and the violation of those rights in order to acquire religiously acceptable food seems absurd to the average person.
Embarrassment was a key motivator here, but notice that the internal Orthodox response is rooted in what we have been advocating at marcgopin.com, positive psychology, positve peacebuilding, increments of positive change. This is a seal of approval for the good guys, not a seal of shame for the bad guys, something folks on the Left, including me, fail to do often enough. But the embarrassment of the law coming down hard on an ultra-Orthodox Kosher supplier that was at the backbone of the kosher meat industry was a critical spur to positive change. I think the take away lesson is that the rule of law is vital, no matter how much it hurts, but shaming is not altogether helpful.
But the most important lesson, given the right climate conservative religions evolve over long periods of time, based on the common sense instincts of their adherents. Thank God.
© Marc Gopin
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