Kosher ethics guide proposed

Industry observers predict limited impact

By Yaffi Spodek

Issue of Oct. 3, 2008

In the wake of the immigration and child labor scandals at the AgriProcessors kosher meatpacking plant in Postville, Iowa, the Rabbinical Council of America has begun to formulate a practical guide to Jewish principles and ethics relevant to the kosher food industry.

"We plan to specifically spell out Jewish ethics of business and encourage companies in the food area to incorporate a higher ethical standard, and do this on a voluntary basis," explained Rabbi Basil Herring of Woodmere, executive vice president of the RCA.

"Every kashrus contract will specify that the company adhere to local law and regulation. By having that commitment in a kosher contract, the company understands that there are other penalties they may get from the government, and if it will cost them their hashgacha, they will take it more seriously," he said.

The RCA's move is not solely in response to recent events concerning the AgriProcessors Company, Rabbi Herring said.

"Rubashkin was the immediate trigger behind this happening, I'm not going to deny that, but there have been other cases and situations where questions have been raised about other companies," he said. "We see this as an opportunity to raise ethical standards so that we can all be very proud of the kosher food industry."

Word of the RCA guide comes a week after another major Orthodox group, Agudath Israel of America, publicly rejected the "Hekhsher Tzedek," an effort by the Conservative movement to bring minimum wage and other workers' rights issues under the umbrella of kosher supervision.

The plan is "a subtle redefinition of the concept of kashrus," the Agudah statement read. "As Conservative leaders have done time and time again in a variety of modern-day contexts, they are paying lip service to halacha while in fact seeking to reshape it. The 'Hekhsher Tzedek' is simply the latest manifestation of Conservative leaders' tradition of exchanging Divine mandates for contemporary constructs."

The RCA guide is scheduled for completion in December, but one longtime observer of the kosher industry questions if it will have a meaningful impact.

"It is a very nice sounding program that will make consumers feel good, but it has no practical implications," warned Elie Rosenfeld, CEO of Joseph Jacobs Advertising, which works with leading kosher agencies. "It's a voluntary program and the RCA has not said how they will attempt to implement it. There are no consequences for not signing on and there is no way for the RCA to enforce it even if a company did violate anything."

Aside from the Orthodox Union, the RCA is not connected to any other kosher certifying agency, leaving it virtually powerless to enforce any of the suggested policies, Rosenfeld pointed out. Rabbi Herring, to a certain extent, agreed.

"The OU is certainly very supportive of this and would be very happy to see this as part of every contract," Rabbi Herring claimed.

But Rabbi Menachem Genack, rabbinic coordinator at the OU, was entirely non-committal Monday when discussing the OU’s implementation of the policy.

“We are in the process of consulting with the RCA about the guide and we have to evaluate it,” he told The Jewish Star. “We still have to review the terms of the guide –– they’ve been in touch with us and we’re supportive of it, but I don’t have a response yet as to how it will be practically implemented.”

“It is important and we will address it soon,” he added. “It is a work in progress.”

Rabbi Genack also noted that the RCA’s position on the Heksher Tzedek is in consonance with the OU’s: both organizations disagree with its basic premise and do not believe that mashgichim should also be enforcing federal law.

“While issues of environment and treatment of workers are very important, all those issues are under the control of the federal government, and they should be left for them to mandate,” Rabbi Genack asserted. “Not that we are ignoring these issues or saying that they are irrelevant or not important, but it is more effectively handled by the government agencies.”

Rabbi Herring concurred.

"The OU alone supervises 3,000 companies and 6,000 factories around the world and we don't have the power or the resources to police it and go into every company and inspect all their business practices,” he said. “You encourage the company to do the right thing, but you have to be realistic."

Dr. Avrom Pollak, president of the Star-K, offered a similar view, emphasizing that while ethics certainly plays a role in determining which companies will be certified, it is not the job of his kashrut supervisors to enforce that.

"We applaud all efforts to encourage ethical behavior, but we are not policemen," he said. "That doesn't make us health inspectors and our mashgichim are not bacteriologists or pest control specialists."

Companies are already expected to obey government regulations, but the RCA guide will include information about areas where Jewish ethics may demand higher standards than the government requires, "to urge companies to try however possible to go for that higher standard," Rabbi Herring said.

Kosher agencies will tend to view the ethics requirements, however laudable, as an additional obstacle to their ability to expand the number and scope of products available to kosher consumers, Rosenfeld predicted.

"I haven't found a kosher agency yet that said they will mandate that any of their clients sign it," he reported. “There seems to be an overall feeling that the relationship between kosher agencies and their clients, as a general rule, shouldn't go beyond the boundaries of Kashrus itself."

Dr. Pollak agreed.

"All people should be treating their workers fairly, and the logical result of kosher manufacturers being held to a higher standard than their competitors is going to mean fewer kosher certified products," he warned. "I've heard from many companies that this is not something they would ever submit themselves to."

The Star-K has terminated relationships with companies in the past for reasons beyond the scope of kashrut, Rabbi Pollak said. The company's mashgichim are encouraged to report back all types of violations, even those not related to kashrus.

"It is not difficult to see if a company is guilty of shoddy practices and sleazy employment practices, and we don't associate with companies like that. We kind of suspect that if they are violating laws like that, they aren't doing a good job of adhering to kosher requirements either," Dr. Pollak said. Still, he added, "I have my doubts whether this can be done on a formal basis."

Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir of Efrat, Israel, a leading authority in the field of Jewish business ethics, and author of two weekly syndicated columns on the topic, will chair the task force appointed to produce the guide.

Other kashrut agencies contacted by The Jewish Star, including the Kof-K, OK and Triangle-K, did not respond before deadline.