Illinois Law Takes Aim at Camel and Pig’s Milk
Graphic by Angelie Zaslavsky
Illinois Governor Bruce Rauner signed a bill requiring that milk not from a cow be labeled as such.
The bill’s signing on Aug. 6 followed a concerted lobbying effort by the Chicago Rabbinical Council, an Orthodox rabbinical and kosher certification organization. A previous law, according to a C.R.C. press release, had allowed the sale of milk from any animal, which could include non-kosher milk from pigs or camels.
The new law was amended to require that such milk be labeled accordingly, even if it only contains trace amounts of milk not from a cow. State Senator Ira Silverstein sponsored the bill, which he crafted along with Rabbi Yona Reiss, who heads C.R.C.’s rabbinical court.
“Rabbi Reiss did an outstanding job explaining the whole issue to the committee,” Senator Silverstein said, according to the press release. “He rewrote the bill several times. The C.R.C. is protecting the Jewish community to make sure… milk is kosher. They did the right thing going to the Illinois General Assembly to resolve this issue.”
This is a moment of great uncertainty. Here’s what you can do about it.
We hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, we’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s independent Jewish news. All donations are still being matched by the Forward Board - up to $100,000 until April 24.
This is a moment of great uncertainty for the news media, for the Jewish people, and for our sacred democracy. It is a time of confusion and declining trust in public institutions. An era in which we need humans to report facts, conduct investigations that hold power to account, tell stories that matter and share honest discourse on all that divides us.
With no paywall or subscriptions, the Forward is entirely supported by readers like you. Every dollar you give is invested in the future of the Forward — and telling the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
The Forward doesn’t rely on funding from institutions like governments or your local Jewish federation. There are thousands of readers like you who give us $18 or $36 or $100 each month or year.
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
