Muslim group to represent Jewish inmate denied kosher food in jail
Image by iStock
(JTA) — An Islamic civil liberties and advocacy organization will represent a man who has been denied kosher food in a Michigan jail.
The Michigan chapter of the Council on American Islamic Relations, or CAIR, said in a statement issued Monday that it would appear as legal representative for Brandon Resch, an inmate in the Macomb County Jail, in his lawsuit against the Michigan Department of Corrections.
In November 2017, Resch was transferred from Oakland County Jail, where he was receiving a kosher diet. He requested a kosher diet in Macomb and had an interview with its chaplain.
The new jail denied the request because Resch did not have the ability to write to a rabbi and obtain a “letter of good standing” proving that he is a member of the Jewish faith, according to the CAIR statement.
“Under no circumstances do a person’s religious rights depend on whether or not they are a member in good standing of a religious organization,” Amy Doukoure, a CAIR attorney, said in the statement.
The organization views the case as important to both the Muslim and Jewish communities, as they observe dietary restrictions as part of their religious beliefs.
Rabbi Boruch Zelouf, a Michigan advocate for the Aleph Institute, a nonprofit organization that assists Jewish prisoners, told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency that according to Resch’s grandmother, Resch self-proclaimed as Jewish after entering prison, and that the group therefore does not consider him Jewish. Some local Michigan Jewish organizations contacted by JTA said they were not aware of the lawsuit.
In January, a federal judge in Detroit approved the settlement of a class-action lawsuit against the Michigan Department of Corrections filed by kosher-keeping inmates. Under the settlement, the department must provide a certified kosher lunch and dinner each day and may ask its chaplains to confirm a prisoner’s “sincerely held religious belief.”
The Detroit Jewish News reported in February that there were 600 Jewish prisoners in Michigan prisons among some 33,000 inmates. Of the 600, between 85 and 193 in 16 prisons were approved for kosher meals.
The post Muslim civil liberties group to represent Jewish inmate denied kosher food in Michigan jail appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
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.
