Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Breaking News

Rabbis Back Labor Protest Against Kosher Firm

A coalition of rabbis joined workers and labor activists in a rally against unfair labor practices at a 93-year-old kosher food distributor in New York.

Uri L’Tzedek, an Orthodox social justice group, helped organize a protest Tuesday with workers’ rights activists against the Faum Appetizing Corp., a Brooklyn-based firm that the National Labor Relations Board ruled abused workers by forcing them to work unpaid overtime and firing them when they complained.

The ruling ordered that Faum pay $270,000 in restitutions to its workers, but Faum is appealing the ruling, arguing that it is not obligated to pay back wages to undocumented immigrants.

The protesters gathered outside the offices of Apax Partners, a private equity firm in Manhattan that owns the largest food manufacturer and distributor in Israel, Truva, which distributes its products in America through Faum. Activists hope that Truva will use its influence to force Faum to change its labor policies.

A delegation of rabbis and community members attempted to meet with Apex Partners, but were told that the office was closed.

“As an Orthodox Jew, keeping kosher is very important,” said Ari Hart, a founder of Uri L’Tzedek. “But keeping yosher [ethical] is just as important as keeping kosher, and exploiting immigrant labor is not yosher according to Jewish and secular law.”

A message from our Publisher & CEO Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.

If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

With your support, we’ll be ready for whatever 2025 brings.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.