Five years ago, what was considered the largest immigration raid in American history trained a harsh spotlight on abusive conditions for workers and animals at the nation’s biggest kosher slaughterhouse and meat packing plant. The raid on Agriprocessors in Postville, Iowa, and the subsequent conviction of its owner on federal financial fraud brought more than…
Robert Kaiser, a science teacher from New Hampshire with an interest in finding ethically produced kosher food, was excited when he learned of Magen Tzedek, a seal that would combine Jewish values and social justice in food production, spanning from the treatment of workers to environmental impact. But almost four years after the Magen Tzedek…
Magen Tzedek, the kosher ethics certification program launched four years ago, has yet to certify its first food producer. In fact, Rabbi Morris Allen, the group’s program director, told the Forward that independent auditors only completed their initial audit of the project’s first potential candidate to receive the Magen Tzedek seal in August. And even…
In this week’s podcast, host Josh Nathan-Kazis is joined by Forward Washington correspondent Nathan Guttman and Opinion Editor Gal Beckerman to discuss Benjamin Netanyahu’s recent speech at the U.N. and his unorthodox style when addressing an international audience on the subject of Iran’s nuclear capabilities. Then, Editor Jane Eisner drops by to discuss the rumors…
During the month of High Holidays, I rediscovered my Jewish conscience. Not in a big, showy way, but in an ”oh this is what this is all about moment.” I was raised on a sort of ‘hallmark Judaism’, which tamed the most radical statements of equality and justice in our tradition. In my suburban synagogue,…
The Jewish Week shares the story behind a kosher vegetarian bacon salt. Magen Tzedek, which offers an ethical seal of approval to kosher food producers, responds to a claim by orthodox organization Agudath Israel, that the seal is attempting to change the definition of kashrut. Read both pieces on JTA. We’re thrilled that you’re a…
What goes into making food kosher? The debate over this question has recently raged in America after the poor working conditions at the Agriprocessors kosher slaughterhouse were exposed. The new Magen Tzedek certification has proposed that kosher food follow certain labor and environmental standards, but many Orthodox rabbis have disputed whether kosher certification can encompass…
The Conservative movement’s Hekhsher Tzedek Commission has released its newly designed logo for their proposed “Justice Certification” seal that they are proposing to affix to kosher foods that meet certain labor, environmental, and corporate standards. While the merits of the new logo (which, to this reporter, is a bit migraine-inducing) are up for debate, the…
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