New York – Four years after the Conservative movement announced its kosher ethical certification program with much fanfare, Magen Tzedek is plagued by extensive delays and has yet to certify its first food company.
Subscribe to our Daily Roundup Email
Rabbi Morris Allen, the Magen Tzedek Commission founder and director, told The Forward (http://bit.ly/SKBw73) he had anticipated that the program would be operational by last spring, but is not discouraged by the slow pace because he views the organization’s mission as the “ethical conscience of Torah.”
“It’s slower than we had imagined at this point,” he said. “But given the fact that we live in a world where people are always looking to cut corners, often at the expense of workers or animals, we remain convinced that our product is the right product and our message is the right message.”
Following the raid at Agriprocessors meatpacking plant in Postville, Iowa, Allen said he was inspired to establish the Magen Tzedek Commission with the intention of certifying “that kosher food manufacturers in the U.S. operate according to Jewish ethics and social values.”
Companies who wish to qualify for the Magen Tzedek seal must first review the organization’s 19-page manual outlining the necessary requirements and complete an exhaustive application about ethical standards across 22 different categories. Among the Commission’s concerns are animal welfare, fair compensation and good working conditions for employees, corporate responsibility, and environmental impact, among many others.
Applicants must also submit copies of their employee handbooks and operating manuals, certificates, waste reduction procedures, and a slew of other paperwork. Potential candidates are then subjected to an independent audit before earning the Magen Tzedek certification, a seal which allows a company to “walk the walk and not just talk the talk,” according to Allen.
Michael Siegel, co-chair of the Magen Tzedek board of directors, said that while he expected opposition to the organization’s efforts, he was shocked by the tremendous backlash in the Orthodox community. Agudath Israel of America has referred to Magen Tzedek as a “falsification of the Jewish religious heritage,” while Yated Ne’eman called the certification the product of a “smear campaign waged against Agriprocessors.”
“The response in some cases is so vociferous and really over the top, it does really take your breath away,” Siegel said. But he insists the program is really about Torah. “It’s not a business and not a way to elbow into the kashrut industry, but an idea that we believe represents the best of Torah.”
Rabbi Allen, your Mogen Tzedek will never fly since your fellow Conservatives don’t really Keep Kosher, for Orthodox Jews it’s nothing worth and will never rely on you for anything relating to Kashrus. By the way Rabbi Allen, why don’t you make a real effort that your fellow Conservatives keep Shabbos, Kashrus and Family purity,
Doesn’t Weiss at “Chorvei” Torah have students with a similar program
A yid who believes that it’s worth it for a fellow jew to go to prison for life!
Kayn yovdu kol oyevecha
I’ll tell you why it is not working, and probably won’t ever work, surly not on a large scale.
A compenys objective is to make money by getting consumers to buy their product.
So when they go kosher and get a hechsher they are trying to get to the kosher consumer, a six billion dollar annual market.
Now what this concervitivs are offering doesn’t in anyway bring in the kosher consumer, for if the consumer keeps Torah kosher this “hechsher” doesn’t cut it, and if he doesn’t keep torah kosher then he is not the kosher consumer the company was trying to get in the first place.
Yes there may be some fanatics that will go out of there way to buy this supposed ethical product, so the company may gain one or two costumers, but they will lose the whole frum Torah kosher world as we will all boy cat any company that uses them, also the money the company will pay and the hassle they will go through with the “hechsher” will be far more then those few fanatic costumers.
It’s simple! This is a service that no company has any intreats in.
” ” (Magen Tzedek) It’s not a business and not a way to elbow into the kashrut industry, but an idea that we believe represents the best of Torah.” “
It’s comforting to see Magen Tzedek headed by Conservative rabbis of America entering the arena of “representing best torah ideas” After all they where the ones who founded the ‘OU’ which was headed than by reb Moshe Feinstein z”l
Unfortunately they and their mouthpiece The Forward’s moved so far left that they fell off the cliff since those days, trying to elbow back in to the arena with a name change from Hekhsher Tzedek to Magen Tzedek Won’t do, to little to late.
It is a shame seeing so many people insulting this person and his idea. Seems some people have little to do with their time, aside from the terrible issur of onaas devarim.
What he is doing is not harmful in any way, and is actually a chumra in bein odom lachaveiro which may well be more important than bein odom lamakom.
It may be a kiddush hashem that the world sees the yiddishe concern we have for other humans. It is certainly better than seeing the stories of supposedly frum Jews who are accused of acting dishonestly and give a terrible name to the rest of us.
They moved quicker to admit students to their seminary that practice an alternate life style,and to ordain women then are are doing to start this bizarre certification. Why?
Too many posters here forget that the big mitzvah of tikun olam is the raison de etre’ of this program.
They are PETA OSHA DEP DEC FBI IRS Labor Dept. all rolled into one and want you to pay for the privilege of having them visit.
I just don’t see this taking off a lot of my relatives aren’t frum but they try and keep kosher and buy only products that are ou and star k this certificate is for which jewish spectrum, the ones that don’t keep kosher at all or the ones that keep kosher and hold this isn’t a good hechser. It looks like a desperate attempt by the conservative movement for some money and attention.
8. Yes it’s nice to know that a company has good standards dealing with animals employees or others but is the product Kosher? That’s what really counts
This has nothing to do with fairness. It has everything to do with old socialist “ideals” that do not recognize the fact that an entrepreneur who creates simple jobs has the right to pay no more than the low end of market wages for those jobs. It also has everything to do with a moribund, wilted “branch” of “Judaism” trying to gain momentum again after decades of failure. It has nothing to offer, so it bashes real Judaism and introduces vapid 60s style programs that no one finds interesting.
Where does it say he is giving a kashrus hechsher? It is supposed to be a social hechsher on top of whatever outside kashrus hechsher the manufacturer wants. It is innocuous and not worthy of the derision here. As far as his beliefs go, I never investigated, as I never heard of him. I personally don’t go around investigating and insulting people, and try to deal bshalom with all. Nothing he has done here is bad, so I leave it at that.
The only question I have is that this could be applied to any business, such as electronics, etc., as has nothing to do with food per se.
#1 - conditions of employment are standards which are to be left out from kashrus regulations. It is a total different subject and shouldn’t be coupled with kashrus.
#2- a movement which is based on the denial of G-D and Torah MiSinai has no place in the lifestyle of people who the authentic Jewish traditions are their prime ethics
#3- someone trying to market conservatism amongst mainstream frummer yidden is out for the $$$$ and not achdus
We can make sure that his nonsense never gets any real traction:
1. ALL of our hashgachos, from the smallest local ones to the OU, OK, Star K, etc. must inform their customers that they will remove their kashrus certification if they include this symbol on their packaging.
2. Torah observant Jews must contact EVERY company imaginable and tell them that we will boycott any company that allows this nonsense to become part of their packaging.
It is not our job to go around from company to company (especially non-Jewish companies) and try to dictate their business practices. Kashrus should be something simple, easy, convenient and cost-effective for any company to jump on board with. If people like this phony “rabbi” think they are going try to force companies to put even MORE restrictions in place to appease “the Jews”, they will stop caring about kashrus altogether.
I applaud the idea of setting principles for companies to “live by”. I get it. Most of these things are good things, but don’t sell them as “Jewish”. If you want to start another form of a “better business bureau”, then go ahead… just don’t go around telling people it is what the “Jews” want… we don’t.
Great organazion
Dear Ms. Esther, when I was younger I heard the same kannaishe stuff from some of my Rebbeim. But the problem is that they make it seem like the purpose of Torah is for G-d’s self-aggrandizement. In my opinion, the RBSH is humble and only gave the Torah to make shalom between people. Since this movement is trying to do that and raise standards of ethics, it is the Ratzon Hashem. Yes, they should work on other mitzvos, as well, but that is a separate issue.