Magen Tzedek In the News

Holiness and Justice: A Fair Trade Approach to Keeping Kosher
Wednesday, November 14, 2007
by Hilary Johnson, LFTN board member
Fair Trade News

Rabbi Morris Allen, of Beth Jacob Congregation in Mendota Heights, MN, has been promoting kashrut, Jewish dietary laws, to his congregation for twenty years. He says that kashrut provides "a way in which we as Jews understand a daily opportunity to sanctify our lives, to create a sense of holiness and a sense of awareness of God in our lives." This consciousness means that Allen takes his food and its production seriously.

More than a year ago, Allen learned of labor abuses at an Iowa kosher meat processing plant that supplied the Twin Cities Jewish community. He was faced with a contradiction: The worker may slaughter an animal according to the laws of kashrut, but he or she may be underpaid and mistreated. What if the ritual is observed, but the ethics are undermined?

Eco-Kosher Fulfills Law On All Levels
September 6, 2007
by Alan Cooperman, The Washington Post, and Claudia Bayliss, Tribune Staff Writer
South Bend Tribune

First she had to find an organic cattle farm near home. Then a "shochet," a person trained in kosher slaughtering, who was willing to do a freelance job. Then a kosher butcher to carve the beef into various cuts, and other families from her synagogue to share it.

All told, it took Devora Kimelman-Block of Silver Spring, Md., 10 months to obtain 450 pounds of meat that is local, grass-fed, organic and strictly kosher. It was a lot of work...

Certifiably Ethical
September 6, 2007
by Michele Chabin - Israel Correspondent
The Jewish Week

Social action group offers seal of approval to hundreds of establishments with kosher business practices.

Jerusalem — When Anat Bibi, co-owner of the Anna Ticho House restaurant, recently remodeled her eatery’s spacious, serene garden, she made sure to include gently sloping ramps to accommodate strollers and patrons in wheelchairs.

“People are more aware of the need for accessibility and ask for it,” Bibi said, pointing to the garden’s multi-level deck, reachable by ramps. “Accommodating people's needs is good business, but it's also the right and ethical thing to do.

”Ethical kashrut, an idea that socially minded Jews in Israel and the U.S. have been advocating - with varying degrees of success - for decades, is finally catching on in Israel, largely thanks to a program run by the social-action organization Bema'aglei Tzedek (Circles of Justice).

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