There is much to discuss about Rabbi Yoffie’s essay, “Orthodoxy’s Kosher Crises,” in this week’s Forward. I highly recommend reading the whole thing.

But I want to focus on an important point that I believe concerns Rabbi Yoffie among other issues about the Rubashkin scandal.

Over the course of the past five months, the American Jewish community has observed with dismay the gradual unfolding of the Agriprocessors scandal. Agriprocessors may be a private corporation, but as the nation’s leading producer of kosher meat, it is one that operates under the Jewish communal banner.

Its actions have been followed closely, not only by Jews such as myself who observe kashrut, but by all Jews — not to mention many in the broader American public.

There are two points here, and they are connected. First of all, while many liberal Jews do not keep kashrut like Rabbi Yoffie does, certainly some do. Additionally, many Jews who do not keep kosher the way the Orthodox understand it still keep some form of kashrut. This may mean a lot of different things. For instance, some Jews will eat things outside of the home that they do not bring into the home. Others, like my maternal grandmother, may she rest in peace, may also prefer to buy kosher products even if they aren’t necessarily committed to only kosher products. For instance, when my grandmother made chicken soup, she would seek out “a nice chicken.” A “nice” chicken was a kosher chicken.

Rabbi Yoffie wants to preserve and build on this. He wants Jews to have some association in their lives with kashrut.

Additionally, many liberal Jews have a general sense of striving to be “a light unto the nations.” When terrible things are tolerated in the kashrut industry – labor abuses that people like my social-democratic ancestors fought long and hard to eradicate in this country – this harms how Judaism is perceived by others. This in turn precipitates a deleterious effect on liberal Jewish identity and faith. Just as kashrut becomes difficult to defend, never mind champion, so do other aspects of Judaism connected to it. A mitzvah becomes an embarrassment.

It is Orthodox Judaism that is primarily responsible for our system of kosher supervision. And Orthodox Jews represent the largest single consumer base for the kosher meats produced by Agriprocessors. Therefore, the Orthodox community and its leaders have a particular responsibility for addressing the troubling questions that have been raised and for working to repair the damage that has been done[...]

In the meantime, the Jewish community faces a public crisis of major proportions. The scandal has raised basic questions about the ethical foundations of our religious tradition, about undue deference to the wealthy and about Jewish indifference to injustice in our midst.

Why didn’t the Orthodox care about the damage they were facilitating?

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