Critical Kosher Theory
1. Without deception, the kosher industry would not be as ubiquitous as it is. Reasoning: the vast majority of the revenue feeding this religious enterprise comes mostly from outside Jewish congregations. Over five decades ago rabbis from kosher agencies claimed that they kept their hekhsher (kosher seal) unusually small so as not to offend non-Jewish consumers, and today they claim that they have no control over the size of kosher seals – even though they stipulate the strictest contracts. Our study suggests that a Deceptive Trade Practice is in play among the companies and agencies. We estimate that this enterprise would be entirely different, perhaps 5% or less of its current size, if completely run by religious volunteers from the congregations that observe Kashrus. We discovered that keeping consumers in the dark with little transparency and a lot of obscurity is key to sustaining and growing their business. Arguably, the kosher agencies can stipulate in contractual words a mandatory legibly sized hekhsher (kosher seal) to be displayed on labels with the morally correct addition of the bold text “KOSHER CERTIFIED”. But they don’t.
2. If label transparency was honest, kosher brands might lose business to #NKC products NOT Kosher Certified. Reasoning: Our surveys indicate that more than half of consumers desire no religious intervention in the production of their food or they desire a “higher” transparency indicated on the labeling when this is the case. If this group was “kosher aware” and if companies were legally forced to display large and clear kosher labeling, companies might opt for keeping away from kosher certification to access this greater share of the market. Of course, there are other factors pressuring companies to kosher-certify their goods that we are not privy to, for instance, distribution and supermarket management demands.
3. When dollar signs start entering the religious aspects of Kashrus, it is perverted with greed and corruption, even in “holy” Jerusalem. Reasoning: Israel’s ynetnews reveals a darker side of the kosher certification business occurring in the Jewish State itself. If such criminality can occur among the rabbis and inspectors in Jerusalem, then similar or worse conditions may exist in America where the kosher revenue is largely derived from outsiders of the Jewish congregations. This behavior was further leaked by professionals at the International Food Safety and Quality Network in their forum, and by Jewish journalists themselves at the New York Daily News.
4. Give ‘em an inch, they’ll take a mile. Reasoning: There are plenty of laws protecting the kosher-keeper, and plenty of IRS law that benefits religious organizations, but no laws protecting the consumer from religious groups co-opting secular businesses, instituting their particular rules and laws, and wringing out revenue from companies where consumers have no reason to suspect outside religious involvement. These consumers are unfairly being taken advantage of, and the parties involved in the kosher enterprise have shown no compassion or even tolerance for how they may feel regarding outside religious intervention in their secular livelihood. Further, given that approximately one million observant kosher keepers are actively buying kosher certified products with deceptively obscured transparency of kosher seals, their silence must be an admission that they find no shame in this religion-based fraud.
Looking back into history…
Jewish women rioted en masse in the early 1900s, resulting in national kosher laws across America protecting kosher-keepers. But kosher laws protecting kosher keepers were not good enough. Preferential IRS laws for religious organizations allow kosher agencies more protections by keeping their finances out of public scrutiny. It is one matter to have laws for protection of particular groups. It is another matter entirely to take advantage of people outside the specific religious community, especially where they are forced into becoming unwitting contributors to the financial gain of a religious congregation they do not belong to. This is immoral; it degrades religious freedom for the out-group. Most Americans perceive religious organizations as moral and honest, but here we find a business practice throughout the industrialized world that is tied directly to untouchable religious NGOs that do all within its power to conceal the facts from consumers.
Our very own Federal Trade Commission ignores whistle blowers on the kosher industry. As a result, as generous as the American government has been to accept religious pluralism and to accommodate protection for the kosher industry and kosher keepers, no effort is extended to protect the general consumer who is not a kosher keeper. The insiders of the kosher industry do not seem to have concerns for the out-group, consistently citing marketing data from pro-kosher associations.
5. When food companies contract with the kosher certification industry, there is a veil of silence that shrouds the details that its patrons inquire about. Reasoning: The companies won’t tell us, so we can’t tell you until an insider whistle blower appears on the scene. Our experience in confronting food companies with questions usually results in silence, or incredibly vague responses with little detail. Our educated presumption is that there are non-disclosure or confidentiality agreements contracted by the kosher agencies and food companies keeping the details in the dark.
6. Major efforts are undertaken to suppress “kosher awareness” from the public, but no efforts to curtail Talmudic “separatist” laws like Bishul Akum. Reasoning: Articles from the ADL and Reveal News magazine attempt to scare away inquisitive minds on The Kosher Question, but are they willing to look into OU Kosher’s own article on three post-Torah Kashrus proscriptions that enforce separation and xenopobia? Of course not.
After reading the article linked above by OU Kosher, “Bishul Akum: Playing with Fire,” a serious double standard is exposed with respect to the entire enterprise of kosher certification. Clearly, these religious experts prescribe that strict observers of the Kashrus dietary laws are to be highly exclusionary, to avoid gifts (like a meal “fit to be served at a royal table” or a bottle of wine) from members of outgroups as a measure to limit socialization, new friendships, and closer relationships. And yet the behavior of this industry is towards imposing its religious rules and dogma onto “others” outside their synagogues with little to no possibility of escape. If this industry was tolerant and fair to other religions and peoples, they would insist with the contracting food companies to produce equivalent products free from kosher certification, thus permitting choice. But they don’t, and so the whole application of these proscriptions within the kosher world is the ultimate hypocrisy.
7. Kosher Supremacy rules over America, and food companies are complicit in depriving #EQUITY to people of diverse faiths and identities. Reasoning: Synonyms of the word ‘Supremacy’ are Authority, Control, Predominance, and Hegemony. The kosher industry enjoys all of these, and more. There are no major churches, religious organizations or advocacy groups working on behalf of consumers and citizens who are against this practice of kosher certification. There is no equity and religious freedom for the vast majority. They are effectively marginalized. You will not find a kosher-certified product “X” and the same branded product “X” without kosher-certification for those consumers who would like to abstain from Jewish intervention.
8. It is easier and more profitable to co-opt existing industry and make it serve ancient particularism of Kashrus law than to build its own industry from scratch. Reasoning: History indicates that the Jewish community had the financial resources to fund an entrepreneurial and niche kosher food industry to serve specialty kosher markets and kosher sections of supermarkets or general stores. But this would have necessitated full funding by the Jewish community. By contracting directly with existing producers, the kosher community built a certification industry on mostly non-Jewish capital and have created a highly profitable enterprise. Of course, we don’t know how profitable it is, because that information is shrouded in secrecy.
9. Mammon rules. As society “progresses”, more secular companies submit and pay to implement ancient kosher law requirements, while few observe “Blue Laws” of old #Christian culture in Western Society that allowed a day for rest and worship. Reasoning: Businesses closed on Sundays in the 1960s and earlier because of local laws that eroded away in time. However, the practice was a religious and moral one serving the culture of the times. Today, all but Chick-Fil-A stores have shed this Sunday closing on economic grounds. But more and more companies are submitting to kosher agencies and their stipulations on ancient dietary laws. Early America was dominated by Christian morals and culture, especially by the early settlers. But this culture has been transformed, and it is clear that either we are living in a purely Judaized culture, or mammon is now running the show. Or both.
10. Ubiquitous kosher certification, as it currently is implemented, is a strategy that abuses the last vestige of moral fiber and good will that bind the American society. Reasoning: Edward Bernays, a Jewish man named as one of the top 100 influential Americans of the twentieth century by Life magazine, a nephew of Sigmund Freud, and an expert on public relations and propaganda, stated: “The conscious and intelligent manipulation of the organized habits and opinions of the masses is an important element in democratic society. Those who manipulate this unseen mechanism of society constitute an invisible government which is the true ruling power of our country.”
Well, one organized habit of Americans nationwide is buying kosher certified products, but 90% may not know it, and people generally don’t like being duped. What little mention there is in American news articles regarding kosher food is entirely positive, with none of the many downsides. One 1954 speech made by a member of the Daughters of the American Revolution (Mrs. Marian Strack) took aim at this business, and the press struck hard against her, silencing honest and balanced debate regarding all aspects of this matter. Our food culture and all the particular interests that this undisclosed kosher revenue feeds have been shaped by figures unseen to the public.
After nearly one century, food manufacturers refuse to produce equitable products free from kosher certification aside from their kosher-certified versions. Access to the national “free” marketplace will eventually be driven by submission to the dogmatic kosher agencies’ will.
As Ms. Bousquet sums up at the end of her masterpiece, From Kosher to Halal:
The accommodations described as ‘reasonable’ directly oppose the historic secularism model, the only guarantee of equality of treatment for all citizens. This project must rest on clear positions applicable to all issues of religious intrusion into civic and public space. No violations should have been tolerated, and should not be in the future. … We must, quite simply, determine the following: (1) What norms are acceptable for the public sphere (commerce)?, (2) What kind of practices should be relegated entirely to the private sphere? and (3) What norms demonstrably contravene animal welfare? [referring to controversial religious slaughter]. … The last word belongs to consumers.
Allow us to conclude with this brief comment: When the masses discover the schemes, the trust will be lost. But is #CriticalKosherTheory just one facet of a larger group evolutionary strategy? That remains to be answered.
This article originally appeared at the KosChertified? website—the go-to place for information on the kosher racket.
There are many reasons for boycotting Kosher products, but the most important one is the animal cruelty of Kosher slaughter methods. Just say NO!
Of course you are right. But it is no easy task to familiarize yourself with the dozens of deliberately varying logos on an already overcrowded label.
Gone are the days of the overt, discreet circle, merely indicating COR, standing for Council of Rabbis, # 52: delineating a designated, agreed-upon, defended, profitable region, like that of any other, similarly motivated godfathership.
Remember the erstwhile NYC, nascent wholesale, then primary producer kosher pig Sholom Rubashkin, his family and wellwishers: along with the 30+ millions local, defrauded banks [ based on fabricated Receivables proffered as collateral ], IRS, and sexually-abused, undocumented minors cheated of their meagre wages and forced into silence under threat to report them to ICE.
In other words: I have nothing new to add !
Is that the same Sholom Rubashkin whose sentence was commuted by Donald Trump? No surprise that the felon won support from more than 100 former U.S. attorneys general, judges and politicians, including former FBI Director Louis Freeh, to leave jail after only serving 8 years of a 27-year prison sentence.
Some people know people in high places.
Yes, the very same kosher-certified pig; CEO and son of Postville, Iowa Agriprocessors founder and recent Covid victim Aaron. When said pig returned to his sty in Brooklyn after his commutation, the verandah of his sty was a mass of Ultra-Orthodox hats, beards and wine-glasses.
Local Postville businesses remained unpaid, as did small supply farmers, underpaid workers’ benefits and salaries, small local banks [ 35 millions ] etc. , when the bankrupt firm was taken over by Mr. Friedman of Montreal for a mere 8 million, though an Israeli firm had bid 40 million, which offer was rescinded moments before the Friedman deal.
Even more swinish was the behavior of the US judiciary in all its functions. Not so much “whom” you know as ” what you have on available, purpose-made videos “.
” Why us ??????” Well !!!!!!!!!
This article explains.
https://www.darkmoon.me/2017/trump-pardons-racist-criminal-jewish-fanatic/
Thanks, excellent link, including additional, worthwhile video disclosures:
01 Of Chabad-born, Zionist, hasbara instructor Dershowitz, the macher between the Community at large and Trump; and,
02 contrary to my too modest description of celebrations on his verandah, celebrations involving thousands around the world; and
03 in his own words, videoed assertions, that the prosecution was in part engendered by anti-Semitism; and
04 a video, in de rigueur sumptuous banquet surroundings and dozens of highly-placed, vote-peddling Jews, in which he appeals to a Black female Congresswoman, for Justice Reform [ Light unto the Nations ]; at the door-sill of BLM; and
05 that he was a Chabad Rabbi and friend [ of Oval Office habitue — Rabbi of Rabbis ] Schneerson; and
06 of course, the 40 million Israeli rescinded offer for the bankrupt firm was 32 million less for the bankruptcy judge to distribute, given the accepted 8 million Montreal offer. A win-win for the tribe.
In many cases, there are almost no substitutes for ‘kosher’ foods … virtually all prepared foods in grocery stores have a kosher label.
And it’s not just food … look at baking soda or rubbing alcohol or any number of products … all have the devil’s symbol on them.
We lived in SEA in the ’90s and had several favorite restaurants in the Seattle/Tacoma area. One family friend of ours owned a strictly vegetarian restaurant … of an ethnic type … and the local rabbis came to them and told them that they had to become kosher — it would cost them about $15,000 for their kitchen and dishes to get redone — and then the ongoing bribes for someone to ‘supervise’ their food prep. They were told that if they didn’t submit, the rabbis would then publicize this restaurant and its owners as Nazis.
Also in the ’90s, the WSJ ran an article about how one certification group went to a large US manufacturer of tin cans — the kind used for food — and told the that they’d have to become ‘kosher’. The company tried to refuse — the jews again threatened the dreaded ‘N’ word — and the company caved soon thereafter. The annual co$t was originally $900,000 per year to get and keep their ko$her certification … Lord only knows what it is today.
The ko$her certification is one of the biggest and least visible taxes on food and other products and services in the US … after all, who ever saw a rabbi take a vow of poverty?
You are getting perilously close to the ‘cash root’ of the variously-spelled kashrus.
Long ago, a student told me that in the part of Palestine occupied by East Europeans who call themselves Jews, pig farms were built on supports 18 inches long so that they were not in the land of Israel.
The meat produced was called “White Meat” and was eaten by the East Europeans.
In the Negev Desert there was a concentration camp with 35,000 Palestinian prisoners. After the sand had heated up some of the prisoners were made to stand for hours with bare feet which meant they had to run on the spot for hours.
They were given White Meat in spite of being Moslems.
I would be pleased to hear any confirmation of this.
The East European and the Palestinian who told me this came from good families.
So much for Eastern (and now “Western”) Jews and their Kosher nonsense if this is true.
Most of today’s jews are descended from converts and not the Biblical Jews.
Kosher meat should never be purchased, because of the inhumane nature of kosher slaughter. If you insist on eating meat and are not in a position to raise your own livestock, buy from local producers who you know treat their animals well.
I try to buy in bulk or unpackaged/fresh food to avoid the kosher tax. Often, a store brand will not have the seal as will smaller producers. I also make my own yogurt.
How about doing what famous Jew, Saul Alinsky, would do to destroy someone or something that he perceived as evil.
Start a rumor.
Kosher Foods Cause Cancer.
There are many such burdens on our commerce and cost of living. One example is the requirement for title insurance on real property subject to a mortgage loan, with title searches having been done over and over again, since the Louisiana Purchase. Why should the buyer pay for title insurance for the fiftieth time?
The Kosher/Halal processes should be documented in detail, publicly accessible. What is it that makes a bottle of spring water kosher? Is there a process for preparation and packaging, or is it only the payment of fees to a priesthood that periodically performs sacred rites? In religion, the selling of spiritual benefits is the sin of simony.
Especially in meat processing there should be a demonstrable difference between kosher and non-kosher product, by taste test, bacteria count, hormone and antibiotic residue, durability in storage, appearance, any factor that is measurable. How is holy water different from tap water?
A by now admittedly elderly and fragile friend assured me, that he was present when Moses neared the Burning Bush.
He was momentarily puzzled by Moses pulling off a few feet of Reynold’s Aluminum Wrap, which was already certified kosher; until Moses had understandably protected his pubic hair. Honest Injen !
are they going to put a big non-kosher label on the covid vaccine?word on the street is that it might be full of shark oil.i will have to look up leviticus but i am told non-scaly fish arent kosher