The above article is based on a press release by the so called hekhsher tzedek group. This group comprises a few activists from Chicago who set up schemes wherever they go during their university years, in the hope of eventually making a living from this line of business. They are not interested in having dangerous additives removed from food, because that would cross the FDA. They are not interested in promoting healthier sources of food, because that would cross the agro-chemical conglomerates. Neither do they know enough science to do that. Instead they decide what they consider 'ethical'. The corruption in the food business is legendary: just read 'Not On The Label by Felicity Lawrence to get an idea of its scale. But these activists are not interested in taking on the world-wide or even nation-wide problem. For them it's sufficient to deal with the Jews by blackmailing organisations that supervise kosher food. At last the Conservative movement has found something to bash Orthodox Jews with, and they appear to have jumped on the band-wagon.

Ynet has promoted the Conservative "kashrut" "authorities" by displaying the The Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations kashrut symbol to introduce this article. I'm a teeny bit suspicious that The Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations will seriously object. Testimony to ynet's knowledge of Judaism. Paqid Yirmeyahu Paqid 16, The Netzarim, Ra'anana, Israel Israeli Torah-reverer (& Orthodox Jew) Advocate for Logic as Hermeneutic Halakhic Authority Welcoming All Torah-reverers (Jews & non-Jews)

no one can think of any reason why they should be conservative (why belong to a jewish movement where no one actaully believes in judaism?) - so the conservative leadership uses any ploy they can think of: women rabbis, homosexual rabbis, "ethical kashrut" in the hope of getting people to think they are relevent. but in the end, they are still a dead movement because they can try to fake it all they want (e.g. devinely inspired bologna etc) - but in the end, they are aetheists. and no one wants to pray at an aetheist synagogue.

Who cares what they do. The people who take Kosher issues seriously don't care about the conservative tantrums, and conservatives don't take kasherut seriously. I will come up with my own Hechsher... Same validity.

With that plant, it was like corruption and cruelty and breaking laws and money lots of money. It finally did get shut down and the people involved will face justice. Now if it happens again, people will perhaps start calling for a ban on Kosher slaughter altogether. So it's not wise to sit back and just do nothing. What would people say afterwards, that they didn't know?

The Rabbi who is heading this so called Heksher Tzedek, Morris Allen eats in non kosher restaurants in the Twin Cities where he lives.. How can he give a Hekshser to anything

How disgusting are so many of these talk-backers... speaking about and impugning people and a movement they know nothing about. What a chilul Hashem. Where is the Ahavat Yisrael? Where is the caring to put Kashrut back into its moral stand, instead of into the depths of commercialism and hypocrisy that the Kosher food industry can now be found? To accuse this wonderful, caring group of the very things that Kosher industry has perpetrated is pure hypocrisy. Perhaps they are preparing their Al Chayts for this Yom Kippur. Shame.

that was used to promote this article. Ynet needs to send "thank you" cards to their editors at large.

Those people believe that anybody but them (Orthodox) are not Jews, period. However, in the 1940's the nazis didn't distinguish between them, and then they were equals, taken to the slaughter together.

like #7 - they usually mean love for every Jew that doesn't observe Torah, and hatred for those that do. The group concerned can be found on their website http://www.utzedek.org/whoweare.html so don't say we don;t know what/who they are. They are simply trying to blackmail Jewish businesses, whilst ignoring infringements by non-Jewish businesses.

I know Rabbi Morris Allen personally and have eaten with him at several of the aformentioned non-kosher restaurants. I also happen to know that he is a vegetarian and has been for decades. While 'al pi hahalach' (whatever that means) even eating strictly vegetarian in non-kosher restaurants is still 'not kosher' (issues of dishes, where the food was prepared etc) I suspect that even Orthodox observers of kashrut would find this less halachically problematic than eating mamash treif at the same restaurants. I don't understand the uproar from the Orthodox community to be honest. No one at Hechsher Tzedek is trying to give a seal of kashrut. On the contrary. What HT is trying to do is expand the narrow definition of kashrut from being only about how an animal is slaughtered, food ingredients and dishes to be about the way in which said food is produced and reaches us. In other words HT is making sure that in the performance of one mitzvah we aren't committing an aveirah! Surely the Orthodox would not take issue that workers should be paid a living wage (parshat kedoshim I think) and work in safe environments. Not to mention being concerned with animal welfare (tsa'ar ba'alei chaim), protecting our environment (le-ovdah ule-shomrah) and a long list of other things advocated by HT that aside from being ethical by any standard in the western world are also mitzvot deoraita. Why does it threaten them so much to observe the mitzvot? It should also be noted that the OU as the main hechsher authority in the US will not contest HT. That should tell us something. Kol HaKavod to Rabbi Morris Allen, the HT Commission and anyone who supports evolution in Jewish practice as opposed to stagnation and regression.

I think people have the mindset, with regards to plants like this, that this is my religion and this is what I have to put up with. It's like no you don't. You are not stuck with this. Things can be done better. Not trying is not a valid excuse. It's like needing to get out of that mindset.

where is your yiras shamoyim? These people are trying to achrayus for the flaws of our kashrus community. Instead of codemning them and their supposed theolgy, which you clearly know nothing about, why not comend them for their efforts. What rubashkins did in the name of Judaism and Torah Values is being corrected for the true spirit of Torah values by this board from the conservative movement. Leave the politics out and take a look at the facts.