Heksher Tzedek Campaign

A Mendota Heights rabbi is leading a national campaign to create a new kind of kosher certification, one that is concerned with corporate ethics. Allen was faced with a contradiction at a meat packing plant that supplies meat to the Twin Cities Jewish Community. He then began the process of the heksher tzedek or justice certification. He believes it could affect the larger food system.

A dozen years ago, Rabbi Morris Allen stood before his congregation in this Twin Cities suburb to announce a program called Chew by Choice. As Conservative Jews, the members of his synagogue were bound by religious law to eat only kosher food, but as typical Americans, relatively few did so. So the rabbi asked them just to stop eating flagrantly impermissible foods like pork and shellfish as the first step toward fuller observance of the dietary strictures. (Courtesy of the New York Times, May 19, 2007)

For more information, go to rabbimorrisallen.blogspot.com.

Story submitted by Hilary Johnson