Two Ordinary Jews confirm the existence of the Kosher Food Tax
The Jewish Telegraph (1) currently has two letters up from its jewish readership which concern the Kosher Food Tax issue and the fact that kosher food is unwittingly subsidised by non-jews. As the Jewish Telegraph page does not operate on a separate URL I have taken the liberty of reprinting these letters in full below:
‘Kashrut Threat
The laws just passed by the European Union which state that kosher meat must now be labelled as "unstunned" is just the thin end of the wedge.
Kosher meat prices will have to be increased as the parts of the animal usually sold to the non- Jewish market will be unsaleable because of the enforced labelling.
Will brit mila (2) be the next focus of their attack on our treasured Jewish values?
Why are so many billions of our taxes being donated by the European Parliament to the Palestinians, who are using the money to buy rockets and arms to attack our beloved Israel?
Coming out of Europe would not only be a huge financial benefit to our country but would ensure that our Jewish heritage, as well as shechita, will cease to be threatened.
Peter Redstone,’ (3)
And:
‘Expensive Pesach (4)
Pesach is over, but once again the cost of keeping kosher rears its ugly head.
When is someone going to tackle this constantly recurring subject?
Pesach this year seems to have been more extortionate than ever. And before the "dedicated" reach for their pens to advise me I don't have to buy any "unnecessary luxuries", I don't think eight days on matzo and butter and only the bare essentials is a very attractive proposition.
If you have children and grandchildren, it's nice to be able to offer a drink of orange juice and perhaps a bit of chocolate!
The inescapable fact is that in the not-too-distant future, kosher food in general - and Pesach in particular - will become the exclusive domain of the committed (for whom no sacrifice is too great) and the wealthy, (for whom any amount can be spent without jeopardising anything else).
The rest are going to find themselves with some difficult choices.
People will tell me "supervision" is expensive. Do we have hoards of hibernating shomrim (5) worldwide who suddenly make an appearance pre-Pesach to possibly earn large amounts in a few weeks?
Our rabbonim (6) have no qualms about standing in the pulpit exhorting the congregation to donate for the needy who can't afford to make Pesach.
Why don't they exhort the retailers to reduce their prices, take less profit and make it easier for people to be able to keep kosher?
Let's not leave it too late.
Dennis Fisher,’ (7)
Readers will remember my recent article ‘The Rabbinical Council of Europe admits to the Kosher Food Tax’ (8) where I discussed the implicit admittance of the reality of the Kosher Food Tax in relation to kosher slaughter houses (using the methods of Shechita) by the Rabbinical Council of Europe and its - unfortunately for him - outspoken spokesman: Rabbi Arye Goldberg. We may deduce further evidence for the reality of the Kosher Food Tax from these two letters on this general subject by ordinary jews who are both (implicitly) complaining that the non-jews are getting out of line for having the gall to ask the jews to actually inform them when they are trying to sell them waste meat from the Shechita slaughtering process as meat that had been humanely slaughtered according to our goyische standards.
Redstone is predictably trying to take the moral high ground by telling us that it is an implicit anti-Semitic conspiracy - ‘the thin end of the wedge’ - by the European Union against its jewish population to ask the jews to label the waste products of inhumane Shechita slaughtering process as such. He amusingly complains that Shechita waste product will be ‘unsaleable’ to non-jews if it is actually labelled as such rather than merely pawned off to non-jews as humanely slaughtered meat when that isn’t the case.
Redstone then promptly hoists himself by his own petard - much as the Rabbinical Council of Europe did in their response on this issue to Ynet - when he maintains that his primary motivation for concern is not the implication that the kosher food industry - and by extension a large portion of the jewish community - have been committing a form of quasi-legal fraud against non-jews for years, but rather that this somewhat truthful labelling (‘unstunned’ is hardly the same as ‘ritually-slaughtered’ now is it Peter?) will cause jews to have to pay more for the meat that they choose to eat because it has been slaughtered according to the laws of Kashrut.
Woe betide jews actually abiding by market forces! Instead they want everyone to subsidize their meat prices and by extension their institutions!
Redstone promptly recommends removing the United Kingdom from the European Union post haste to preserve ‘jewish tradition’ against this implicit anti-Semitic conspiracy.
Oy vey… it’s a Nazi conspiracy!
Perhaps Redstone would like to tell us why he thinks jewish meat should be subsidized by lying by omission to non-jews about its origin?
Fisher in contrast to Redstone is more sedate and reasonable, but he too implicitly notes the issue of the Kosher Food Tax by telling us that if this European Union bill is passed into law then:
‘The inescapable fact is that in the not-too-distant future, kosher food in general - and Pesach in particular - will become the exclusive domain of the committed (for whom no sacrifice is too great) and the wealthy, (for whom any amount can be spent without jeopardising anything else).’ (9)
So in essence what Fisher is saying is that kosher food is just getting too expensive for the jews who aren’t well off and those who aren’t obsessed with it (‘the committed’ (10)) so if a jew would like to keep kosher - but doesn’t feel he simply must do so - then a jew will buy and consume the cheaper treif rather than the more expensive food.
Fisher also implicitly blames the Kosher Food Tax for this when he asserts:
‘People will tell me "supervision" is expensive.’ (11)
What ‘supervision’ means in this context - for those unfamiliar with the complex laws of Kashruth - is the fact that in order for a jew to be confident that a foodstuff or good has been prepared in accordance with the laws of Kashrut the process has to be periodically ‘inspected’ and/or ‘supervised’ by a rabbinical body - such as the Orthodox Union - which then once they are satisfied with the process allow their brand of certification to be used on the packaging to let observant jews know that they have confirmed that the production process - if it was followed correctly - was completely in line with the laws of Kashruth. The level of difficulty in - and requirements for - gaining this certification differs drastically between rabbinical organisations with the more difficult adhering to a stricter interpretation of the laws of Kashrut.
In general commercial organisations will tend to plump for one of the stricter interpretations because it allows more observant jewish customers to ‘feel safe’ in the knowledge that they are purchasing goods are kosher (as the less observant will equally take the certification of the stricter - as well as the less strict - rabbinical kosher certification organisations).
This certification process is paid for by fees to the rabbinical organisations responsible which are presumably charged on either a fixed tariff or as an hourly rate per ‘consulting rabbi’. The cost of this is then passed onto the consumer: this disparity between the cost price and the cost price plus rabbinical supervision charges is called the Kosher Food Tax. Its existence has long been denied by ‘jewish defence’ organisations such as the Anti-Defamation League of B’nai Brith (who claim it is an ‘anti-Semitic myth’), but Fisher, Redstone and the Rabbinical Council of Europe have now all asserted by implication that it does exist and is widely known inside the jewish community.
So what is a jew to do?
Charge them all with being ‘self-hating jews’?
References
(1) http://www.jewishtelegraph.com/
(2) ‘Brit Mila(h)’ literally means ‘Covenant of Circumcision’.
(3) http://www.jewishtelegraph.com/
(4) ‘Pesach’ means the jewish festival of Passover.
(5) ‘Shomrim’ literally means ‘[Moral] Guardians’ and refers to those jews who take it upon themselves to act as the ‘morality police’ (New Yorkers may recognise these in the form of the ‘modesty patrols’ in Hasidic dominated jewish neighbourhoods) of the jewish community.
(6) ‘Rabbonim’ is a more general plural form of ‘Rabbis’.
(7) http://www.jewishtelegraph.com/
(8) S
(9) http://www.jewishtelegraph.com/
(10) I am of the general opinion that Fisher here is really referring to the concept of frum (‘piety/pious’) jews rather than merely those who are ‘committed’ as it just doesn’t quite fit otherwise.
(11) http://www.jewishtelegraph.com/