Reflecting on Judaism

On the 8th June 2007 an article written by Rabbi Harvey Belovski, an Oxbridge Graduate, Rav at the Golders Green United Synagogue, appeared in the Jewish Chronicle headed ‘Beware. This fish is kosher style’. The thrust of the article was, when arranging a simcha one should engage only kosher caterers otherwise whilst “Of course, it is possible that everything served is actually kosher, but this is highly improbable”. I wrote to Rabbi Belovski as follows:-

Dear Rabbi Belovski,

How are you? I hope that you are keeping well. I have visited your community a couple of times since you joined them and congratulate you on revitalising it. However, I must say that I found your article in the JC of the 8th June '07 very disappointing. It appeared to be more of an advert for Kosher caterers that an attempt to educate people. In the words of politicians, I would like to enter into a meaningful discussion with you.

I think that I would like to start by reminding you of the 'highly respected' religious leader, a leading wholesaler of kosher meat in the State of New York, who, it was recently discovered, had been selling treifa meat, for the past ten years or so, to his customers all over the State. I should also like to remind you of a more recent story regarding a 'respected' wholesale kosher meat supplier in Israel, caught in the act of importing treifa meat from the West Bank, with the intention of selling it on as kosher. He lost his licence. The reaction of my Israeli friends was that he is not the first such wholesaler to be so caught. The question then is, how much treifa meat gets through and sold as kosher?

Again, a leading supermarket was caught selling treifa sausages as kosher some years ago in Israel. And let us recall the number of kosher butchers in the UK who, over the years, have had their licences revoked, not to mention the horror stories told to me by my rabbi friends in the UK; those that are in the know. When I was last in Paris there were two lists fixed on the entrance wall of the synagogue, the first giving the names of new kosher licensees, the second, the names of those who had recently lost their licences.

I am sorry to go on like this, but when you eliminate, as you did, this or that product because of a possible doubt then I suggest that logically, kosher meat should also be eliminated for the same reason. The Kosher meat trade is now big business and where there is big money there is corruption. Where does this leave your kosher meat and catering trade?

You mentioned the large number of kosher caterers in areas with large Jewish communities but where was your advice for the smaller communities? And your advice for those who live on a limited budget? I would respectfully suggest that some of your statements were far too sweeping and I would be happy to discuss them with you if you have the patience.

My wife and I have never arrange a simcha that was not under supervision but we do eat in vegetarian establishments, as we have done for the past 60 years plus, something that currently orthodox rabbis frown upon. This was not always the case for in years gone by we met many rabbis and reverends, and their families, in such places including the mother of Rabbi Dr. Solomon Schonfeld. Never once was there even a whisper that the food was anything but 'kosher' i.e. acceptable within Jewish dietary laws. In fact they are more 'kosher' than us for they would not eat kosher cheese made with animal rennet (maybe not even Mars bars) and they certainly would not eat salads with 'bugs' in them. Can you imagine firms like Waitrose or Tesco, who employ thousands of staff, placing the vegetarian symbol on their products if it were not true? They employ thousands of staff, one of whom would certainly shop them if they felt that they had cause .And there is little, if any, room or need here for corruption. An ideal compromise for the smaller communities.

I received an acknowledgement from Rabbi Belovski in which he thanked me for my compliments about the development of Golders Green Synagogue, which he appreciated. He also thanked me for my comments about Kashrut which he noted with interest. While he could not agree with many of them, he will certainly bear them in mind.

On reflection, I think that Rabbi Belovski’s article has far wider ramifications than just the catering of Jewish smachot for it impinges on the lives of many observant Jews, as I will try to show below. He barely distinguished between non-kosher and unsupervised. He defamed some caterers by stating that unsupervised smachot may possibly, but highly improbably, be kosher. What is the basis for believing that a high proportion of unsupervised caterers who claim to be kosher are dishonest and fraudulent? He enumerated a list of conditions which he says must apply if the food is not to be considered treif. In this he reflects the strict official line, with which many observant Jews, even those that he personally would consider observant, would find it difficult to live with if applied to situations where there is need for a lenient approach.

Rabbi Belovski has no difficulty living up to his stated standards. I assume that he goes from home to shool to any place where he teaches and where nothing other than kosher food is offered. If he is invited out to eat there is a kosher restaurant next door. No problem. But supposing that Rabbi Belovski were a business or professional man with important connections all over the world, constantly moving around, visiting places where there are no kosher restaurants. Or suppose he was based in the UK and is invited to attend important meetings, stretching over several days, in towns where there are no kosher restaurants. In either situation what would he do about breakfast, lunch, tea and dinner?

The intention of this article is not intended to encourage people to eat treifa food. It is intended to help people to avoid eating treifa food in circumstances where there is no supervised or strictly vegetarian food available. I know of one undoubtedly observant Jew, a pillar of an orthodox kehillah in Israel, who carries sheets of foil with him when travelling overseas. When eating out he asks for the chef and orders fish, known to be kosher, to be grilled on the foil with no added dressings. He knows that the glazed plates and the steel cutlery are all machine-washed at a high temperature so that there is scope for leniency.

Before I retired I, too, worked in a business environment and put my problem of eating out to a well known orthodox rabbi. He advised that so long as I ate cold uncooked food, such as fruit, salads, cheese or smoked salmon I would not be committing a great transgression. But I suppose that was before the days when people, including rabbis, were constantly looking over their shoulder. The advice given to me should be made known to congregants, many of whom, but probably not the majority, do as I was advised to do, in any event.

One of the points which Rabbi Belovski made is that in preparing food hundreds of ingredients are used, some of which may not be kosher. This statement is unlikely to be true if one follows the advice that I was given about eating cold uncooked food etc. and in any event, as we have seen from the recent discussion concerning Mars Bars, there is room for leniency within the halachah.

The manufacturers of Mars Bars announced that they now contain rennet derived from non-kosher animals. The Manchester Bet Din withdrew its approval but the London Bet Din has not done so on the grounds that the amount of rennet included is negligible. They may also have had in mind the fact that in the course of processing the rennet, its original non-kosher ‘structure’ had changed. If a negligible amount of rennet from a non-kosher animal does not make the Mars Bars treif, what can be wrong with cheese made with vegetable, not animal, rennet?

Their decision is in keeping with the report of the late Dayan Grossnass of the London Bet Din, following his investigation into ordinary gelatine and who reported that, because its original structure had been changed, it did not offend our dietary laws.

Some years ago, about summer holiday time, I was chatting with a warden of a United Synagogue. I mentioned to him that many of his members would be taking their holiday in overseas non-kosher hotels and cruises and asked whether he did not think that it would be a good idea if the Minister gave a talk on how to avoid eating absolute treifa food whilst away. I doubted whether he would be able to persuade them to cancel their holiday. I was surprised and pleased that the Minister did so and his advice ran along the lines I outline above. Eating out has virtually become an unavoidable fact for people in many walks of life and they need to be guided. Who, other than the Minister, is best suited to guide them?

Another comment by Rabbi Belovski, in his newspaper article, implied, probably correctly, that celebrants who served non-kosher food showed that their Jewish commitment to a real Jewish affair was negligible. Again, his comment did not distinguish between non-kosher and unsupervised and I would like to suggest that his comment is not necessarily correct when applied to unsupervised caterers. Costs may play a part.

Three weeks after Rabbi Belovski’s article appeared in the Jewish Chronicle, the newspaper produced a three page spread discussing Jewish weddings. The paper had contacted a number of supervised kosher caterers and found that, of those approached, the cheapest charged £75 per head whilst the most expensive charged £130 per head. The total cost of such a wedding, they said, can amount from £30.000 to £40,000 including flowers, venue and drinks, compared to the average cost in the UK of a non Jewish wedding of £6,200.

The newspaper also noted that there were other cheaper options available, included functions catered by some local synagogue’s Ladies Guilds at a cost of about £5,000 or alternatively, buying a prepared 3 course meals from take-away kosher caterers for about £18 per head but this second option involves a great deal of do-it-yourself. Neither of these two options fulfil the dream of most newly- weds.

So the reason for people not using supervised kosher caterers may well be the high cost and not an indifference to Jewish dietary laws as Rabbi Belovski suggests. For celebrants who use unsupervised kosher caterers, honestly believing that the food is kosher, this cheaper alternative is attractive. For those who can afford £30,000+ for a simcha, good luck to them.

The United Synagogue’s Kashrut division is, I believe, a profitable organisation. Some thought should be given by it, one of whose prime objectives ought to be to discourage people from eating treif, to see how they can help those who cannot afford the high cost of supervised functions. Perhaps some of its profit should be used to acquaint our students with the fundamentals of not eating treif. Many of them travel to the far corners of the earth during their summer holidays or gap-year, to places where there may be no kosher facilities.

I know Rabbi Belovsky as an amiable and approachable person. I trusted that he would find my comments of interest. I sent the whole of the above essay to him on the 27th July as a matter of courtesy, and in reply he wrote that whilst my efforts are greatly appreciated he did not agree with my advice about eating out. He continued:-

“I repeat what I said in the original article: multi-ingredient products are highly problematic and must be assumed to be treif without information to the contrary. Unsupervised cheese is not kosher. Salads, especially leafy vegetables, are frequently infested with insects, and therefore cannot be eaten without careful prior inspection. Gelatine manufactured from non-kosher animals is not kosher according to most halachic authorities. You cannot wish these basic, uncontentious halachic facts away, neither with polemic nor by invoking (undoubtedly true) anecdotal evidence to the contrary. Advising people to eat these products is simply misleading them.
For those travelling, I suggest they try the following:
Salad made from raw fruit (except berries) cut with a clean knife, served on any clean plate.
Salad made from raw tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, carrots, mushrooms, served on any clean plate. No dressing.
Tinned tuna, salmon, sardines, pilchards, etc, served on any clean plate.
One may double-wrap (use two layers of foil or similar) any kosher food (e.g. fish and vegetables) for heating in a non-kosher oven. The food should then be eaten from a disposable plate (or, in extremis, using the outer layer of foil as a plate once the package is unwrapped) using disposable cutlery.
I hope this is of some help”.
Best wishes
Rabbi Belovski

I acknowledged Rabbi Belovski’s letter on the 29th July, generally along the following lines:-

Dear Rabbi Belovski,
I write to you in peace and goodwill and thank you for your message which I will be adding to my essay verbatim, starting from 'I repeat' (See above). I will be circulating it within a few days and I will send you a copy. Any disagreement between us is l'shaim Shamaiyim.

I think that I am not misleading people. If my anecdotes are true then they should not be dismissed but should be developed. Our Halachah is replete with lenient rulings which many of today's rabbis are reluctant to use. Stringency is fashionable but it is unhelpful if we want to encourage people to avoid eating treif food whilst they are out and about. Two examples of areas where it is possible to be lenient are bread and cheese which, together with a bit of salad, makes a simple kosher meal, readily available, in many part of the world.

I am fully aware that you know the contents of the Shulchan Aruch much better than I. It contains one paragraph which expressly permits the use of bread made by a gentile if one is satisfied that all is in order. In fact a rabbi in my yeshiva Eitz Chayyim (it seems like a hundred years ago) always bought his bread from a gentile on a Sunday because he was worried that a Jewish baker may have started his preparation on Shabbat. Bread is part of a staple diet but you make no mention of it in your advice to the wandering Jew. Why not?
A possible reason for you not mentioning such bread is that, perhaps, you did not think of it but had you thought of it would you have mentioned it?

Firms such as Waitrose, Tesco, Sainsbury, all sell bread marked 'suitable for vegetarians' and they almost certainly employ Muslims and Hindus in its production. Many Muslims will eat meat-derivatives extracted only from Halal meat whilst many Hindus will not even touch meat. Can you imagine their outcry if they found that the vegetarian markings were untrue? The firms would be shopped immediately. Not to mention the Law of the Land regarding mis-representation.

I have a Shulchan Aruch, with commentaries written by Rosh Yeshiva Rabbi Gersion Appel, in which he discusses cheese made with the rennet of a non kosher animal and states that there is a minority opinion which holds that it is acceptable to us (just like Mars Bars) but that we should try not to use it. Further, how is it possible to have supervised kosher cheese, made with animal rennet derived from a kosher animal, when the mixing of milk and meat is itself forbidden? Again the rabbis’ answer is that in the course of processing the rennet, its original ‘meat structure’ had changed and it is therefore acceptable for use in the kosher cheese making process. How much more so should even unsupervised cheese made with vegetarian rennet be acceptable?

Rabbi Appel’s lenient approach was implemented during the Second World War, when vegetarian rennet was either unknown or barely known, and when most foods in the UK were heavily rationed. The Jewish authorities negotiated with the government to allow Jews an extra ration of ordinary unsupervised cheese in exchange for the bacon ration.

Rabbi Belovski is very strict about multi-ingredient products. He wrote; “I repeat what I said in the original article: multi-ingredient products are highly problematic and must be assumed to be treif without information to the contrary. He recommends that we avoid them. I am not sure what he means by ‘multi-ingredient’ but I guess that he is referring to the ingredients listed on a packet of food following the list of main ingredients. But is this a major problem?

If the packet is marked ‘Suitable for vegetarians’ why should we assume that the manufacturers wish deliberately to mislead us? If by chance the manufacturers did not know the origins of the multi-ingredients then there are the following possibilities.

According to comments made by the late Chief Rabbi Jakobivitz, made during an address given by him to the Bar Ilan Univerity in 1974, today’s rabbis are peer-pressured to relinquish their authority and conform to the rulings of other, so called, greater authority. In which case how can we really know what a true minority or minority opinion is?

When it comes to the expensive kosher meat industry, employing many well paid officials, the authorities cannot guarantee that our meat is kosher. We know that on more than a few occasions the Jewish public were cheated and their supervised ‘kosher’ meat was found to be positively treif. Nevertheless, Rabbi Belovski does not recommend supervised kosher meat be excluded from our diet even though we may well be, and probably will be, cheated again in the future. This, I suggest, is our real problem.

So on balance, food marked ‘suitable for vegetarians’ is likely to be as kosher as supervised food. A friend has reminded me that after the war, Rabbi Dr Epstein, Principal of Jews’ College, lunched at the vegetarian restaurant Sheams, in Tottenham Court Rd., all the Rabbis went to vegetarian hotels during their annual holiday in the Three Weeks and if possible in the Nine Days since they couldn’t eat meat (even kosher) at that time.

The above includes examples of how our rabbis are able to give lenient rulings. Generally, the only way that an ordinary member of the community may be able to get a lenient ruling today is to ask a close friend who is also a rabbi.