Butchers file injunction in kosher lawsuit

By · July 31, 2008

Two kosher butchers filed a motion to stop the state of New York from enforcing its kosher laws.

The motion, filed Monday in U.S. District Court in Manhattan, is the latest twist in a suit aimed at reversing New York laws that seem to favor Orthodox kosher certifiers.

Brian and Jeffrey Yarmeisch, brothers who run a kosher establishment on Long Island, consider certain unmarked foods like frozen vegetables to be kosher – a practice allowed by most Conservative rabbis and opposed by Orthodox ones.

Under New York law, only products labeled as kosher can be sold as kosher. The Yarmeisch brothers are in violation of the law by selling prepared foods with a kosher label that have unmarked ingredients.

An affidavit submitted by Rabbi William Berman, a Conservative rabbi who certifies the Yarmeisches’ food, claims the state is favoring one Jewish denomination over another, The New York Jewish Week reported.

“The state is infringing upon the religious freedom of the non-Orthodox denominations/sects of Judaism by compelling [them] to adhere to the law requiring labels on all kosher food products,” said Berman’s affidavit.

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Robert Jay Dinerstein

01/17/09 08:12 PM

The story gives a curious slant to the “facts”.misrepresents one of the most significant facts.

If you aren’t already paying enough for kosher food be prepared for price increases as purveyors of kosher foods must purchase/print “labels” and spend the time affixing the labels; a preposterous requirement since every purveyor representing that it sells kosher food must post a notice identifying under whose hashgacha it operates, how often the mashgiach supervises [for those without a mashgiach temidi], and the mashgiach’s “background”.,

Last time I checked Pirkei Avot told us to find for ourselves a rabbi and it is our rabbi’s determination as to whether the hashgacha is acceptable. If the hashgacha is acceptable, what is the need for a label..

It is suspected that no purveyor of kosher food adheres to having every product bear a label identifying it as kosher [ever buy a sandwich to go. Surveys of some of the most respected purveyors of kosher foods, establishments with indisputable adherence to stringent rules of kashrut, reflect that they sell kosher food without the statutorily required label. .

In this regard it is important to note that there is no provision of the law which provides that heckshers constitute the required label. Of course, according to Kashrus Magazine, there are now well in excess of 900 heckshers and, if the purpose of the labeling law is to give consumers notice that something is kosher, few if any consumers can recognize most, much less all, heckshers . More to the point, very few of the heckshers state, in English, Hebrew, Yiddish or otherwise, that the product to which the hecksher is affixed is kosher - the statutory requirement..

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