Tav HaYosher

Lipowsky, Josh. "Kosher Restaurants Put Ethical Standards on the Menu." New Jersey Jewish Standard. 18 June 2010.

Kosher diners are starting to think about what goes on behind the counters where they eat, according to the Orthodox ethics organization Uri L’Tzedek. Three Bergen County restaurants have thus far signed up for the organization’s year-old ethical kashrut seal and a fourth will be announced later this month.

Rabbi Shmuly Yanklowitz, then a student at Yeshivat Chovevei Torah in Riverdale, N.Y., founded Uri L’Tzedek as a response to the 2008 immigration raid at the Agriprocessors kosher meat plant in Iowa. The organization unveiled the Tav HaYosher — the honesty certificate — last year to reward businesses that recognize what its Website refers to as “The right to fair pay. The right to fair time. The right to a safe work environment.” Read more...

Oppenheim, Rivka. "Ethical Seal Nearing Marketplace for Conservative Jews." The Jewish Week. 25 May 2010.

Asked about expanding the Tav HaYosher to other areas besides food, Yanklowitz said that conversation is premature, and that there is a “danger of overextending.”

“We really need a serious victory on creating social change in kashrut first,” he said.

The measure of that victory? When “those that are not complying will need to comply in order to stay afloat.” Already, he said, “multiple owners have told me they’ve gotten thousands of dollars more business because of the Tav.” Read more...

Berger, Paul. "Meat-plant boss Rubashkin faces life after kosher fraud." The Jewish Chronicle Online. 29 April 2010.

In the Orthodox world, the social justice group Uri L'Tzedek recently launched its Tav HaYosher seal, awarded to kosher restaurants that provide employees with a fair wage and working conditions. "The immigration raid at Agriprocessors is going to be pointed to throughout Jewish history as a major turning point of awareness and the birth of social activism in kosher food consciousness," said Uri L'Tzedek founder and president Shmuly Yanklowitz. Read more...

Leibel, Aaron. "Md. Hillel eateries get ethical seal." Washington Jewish Week. 28 April 2010.

Two kosher eateries run by the University of Maryland Hillel -- Bobb's Cafe and Sabra Deli -- have been awarded the Tav Hayosher (ethical seal) by Uri L'Tzedek, a group that pursues social justice. Read more...

Charney, Jane. "Ethical seal for kosher restaurants lands in Chicago. " JUF News. 1 April 2010.

Chicago native Shmuly Yanklowitz wants to encourage kosher restaurant owners to think about another dimension to the way they make and serve food. Yanklowitz and the organization he co-founded, Uri L’Tzedek (“awaken to justice” in Hebrew)...main concern is workers’ rights in kosher establishments. The cooks and servers who make the kosher food deserve to have their rights protected, said Yanklowitz, a rabbinical student at Yeshivat Chovevei Torah in New York. These rights―fair pay, fair time and a safe work environment―are at the center of the Tav HaYosher (“ethical seal”) program Yanklowitz helped develop. Read more...

Jacobs, Justin. "Ethical kosher seal comes to Pa., but will it catch on?" The Jewish Chronicle. 11 March 2010.

The newest addition is a Tav HaYosher certificate, declaring Max and David’s kosher. But anyone reading the sign outside knows that; the Tav HaYosher, rather, deems the restaurant ethically kosher. The certification, created by Orthodox social justice organization Uri L’Tzedek, aims to ensure customers that restaurants are kosher both in food preparation and the humane and fair treatment of their employees. Read more...

Beckerman, Gal. "New Restaurant Seal Meets With Approval." The Forward. 10 March 2010

Tav HaYosher has been one of Uri L’Tzedek’s most successful programs. According to the owners of a few Manhattan kosher establishments who spoke to the Forward, the seal has gotten them business and been a draw for customers aware of the importance of ethical work standards. The number of certified restaurants has also increased. Started less than a year ago, the Tav HaYosher is now displayed in three dozen establishments in five different states, with four more restaurants in the works. Read more...

Kaiser, Menachem. "Ethical Eating, the Newest Kosher Pickle." The Atlantic. O3 March 2010.

Uri L'Tzedek, a social justice organization, founded the Tav HaYosher, a seal given to local eating establishments that do nothing more than abide by federal labor laws: fair pay, fair time, and a safe working environment. Read more...

Lipowsky, Josh. "Orthodox rabbis address the ethics of kashrut." New Jersey Jewish Standard. 05 February 2010. 

"There is a renewed movement in the Jewish world that we should take the values we learn about and espouse in our holy books and make sure our own lives uphold those values," said Rabbi James Kahn, Hillel's senior Jewish educator who worked with students to get the certification.

"The Jewish community, which cares so much about the food we eat, should also care about the people who serve us," he said. Read more...

In July of 2009, Uri L’Tzedek began a small project in New York to change the way the (Orthodox / Jewish) community approached its food. Modeled after Israel’s Tav Chevrati, the Tav Hayosher, ethical seal, would certify that a kosher eating establishment was meeting legal and ethical standards in the way it treats its employees. Uri L’Tzedek granted the Tav to kosher restaurants and supermarkets after confirming that their employees were paid at least minimum wage, overtime, were granted appropriate breaks,  and work in a healthy and safe environment. Read more...

Shapiro, Samantha M.  “Kosher Wars.”  The New York Times Magazine.  9 October 2008.

"One sunny day in late August, Andy Kastner made the short drive from his apartment in Riverdale, in the Bronx, to Yonkers First Live Poultry Market, a narrow cinder-block shop that sells live chickens, pigeons, quail and rabbits stacked in ancient-looking metal cages."  Read more...

Fishkoff, Sue.  “Orthodox Groups to Offer Ethical Seals for Businesses.”  JTA.  15 December 2008.

"Not to be outdone by their Conserva tive colleagues, Orthodox groups on both coasts will soon be vetting the ethical standards of businesses serving the Jewish communities."  Read more...

Kornblit, Michelle.  “The ‘Kosher’ Workplace.”  Women’s Rights Employment Law Blog.  16 December 2008.

"In light of the shocking revelations of the unethical, and illegal employment practices at the Agriprocessor Kosher slaughterhouse in Postville Iowa, there has been a demand in the Orthodox Jewish community to insist that kosher food production must be about more than the dietary laws; kosher food must reflect Jewish ethical values through a greater accountability on the part of the kosher industry to ensure legal and ethical employment conditions."  Read more...

Cole, Diane.  “Beyond Agriprocessor.” The Jewish Week.  1 April 2009.

"Last year, Rubashkin — the name of the family that owned and ran Agriprocessors, the country’s largest kosher meatpacking plant — became synonymous with scandal. In May 2008, U.S. immigration officials raided the plant, arresting 389 illegal aliens employed there, and company owners were charged on numerous counts of violating child labor and immigration laws."  Read more...

Schneider, Paulette. “Kosher Restaurants Urged to Seek ‘Ethical’ Seal.”  The Riverdale Review. 2 April 2009.

"Riverdale's kosher restaurants now have an opportunity to show customers that they meet the highest standards not only of 'kashrut'- the technical kosherness of food products according to Jewish law-but also of fair labor practices, another Jewish legal mandate."  Read more...

“After Postville: Keeping Kosher by Caring for Others.”  The Chicago Tribune.  12 May 2009.

"Separating meat and dairy products is a central dietary rule to keeping a kosher kitchen. But some Orthodox Jews say the Golden Rule is also a key to keeping kosher." Read more...

Fishkoff, Sue.  “N.Y. Food Establishments Earn New Ethics Seal.”  JTA.  12 May 2009.

"One year after a massive immigration raid at the largest kosher meatpacking plant in the United States, an Orthodox social justice organization announced the first seven recipients of its seal of ethical business practice."  Read more...

Ramey, Corinne.  “Orthodox Group Stirs Pot with New Kosher Ethics Seal.”  The Forward.  13 May 2009.

"A new label just went up alongside the other colorful stickers and pamphlets adorning the window of Your Heights Café in northern Manhattan. It’s a seal with an image of clasped hands, and it was given out by a new organization looking to improve working conditions in New York’s kosher restaurants."  Read more...

Weiss, Ari; Ari Hart and Shmuly Yanklowitz.  “Going on an Ethical Diet.”  Haaretz. 18 May 2009.

"The American public has been shocked by the revelations of the past few months regarding the unethical treatment of workers at the Agriprocessors slaughterhouse in Postville, Iowa. Court charges that allege illegal deductions from paychecks, the use of child labor and employees being robbed of their human dignity have prompted many in the Jewish community to demand that kosher food production must be about more than just the laws of kashrut; kosher food must reflect Jewish ethical values as well."  Read more...

Hausman, Aliza.  “A Guiding Light.”  Jerusalem Post. 19 May 2009.

"Ari Hart was supposed to be at a regular Shabbat meal. Plenty of wine and halla was going around. It was one of his first meals with other 20-something singles in New York City's Washington Heights neighborhood. But the atmosphere quickly changed."  Read more...

Resnick, Elliot.  “New Orthodox Seal Certifies Ethical Compliance.”  The Jewish Press.  20 May 2009.

"Last week - exactly a year after allegations of exploitation and abuse at the Agriprocessors kosher meatpacking plant in Postville, Iowa made national headlines - Uri L'Tzedek, an Orthodox social justice movement, announced the creation of Tav HaYosher, a new ethical seal for kosher restaurants."  Read more...

Orbach, Michael.  “Kosher and then Some.”  The Jewish Star.  22 May 2009.

"At Café Nana, a quaint, privately owned restaurant in the Columbia University Hillel, a new type of certification adorns the wall.  Unlike the eatery's hechsher, which certifies that the food being prepared is strictly kosher, this one, known as the Tav HaYosher, ensures something entirely different, best explained in the words of Alex, a Mexican immigrant who works in the kitchen: “It’s good,” he said. “They come here and ask how much [I get] paid.”  Read more...