{"id":1896,"date":"2010-08-26T13:35:15","date_gmt":"2010-08-26T10:35:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thisnormallife.com\/?p=1896"},"modified":"2010-12-03T15:47:36","modified_gmt":"2010-12-03T13:47:36","slug":"why-im-no-longer-buying-croutons","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thisnormallife.com\/2010\/08\/why-im-no-longer-buying-croutons\/","title":{"rendered":"Why I’m No Longer Buying Croutons"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>One of my favorite condiments for Friday night chicken soup is croutons. So it is with a heavy heart that I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve had to ban my beloved fried, garlic-infused mini-bread squares from my culinary repertoire. The reason: I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t agree with the ideological goals of the organization that grants them their kosher certification.<\/p>\n

My problems with croutons began several months ago when I received an email urging recipients to no longer purchase products with a particular heksher<\/em> (the all important stamp of kosher correctness). The heksher <\/em>in question is the \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Badatz Yerushalayim\u00e2\u20ac\u009d controlled by the Eda Haredit, a group that has been at the forefront of many of the more extreme conflicts between halacha<\/em> (Jewish law) and the running of a modern state.<\/p>\n

The Eda Haredit, a small but vocal ultra-Orthodox sect numbering just a few thousand in Jerusalem and Beit Shemesh and comprising such Hassidic courts as Satmar, Toldot Aharon, Dushinsky and Breslav, was behind the recent rioting<\/a> against the construction of the much-needed rocket-resistant emergency room at Barzilai Hospital in Ashkelon.<\/p>\n

The Eda Haredit also rioted to protest the opening on Shabbat of a parking lot near the Old City of Jerusalem<\/a>, which was intended to relieve severe illegal parking on sidewalks. Following that action, the Eda Haredit moved on to stop Shabbat operation of Intel\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s new fabrication plant<\/a> in the Har Hotzvim Industrial Area, even though it would have been operated entirely by non-Jews.<\/p>\n

Collectively, these riots have resulted in millions of shekels of damage as traffic lights were destroyed and trash bins set on fire. Repairing this destruction of public property will need to be paid by taxpayers\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6like me.<\/p>\n

The Eda Haredit is also one of the most public anti-Zionist groups. A YouTube video<\/a> shows numerous signs in Jerusalem\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s ultra-Orthodox Meah Shearim reading \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Jews are not Zionists\u00e2\u20ac\u009d and \u00e2\u20ac\u0153No passage to Zionists,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d along with pictures of Eda Haredit members burning the Israeli flag.<\/p>\n

As citizens of the democratic state of Israel, we of course can express our opposition by voting for the political party of our choosing. But the Eda Haredit isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t part of the government; indeed, it doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t participate in the political system at all.<\/p>\n

What we can<\/em> do is take our own ideology to the marketplace\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6specifically the supermarket. For every shekel you spend on a product that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s been blessed by an Eda Haredit heksher<\/em>, the group receives some portion of the proceeds – either by employing kashrut<\/em> inspectors or directly into its porous pockets. It may not seem like a lot, but hundreds of thousands of purchases can add up.<\/p>\n

The boycott campaign was kicked off several months ago by an article<\/a> from journalist Nahum Barnea, writing in the Israeli daily Yediot Ahronot, who asked why, if one checks the price, the ingredients, the weight and the expiration date of products we buy, why not also its kosher certification?<\/p>\n

A follow-up piece by Michael Hirsch<\/a> in the Jerusalem Post agrees, urging that those \u00e2\u20ac\u0153who are careful in their adherence to the kashrut<\/em> laws should question the validity of kashrut<\/em> supervision provided by an organization (Badatz) which condones and implicitly supports\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6anti-religious behavior.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

If enough people stop buying products with hekshers<\/em> they don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t agree with, perhaps the manufacturers will feel the heat and consider other alternatives. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not going to be easy. Two of the biggest food manufacturers in the country get their supervision from the Eda Haredit: Osem (the makers of perennially popular snack foods Bisli and Bamba along with the aforementioned croutons) and Angel (the number one bread maker in the country).<\/p>\n

Also on the list are foods from the Nestle conglomerate and, inexplicably, Sano which makes cleaning products not food.<\/p>\n

Sticking to my guns will result in a significant edible sacrifice, not to mention a return to a mentality we had thought we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d given up, where checking hekshers<\/em> on products was an annoying Diaspora pastime.<\/p>\n

This plan may also be totally ineffective. Another article in Yediot<\/a> article claims that the proposal to not buy the Eda Haredit heksher<\/em> has already failed. However, the piece adds there may be potential: a recent poll found that 23% of respondents, when given a choice, said they would prefer to purchase products with a different group\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s supervision and 21% would endorse a full \u00e2\u20ac\u0153boycott.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

The term \u00e2\u20ac\u0153boycott\u00e2\u20ac\u009d is controversial, to say the least. Israelis bristle when educational institutions overseas put our country on the no contact list. Others say a boycott will never work and suggest a letter writing campaign instead. When I put this out on Facebook, many responded that the most stringent kashrut<\/em> supervision is the only way to ensure Jewish culinary unity.<\/p>\n

The \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Badatz Free\u00e2\u20ac\u009d protest group would disagree. The organization, which sponsors demonstrations around the country, is now claiming its first victory: Nestle has launched its new Joya line of gourmet ice creams without the kosher certification of the Eda Haredit. Badatz Free vows to plow on until all Nestle products are supervised by a different body.<\/p>\n

In the meantime, the Badatz Free website<\/a> provides a list of controversial products and alternatives you can buy instead (substitute Vita croutons for Osem). The group also has a Facebook page<\/a> with nearly 1,500 members.<\/p>\n

A shorter version of this post appeared on Israelity<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

One of my favorite condiments for Friday night chicken soup is croutons. So it is with a heavy heart that I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve had to ban my beloved fried, garlic-infused mini-bread squares from my culinary repertoire. The reason: I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t agree with the ideological goals of the organization that grants them their kosher certification. My problems with […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[11,46],"tags":[102,29,53,51],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thisnormallife.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1896"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thisnormallife.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thisnormallife.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thisnormallife.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thisnormallife.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1896"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/thisnormallife.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1896\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1901,"href":"https:\/\/thisnormallife.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1896\/revisions\/1901"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thisnormallife.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1896"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thisnormallife.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1896"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thisnormallife.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1896"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}