Ben & Jerry's may lose US kashrut renewal over settler boycott
The Kof-K can only break its
contract with Ben & Jerry's if there is a violation of the Jewish
dietary laws and no such violation has occurred.
By TOVAH LAZAROFF
The Kof-K kosher certification agency may not renew Ben
& Jerry’s certificate if the global ice cream company makes good on
its plan to boycott West Bank settlements.“We
have told Ben & Jerry’s that we do not know if we will be able to
renew our contract,” Rabbi Daniel Senter, chief operating officer of the
American-based Kof-K that provides Kosher international certification,
told The Jerusalem Post.At
issue is whether Ben & Jerry’s in the US will continue to receive a
kosher certification once the Kof-K’s contract with the Vermont-based
ice cream company ends in 2022.
The
Kof-K can only break this contract if there is a violation of the
Jewish dietary laws, and no such violation has occurred, Senter
explained.“The company is living up to its side of the contract,” he stated.
Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield, who founded Ben & Jerry's in 1978, spoke about the company's decision to stop selling ice cream in the West Bank in an interview with Axios released Sunday.
The
Kof-K, however, is weighing whether to refuse to renew the contract due
to the decision made in July by Ben & Jerry’s independent board not
to renew its business dealings with the Israeli ice cream franchise once
the contract ends in December 2022. The Ben & Jerry’s board said it
had taken this step due to sales by the Israeli franchise to Jewish
stores in east Jerusalem and West Bank settlements.The
Ben & Jerry’s factory itself is located in southern Israel, and
does not have a factory in the West Bank or east Jerusalem.“Our
concern is Ben & Jerry’s [pending] action of withdrawing
distribution of products in Judea and Samaria,” Senter said. “We are
hopeful that Ben & Jerry’s will reverse their decision and that
there will be some sort of resolution.”
The Kof-K has spoken to Ben & Jerry’s
about its concerns, Senter said. He said that the Kof-K would have to
take a number of steps prior to any final action, including a decision
by its rabbinic board. It would also consult with other regulatory
companies that certify kosher food.
As part of its deliberations, both he and his brother Ari, who is the
Kof-K’s senior rabbinic coordinator, were in Israel last week on a trip
organized by Yesha Council CEO Yigal Dilmoni.They
met with Religious Affairs Minister Matan Kahana about Ben &
Jerry’s, and traveled to Judea and Samaria, where they spoke with
Dilmoni and Avi Zimmerman, president of the Judea and Samaria Chamber of
Commerce.The two
brothers also visited the Barkan Industrial Park where both Israelis
and Palestinians work. They spoke with employees there to see firsthand
the companies that are impacted by the BDS movement.Dilmoni
said he had been in contact with the Kof-K to “exhaust all
possibilities to stop Ben & Jerry’s shameful decision to boycott
Jews in Judea and Samaria. The brothers are very connected to the land
of Israel, and they also strongly oppose the boycotts of the Judea and
Samaria area. We presented to them the fact that the boycott decision is
an anti-Jewish decision.”Ben
& Jerry’s and its parent company, Unilever, have attempted to
downplay the decision, which many have interpreted as a boycott of
Israel.Both companies have said they would open another Israeli Ben & Jerry’s
franchise that would abide by the restriction to limit sales within the
pre-1967 lines, but to date, no announcement has been made about an
alternative.
The decision to end Ben & Jerry’s
dealing with Israel was taken by Ben & Jerry’s independent board,
which controls the company’s social mission, and which has made clear
that it intends to boycott Israel over the settlement issue.Senter said his company also feels it has a social mission, but in this case it is a Jewish one.“Our
entire business is the Jewish community,” Senter said. The best
interest of the Kof-K, in this case, “reflects what is in the best
interest of Israel and the Jewish community.”The
question of whether to strip a company of its kosher certification for
reasons other than whether its food meets that standard is part of a
larger debate on whether social, political and moral issues should be a
consideration.Rabbi Yuval Cherlow, who heads the Ethics Center at the Tzohar Rabbinical
Organization in Israel, said he is opposed to the Ben & Jerry’s
boycott, and understands the emotions that have swirled around it.But
at the same time, Cherlow said, he is also against looking at the
issuance of a kashrut certificate from any other lens than that of the
legal requirement under Jewish law.Otherwise,
he said, “it is a slippery slope” that opens the door to many
questions, including whether a kashrut certificate should be stripped
from a hall that hosts a secular New Year’s event on December 31; or
whether a meat plant that mistreats animals be deemed kosher, or a
supermarket or a restaurant that mistreats its employees.“Once
you start to take off kashrut certification for different reasons, you
do not know where you will stop,” Cherlow said. “In principle, there is
nothing that does not have limits. Maybe boycotting Israel is crossing that line.”NewYork City Comptroller Scott Stringer stated on Thursday that he had a
productive meeting with Unilever CEO Alan Jope on the decision to halt
sales in the West Bank."As
investment advisor to the New York City pension funds, I underscored
the potential for the risk that this decision creates for shareholders
and as a Jew, I reiterated my opposition to BDS actions...I will
continue engaging and monitoring this situation for any impact on the
retirement security of our pensioners," said Stringer on Twitter.Jope affirmed Unilever's full commitment to Israel and opposition to BDS.
|