This is what I am advocating for. A system where we know our food, our farmers, our butchers, and we can tell for ourselves if something is Kosher. I was standing in line at Supersol last week while a man was calling his rabbi and reading him the ingredients to ask if a pack of gum was kosher or not. How did we get to a place where people want to give up so much autonomy to another individual such that they cannot decide for themselves whether they feel OK chewing gum?
I know some people who are getting very involved in Tav HaYosher (Social Seal), read more at http://uriltzedek.webnode.com/, which is trying to add the ethical back into Kahsrut (which the Orthodox Union refuses to do). More on that to come.
The Jerusalem Marakiya is one restaurant where you will receive such a response. Owner Noam Frankforter, an observant Jew, says that the restaurant is kosher and closed on Shabbat, but he chooses not to have a teudah for ideological reasons. “Part of the point is that I am trying to break the sense of alienation, distrust and suspicion that exists among people in today’s society. I say to people who come here that if they try to get to know me, they will realize that I keep kosher.”
Why ‘kosher’ J’lem restaurants won’t hang certificate | In Jerusalem | Jerusalem Post
