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March 3, 2006
B.C. Kosher spans Pacific Rim
Rabbis find new gig kashering Asian factories – but still
dedicated to local consumers.
PAT JOHNSON
In China, a Chassidic rabbi from Vancouver with a long beard, black
outfit and notably wide-brimmed hat cuts a swath that one commentator
said makes him “an even stranger stranger in a strange land.”
Rabbi Avraham Feigelstock, the head of B.C. Kosher (BCK), has found
himself in the Asian behemoth with increasing regularity in recent
years, as his agency gains a unique niche providing kosher certification
to food exporters in the Far East.
Feigelstock travels regularly to China, Vietnam, Japan, Thailand
and the Philippines as well as all over North America – kashering
the facilities that export to significant Jewish markets.
The Wall Street Journal, in a front-page story several years
ago, called Feigelstock a “kosher Columbo” after following
him around China – where he exhibited the traits of a private
eye investigating the ingredients in food packing plants. Approving
a product under the strict guidelines of kashrut requires a sort
of genealogical snooping. Every ingredient in every ingredient must
be traced to its primary compounds. Red food coloring, for instance,
can be made from the wings of flies, which are not kosher –
just one of a million permutations of the law Feigelstock must trace
and enforce. The paper trail for an apparently simple jar of preserves
can exceed that of a contentious crime investigation. He has flown
halfway around the world to investigate the source of trace ingredients.
But Jewish markets, Feigelstock is quick to point out, are not the
majority consumer of kosher products. He produced a graph demonstrating
that about 45 per cent of kosher products are consumed by Jews,
about 20 per cent by Muslims, 10 per cent by vegetarians, another
10 per cent by lactose intolerant consumers, a further 10 per cent
by other religiously affiliated consumers like Seventh-day Adventists
and five per cent by “others.” Much has been made recently
in the mainstream media about consumers choosing kosher products
not for religious reasons, but because the hechsher, the
kosher seal of approval, is an added symbol of quality control at
a time when mass food production and fears of contaminants and food-borne
viruses have many consumers questioning the source and quality of
their food. For humanitarians, a kosher symbol is also an assurance
that an animal has been slaughtered in the most humane way possible.
While there are more than 300 kosher certification agencies worldwide,
BCK has assured itself a unique role in the global market. It is
the primary agency responsible for maintaining and overseeing kashrut
in British Columbia and Alaska, but BCK is also contracted to do
the legwork for the Orthodox Union, the world’s largest hechshering
agency, in Washington, Oregon and across Western Canada.
The development of this new Asian part of the business has come
as more and more food production for North American consumers takes
place in Asia. Thirty years ago, when most food was produced locally
for local consumers, it was not necessary to go as far afield to
assure compliance. BCK has filled this niche partly because it is
relatively close to the Asian marketplace and also because it has
developed a reputation as a stringent and respected inspection agency
since Feigelstock founded the organization slightly more than two
decades ago.
Feigelstock was recently joined in his work by a helpmate, Rabbi
Eli Lando, a young shochet (kosher butcher), who is learning the
ropes at BCK.
“I heard about Vancouver for the first time about five years
ago,” said Lando, an Israeli who arrived less than a year ago
with wife Shterni and 11-month-old son Yanki. His arrival is part
of his commitment to religious service. “The reason that we
came here was to do anything for the community. I like Vancouver
very much.”
Lando replaces Rabbi Levy Teitlebaum, who has taken up a position
with Ottawa’s kashrut agency.
Their business may take them around the globe, but their core responsibility
is right here, say the rabbis. Lando said his cellphone is a kosher
hotline – operating “24/7” – where anybody can
access his expertise at any time of night or day. BCK’s revamped
website, shortly to be unveiled at www.bckosher.org, will also have
an “ask a rabbi” section for quick consultation.
While the rules of kashrut are unbending, Feigelstock is not. Seeing
that a massive industrial kettle in which a fruit preserve was prepared
is sometimes used for making spaghetti and meatballs, Feigelstock
found a compromise. The jam could be made in the kettle once a month
after a complete kashering process – which involves a strenuous
cleaning with superheated boiling water – before returning
to its use with meat ingredients. It’s an arduous process,
and not cheap, but a hechsher can massively increase a product’s
desirability almost overnight.
Kashrut, while obsessive about detail, is not limited to ingredients
and cleanliness. It can also involve attitude. Feigelstock tells
of walking into a factory and being told he needn’t don a hairnet.
End of inspection.
Kosher agencies will also generally not approve otherwise kosher
products if they are prepared on the Sabbath. This does not apply
to non-Jewish workers in processing plants, but if a Jewish-owned
business were running its factories on Shabbat, it would, said Feigelstock,
indicate a lack of respect for Jewish law, which makes even strictly
kosher products treife, or unfit. On the other hand, while
some hechshering agencies in Israel and elsewhere will not approve
a kitchen because the facility may be used host to inappropriate
entertainment, Feigelstock said he does not generally take such
matters into account.
In addition to their extensive work abroad, BCK also has a small
crew of on-call experts who supervise kosher facilities, like the
few restaurants and hotel kitchens in the Lower Mainland that adhere
to the strict guidelines. A bakery or café under rabbinical
supervision can expect a visit once a day – or more frequently
– to ensure that standards are maintained constantly. As a
community service, BCK will also come into private homes and kasher
the kitchen at no cost. In the case of commercial ventures, the
business covers the cost of the process, while BCK, a non-profit
agency, recoups only its expenses. And while it is the businesses
who pay the rabbis’ salaries, the boss, they say, is the kosher
consumer.
“Our objective is to serve the kosher consumer in B.C.,”
Feigelstock said.
Feigelstock, who is also head of the city’s beit din,
or religious court, is particularly busy in the lead-up to Pesach,
when even stricter regulations govern kashrut for this holy period.
BCK, which is operated by the Orthodox Rabbinical Council of B.C.,
has the support of all the rabbis in town and Feigelstock goes out
of his way to recognize the co-operation and support his agency
gets from Rabbi Philip Bregman, of the Reform congregation Temple
Sholom.
“We’re a united community that way,” he said. “It’s
very unusual.”
Pat Johnson is editor of MVOX Multicultural Digest,
www.mvox.ca.
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