One of the unwritten rules of society is that communities keep their dirty laundry under wraps. What happens in the community stays in the community.Thankfully, this is breaking down. When Chris Rock and Dave Chapelle criticize black people, they get a pass because it is comedy. When Bill Cosby seriously criticizes black people, he gets criticized right back. The issue with Mr. Cosby is not that many black Americans disagree with him. Far from it. They just want those disagreements to be private. The theory is that respected black people publicly criticizing other black people feeds into stereotypes proffered by white America. My response is stop acting like a stereotype and you will not be treated like one. New York Post writer Amir Tehari is proud to be a Middle Easterner, and equally concerned about troublesome behavior by Middle Easterners. He is not self hating. He wants to improve his own community.
This brings me to my community, that being the Jewish community. I love being Jewish, and I wear my Jewish pride like a badge of honor. Having said that, I have had it with the kosher food industry. It is corrupt, and needs to be reformed.
For those who do not know, kosher food is specifically prepared according to strict Jewish dietary laws. Animals that are kosher are slaughtered in a very specific way so as to minimize their pain and suffering. It is a noble tradition, and Muslims eat Jewish kosher meat because they know that it adheres to a high standard that their religion respects as well. Kosher food must be certified by a Rabbi whose sole job is to inspect kitchens, restaurants, and processing plants to ensure compliance with kosher rules.
The corruption comes in the form of kosher restaurants. When one of my friends suggests that we dine at a kosher restaurant, the rest of us roll our eyeballs. This is because kosher restaurants are seen as the “trifecta of awful,” in the form of lower quality, higher prices and bad service.
Today I went into a kosher fast food joint. There was only one person ahead of me. It took over 30 minutes for me to get my food. I ordered a burger, onion rings, and can of soda. The price was $11.42. This was not a fine restaurant. It was the equivalent of McDonalds. Well, except for the fact that McDonalds would have been quicker with the order despite higher customer traffic. The price would have been about 1/2 of what I paid. Oh, and the food would not have tasted like it was put through a blander.
I asked for no tomato on my burger, and of course, was given plenty of tomato. While this does happen at nonkosher restaurants, it is not considered the norm. In this case I was expecting the order to be messed up, because the look of “I don’t care about you, give me your money, the next customer is waiting,” was apparent. They did end up giving me fries and onion rings, but I did not ask for that. As for flavor, some people consider beige to be a color. I do not.
Some in the kosher food industry argue that kosher meat costs more because of the quality. To me, quality implies flavor. In addition, it is supposed to cost more because of the expenses involved with making it kosher, aka the certification process. This does not explain the cost of the beverages. In addition, there are markups, and there is gouging. What kosher food places do under the guise of necessity puts the oil companies to shame.
Some would argue that this is an example of the free market at work. If I can defend the oil companies, why not kosher food places? Simple.The market in this case is not free, and it is certainly not fair. People who keep kosher have no other options. They are held hostage to the dietary laws. Their only way out is to cease believing in the God they claim to worship. Since the restaurants know that the people have to eat there, the restaurants have all the leverage. It is blackmail by religious fiat.
I will not keep kosher for a variety of reasons, but one main reason is that I refuse to allow restaurants to dictate to me their laws involving customer relations. I am happy to pay a premium price for a fine steak. I totally support rewarding good service with a higher tip for the waiter. Paying a higher price for better service and or quality is expected, and I am happy to do so. I am not willing to pay a higher price for lower quality and bad service.
There is one kosher restaurant I enjoy frequenting from time to time. Pat’s Restaurant has an excellent steak. The food is moderately pricey, but fair given the high quality of food and the good service of the staff. Sadly enough, Pats is the exception, not the rule.
The kosher food industry needs to clean up its act. They will not do so as long as the community feels powerless. I am not proud of my disobeying the dietary laws, but I am totally comfortable knowing I am not being cheated every time I eat. I vote with my dollars, and will continue to demand good service, a polite staff, food with actual flavor, and reasonable prices that conform to the ambience of the establishment.
For those who worry that by airing dirty Jewish laundry, I will feed into antisemitism and ugly stereotypes as portrayed by Arabs and others who look for excuses to bash Jews, my response is simple. Haters will always hate, but that does not mean we have to act like the very epitome of the stereotypes we are trying to disable. Shame is a powerful weapon, and I hope enough shame will force the Jewish kosher food industry to improve itself. The traditions are not the problem. Our Jewish dietary traditions are beautiful. It is human beings that are corrupting them. This will stop, or I will continue to take my dining dollars to places that actually care about my business. If this is outside my community, so be it.
eric