The High Costs Of Kosher Food And The Seudat Halacha

(my comments and thoughts will be presented after the guest post)
A Guest Post by Dr. Harold Goldmeier

There remains a terrible financial burden to those of us who eat kosher meat, yet have less income than in the past or even no income because of the economic depression we're in. 


The question must be asked isn't there anything that can be done to bring down the price so more families could eat meat other than just on Shabbos? 


The price of kosher meat and now skyrocketing prices of kosher cheeses are adding to the sakana poor Jews are in today and nobody cares. 


 The cRc is sponsoring a $250 per plate dinner at Shallots of odd and unusual but kosher meats (elk, etc.) and bugs. Rabbi Schwartz (av beis din of the cRc) would not allow them to serve giraffe because of the bad publicity it might engender. 

With the prices of kosher meat and cheeses rising out of reach of so many poor Jews, I would not be surprised to find some turning to alternatives. Nero fiddled while Rome burned.
-------

My thoughts:

There are two separate issues in the post above.

High Costs of Kosher Food

There is the issue of the high cost, and ever increasing cost, of kosher food, especially meat and cheese. Somehow the prices continue to rise, and perhaps the supervising agencies should be requiring less stringencies in production to bring down the costs, to help the Jewish communities whose members are strapped with less income, high tuition and health insurance and many other costs.

The fact that they are not finding ways to decrease the costs, the fact that newer and better chumros keep getting added to our lifestyles while our expenses keep going up, makes one wonder if all the chumros in production are so necessary, even at the expense of people struggling to be able to afford it. Are the higher costs due to increase in prices of raw materials, as oil prices rise and manufacturing costs rise in industries around the world, or is it a more direct result of the ever increasing chumros added to our food industries? Every time more chumros are added, it means paying more mashgichim salaries for supervision, paying supervising agencies more money, perhaps added equipment costs to deal with new issues and concerns.

Seudat Halacha

Another, separate, issue is the $250 per plate dinner sponsored by the cRc. This is a dinner called a "seudat halacha". The founders of the seudat halaha are Rabbi Dr. Ari Zivotovsky and Rabbi Dr. Ari Greenspan. They have researched many animals that used to be eaten by Jews and no longer are, thus causing us to lose our traditions about many of these animals. They have researched the animals, and have tried to teach renew our understanding of what these kosher animals are. Their articles on this issue, and many other issues they deal in, are fascinating.

they have created these seudot halacha, where people pay a lot of money to be taught about, and served plates of, animals that we no longer commonly eat, such as elk and giraffe and types of bison, variety of birds (quail, duck, etc), bugs such as grasshoppers, etc.

the fact that the cRc is sponsoring this event in Chicago, at $250 a plate, has nothing really to do with the previous issue. I don't see this as an additional burden on the community. It is not as if the people who can afford to, and do, participate in such an event are going to do this instead of giving tzedaka. This will be coming out of an entertainment, or Jewish learning, budget.

People go to baseball games, spending a couple hundred dollars for the experience. they go to concerts, movies, social dinners and events that all cost a lot of money. They do so because they can afford to, and this is how they have a good time. People who can afford to have a good time, enjoy what is most likely a fascinating learning experience and maybe even a fascinating culinary experience, are going to do that regardless of how much or how little tzedaka they give. People want to have a good time, to have good experiences, and everyone finds such experiences within their budget constraints.

Is it distasteful, that the community organization is holding such an exclusive event while so many Jews are struggling economically? Perhaps. However, why shouldn't the wealthier people be able to enjoy such an experience that is affordable to them just because others cannot? Perhaps the distastefulness can be mitigated by directing part of the proceeds towards a communal fund for kosher food subsidies, or towards studying ways to bring down the costs of kosher food.