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August 07, 1992 - Image 41

Resource type:
Text
Publication:
The Detroit Jewish News, 1992-08-07

Disclaimer: Computer generated plain text may have errors. Read more about this.



happy holiday" — as they
cast their first ballots in a
democracy. •
In Ramot, the site was a
microcosm of Israel. Stream-
ing to the polls were the
olim, as well as Israelis of
diverse background:
Moroccan, French, Ameri-
can Bukhari, Orthodox, and
Iranian.
Voting participation
across Israel was estimated
at nearly 80 percent, and at
polling station 707, it was
easy to see why.
"Welcome to Democracy,"
the Israeli salute, is a proc-
lamation by the free people
of Israel. The liberty lovers
should make this salute a
symbol for humanizing and
democratizing all nations.

While strengthening Israel's
role in human ranks, it is
certainly a message to all
her neighbors.
One means of making such
hopes realities was placed on
the calendar of Middle East-
ern relationships by Prime
Minister Yitzhak Rabin
when he proposed that Arab
spokesmen go to Jerusalem
to talk peace. He added that
Israeli diplomats should go
to Arab capitals to
strengthen such aspirations.
It is regrettable that the
replies from most Arab
quarters, except Egypt, were
not positive.
The challenges to them to
make it a diplomatic cer-
tainty will always be a
priority.



N.J. Kosher Laws
Are Struck Down



New York (JTA) — Jewish
groups are dismayed at the
recent New Jersey Supreme
Court ruling that govern-
ment regulation of the
kosher food industry violates
the constitutional separa-
tion of church and state.
The decision directly af-
fects only New Jersey, but is
expected to have wide
ramifications in the 16 other
states in which the govern-
ment monitors the prepara-
tion and sale of kosher food.
Similar suits are likely to be
brought in many of those
other states.
In a 4-3 decision, the New
Jersey court found that
while the state is compelled
to prevent fraud, the regula-
tions "plainly violate" both
state and federal constitu-
tional prohibitions against
the establishment of re-
ligion.
Justice Alan Handler,
writing for the majority, said
that the current regulations
require government in-
volvement in areas that
should not be under its pur-
view.
The regulations allow the
state to determine whether
food is prepared "in strict
compliance with what the
state itself believes to be the
laws and customs of the Or-
thodox Jewish religion."
In that respect, continued
Justice Handler, "the
regulations do not police the
nutritional, quality or
sanitary purity of kosher
food, but only its religious
purity. In doing so, they
create an unconstitutional
entanglement of govern-
ment and religion."
This entanglement is il-

lustrated by the fact that the
people hired to enforce the
regulations are clerical
leaders, according to the
decision. The chief of the
state's Bureau of Kosher En-
forcement is an Orthodox
rabbi and the bureau's ad-
visory committee is made up
of 10 rabbis — one Conser-
vative and the rest Or-
thodox.
Any disagreements that
involved the regulations
"call inescapably on the
state to assume a religious
role," wrote Justice
Handler.
The suit that led to the
decision was filed by a
kosher market, Ran-Day's
County Kosher, in Linden,
N.J. The market filed suit
after New Jersey's Bureau of
Kosher Enforcement charg-
ed its owner, Arthur
Weisman, with violations on
five inspections between
1987 and 1989.
Ran-Day's owner claimed
that his products were
kosher according to the
standards set by their own
supervising Orthodox rabbi,
Harry Cohen.
Some observers said the
court's ruling opens the door
to the development of new
standards of kashrut, such
as Conservative and
Chasidic, in addition to the
"mainstream Orthodox"
standard regulated by the
state.
But religious groups, and
not just the Orthodox, take
issue with the decision.
Though the state law
defined kashrut according to
"Orthodox Judaism," the
regulations never led to any
interdenominational clashes.

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call
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ME DETROIT JEWISH NEWS

41

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