business Quicken Loans Now Kosher Jewish-owned mortgage company adopts halachic technicality. LOUIS FINKELMAN CONTRIBUTING WRITER AGUDATH ISRAEL Agudath Israel is an Orthodox Jewish advocacy group with its U.S. headquar- ters in Manhattan, N.Y. The organization provides a variety of services to help Jews navigate society while maintain- ing an Orthodox lifestyle. Services include career training and placement, voter information, legal support, mortgage counseling and end- of-life resources. The organization also runs several summer youth camps. Founded in 1913 in Poland, Agudath Israel came to America in 1922. The organization became involved in politics and community outreach in the 1920s and ’30s. Agudath Israel of America grew with the Orthodox community over the ensuing decades and has branches in 27 states, including an office in Washington, D.C. Agudath Israel consults with gov- ernment entities including legislative bodies, the White House and other executive-branch agencies. The group has made waves by opposing the ordaining of women and supporting school-of-choice legislation. It regularly files briefs on a variety of cases in the judiciary. Agudath Isreal hosts Siyum Hashas celebrations, where Orthodox Jews gather to celebrate their heritage, every seven-and-a-half years. The last cel- ebration in 2012 drew nearly 80,000 participants, making it the largest gath- ering of Orthodox Jews in U.S. history. The event had to be held in the MetLife Stadium in New Jersey to accommo- date the crowd. — By Rob Streit, JN Intern 54 June 21 • 2018 jn Q uicken Loans, principally owned by Dan Gilbert, the Jewish owner of the Cleveland Cavaliers, is now kosher for Orthodox borrowers. The company, which also owns the online mortgage agency Rocket Mortgage, announced Friday, June 8, that it had adopted what is known as a heter iska. The move follows an April ruling by Agudath Israel, a strictly Orthodox Jewish organization, which said the Detroit-based company was not kosher for Orthodox Jews who were “in dan- ger of transgressing the prohibition of Ribbis D’oraisa” [the biblical prohibi- tion on borrowing or lending at inter- est].” To get a “kosher” loan from a Jewish lender, or for a Jewish lender to offer a kosher loan, Agudath Israel insisted the parties needed a contract called a heter iska. A LITTLE HISTORY The Torah commands that Jews who have wealth give only interest-free loans to other Jews, and that Jews who need loans take out only interest-free loans from other Jews (Exodus 22:25, Leviticus 25:35, and Deuteronomy 20:19). Detroit’s Hebrew Free Loan puts those commandments into effect every day. Canon Law of the Catholic church and Muslim Sharia law have equivalent rules. These laws protected the typical borrower in the ancient world: some- one from the working poor who had run into hard times. It seemed unfair to take advantage of the troubles of the poor and perhaps to ruin their lives further. A different kind of borrower has become more prominent in recent centuries: the commercial debtor. A merchant who needs stock to expand a business, a first-time home buyer, even a king who wants to launch an invasion, all need loans, but it does not seem unfair to charge them interest. Still, the ancient rules prohibited loans at interest. At first, the church used Jews to solve this problem. Christians could not lend at interest to Christians, but Jews could lend at interest to Christians. This gave wealthy Jews a livelihood in Medieval Europe, at con- siderable personal risk. By the 12th and 13th centuries in Italy and France, prominent Christian families were lending to Christians at interest and, gradually, Church opposition subsided. Observant Muslim and Jewish reli- gious scholars used legal work-arounds to deal with commercial loans. The Jewish version of this work-around, heter iska, operates by recasting the loan as a kind of partnership. WHY QUICKEN? According to Yeshiva World News, “The problem was that there was 77 percent Jewish ownership of this company.” After Quicken Loans’ June 8 announcement, Agudath Israel issued a statement notifying the observant community that the company had adopted a global heter iska covering all mortgages initiated after June 8. The heter iska does not retroac- tively reclassify existing loans, how- ever, according to Agudath spokes- man Rabbi Avi Shafran. But because Quicken Loans sells all loans shortly after they are made, he said, “many leading halachic authorities approve the continued use of these loans when they are no longer owned by Quicken Loans, without further corrective action.” The statement went on to say, “On behalf of Torah Jewry across America, we thank Quicken Loans for its sensi- tivity and devotion to the needs of the community. “The company has exhibited true leadership in taking this bold move quickly and efficiently, trailblazing a clear path forward for the observant Jewish community. We are grateful for this and we express our deepest appre- ciation.” • Zingerman’s Farms Receives FastTrack Award Z ingerman’s Cornman Farms is a first-time recipient of the Ann Arbor SPARK FastTrack Award. The historic private event venue received the honor at the 20th Annual Awards as part of Ann Arbor SPARK’s a2Tech360 series of events. The award recognizes public and private companies headquartered in Washtenaw County for consistently high business growth. Cornman Farms, honored in the one-year award category, was among 16 companies recognized this year. “Over the years, SPARK has recog- nized 108 fast-growing companies from Washtenaw County with 270 FastTrack awards,” said Paul Krutko, president and CEO of Ann Arbor SPARK. “This year’s class exemplifies the tremendous tal- ent and dedication that defines the Ann Arbor region’s thriving business commu- nity.” FastTrack awards are presented to companies with impressive records of growth. Recipients of 2018 FastTrack awards were required to have revenue of at least $100,000 in 2014, with an annual growth of 20 percent for the following three years. “As a young business, it is truly reward- ing to receive the SPARK FastTrack Award,” said Kieron Hales, founder and managing partner of Zingerman’s Cornman Farms. “It not only honors the vision I had several years ago to turn this historic property into a home away from home for our guests, but it also recog- nizes the hard work and dedication our entire team has put into this business to make it successful. “The biggest reward is that we can continue to share the farm’s history, as well as my family’s history and recipes, and provide a place for people to come together to celebrate life’s milestones over our farm-to-table fare, creating memories of their own.” Yeo & Yeo CPAs & Business Consultants sponsored the Ann Arbor SPARK FastTrack Awards and verified all the award applications. In addition to accounting partner Yeo & Yeo, Comcast Business supported the event as a co- presenting sponsor. • For more information on Zingerman’s Cornman Farms, visit www.cornmanfarms.com or call (734) 619-8100.