Kosher campaign: letter of inquiry

[Timothy_Fitzpatrick]

Source: http://fitzinfo.wordpress.com/2012/10/2 ... f-inquiry/



By Timothy Fitzpatrick

Reverend Ted Pike found success earlier this year cancelling the Jewish-run Good Christian Bitches television program through a co-ordinated emailing campaign requesting advertizers of the show to withdraw their support. The show was cancelled (http://www.truthtellers.org/alerts/GCBCanceled.html), and we all lived happily ever after, at least for now.

Maybe we can find similar success with the following simple letter campaign.

I have drafted a letter of inquiry for folks to send to food and product companies from whom you purchase your goods. Chances are that most of your products are certified kosher (See: The "Kosher Nostra Scam" on the American Consumer - http://aztlan.net/koshernostra.htm). It requests information pertaining to the kosher certification of the product in question. Let's find out if and what we are being charged through this hidden religious tax. If the campaign is successful in obtaining the desired information, we will proceed with the second step, which is a letter of request to abandon kosher certification or face boycott.

In the link below is a letter template you can use, or feel free to make your own. But I have been informed that a letter of inquiry is the most appropriate measure at this time. I would advise against wording your letters in a way that might come off as anti-Semitic or reveals the second step in this campaign*. My template is fairly benign and to the point. I would suggest sending this by fax or print through your postal service; letters are always more formal that way. However, an email is fine as well. And, if you can, take a photo or find a photo online of the product in question an submit it with your letter. If and when you get a response from the company, please post it here in the comments section.

Letter of Inquiry Template - http://fitzinfo.files.wordpress.com/201 ... paign.docx

Copy and paste the following if you cannot open the above linked file:

[Your name]
[Address, phone number, email, etc.]

Date: [Insert Date]

[Recipient's name, like president or manager of company]
[FoodProduct Company Name]
[Address 1]

Dear [Recipient]:

I am inquiring about a symbol(s) located on the label of your product, which I regularly consume. (See attached photo of product and label). I was wondering whether it is a kosher certification mark. If so, I would like to know how much your company spends certifying this product as kosher. Is the certification cost passed on to me, the consumer? If so, how much? Are all your products certified kosher? When did you begin certifying your products this way and why?

I respectfully request your prompt response to this matter as a valued patron of your business, and I thank you in advance for this response.

Sincerely,

[Your Name]

[FrankDialogue]

Source: http://fitzinfo.wordpress.com/2012/10/2 ... f-inquiry/

Here is the Jewish 'answer':

Attacks on the labeling of food with the symbols for kashruth (traditional Jewish dietary laws) have been a standard ploy of anti-Jewish bigots in the U.S. for decades. Such symbols as the " [kosher certification] " emblem of the Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations (UOJC), among others, confirm that products are kosherói.e., that foods and production processes have been inspected by competent rabbis from the respective organizations and found to be in compliance with Jewish dietary law.
 
The cost to the consumer for this service is a miniscule fraction of the total production overhead; it is so negligible in practical terms as to be virtually non-existent. A May 18, 1975 New York Times article reported that the cost to General Foods' "Bird's Eye" Unit, for example, is 6.5 millionths (.0000065) of a cent per item. Furthermore, a representative of the Heinz Company has said that the per item cost is "so small we can't even calculate it," and that such labeling actually makes products less costly by increasing the market for them.
 
Indeed, according to marketing manager Steven Zamichow, quoted in the Washington Post, "Entenmann's Inc. received kosher certification in 1981 and sales of [its] baked goods 'increased substantially.' " Visits to the Entenmann's plant from a "mashgiach" or kashruth inspector, are provided by the Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America. The UOJC is one of several groups that maintain such a kosher inspection service, certifying foods and related products to be in compliance with Jewish dietary laws through all phases of production. The profit from these products goes, of course, to the companies that manufacture them and the stores that sell them, not to "the Jews."

But, you see, they never talk about the actual amount paid out yearly in fees for these certifications, and the amount paid to each organization that certifies food as kosher.

This should be a quite easy accounting task, as companies have books on every expenditure going out, or money coming in...In other words, they account for cost of labor, production costs, advertising costs, transportation costs when they do their books...Yet this fee is supposed to be 'so miniscule' they have no books on it.

Of course, this is ridiculous.