JustASC

Gutsy op-ed in the Times today by Rabbi Shmuel Herzfeld about the Agriprocessors scandal. He faults the Rabbinical Council of America and the Orthodox Union, both groups of which he is a member, for falling “far short of what is needed to be done” and having “done little to diminish the extent of the desecration of God’s name.” He calls on the OU to

appoint an independent commission whose members have not in the past been paid by either the Orthodox Union or Agriprocessors.

Shmuel was mentored in “Open Orthodoxy” by Rabbi Avi Weiss, and revitalized a struggling Ohev Sholom congregation in Washington (which he modestly renamed The National Synagogue) by dint of his personality, vision, and knack for publicity (the good kind). 

Rabbi Weiss has been highly critical of the Times in the past for perceived anti-Israel bias, and was among the rabbis who joined a boycott of the paper in 2002. It’s worth noting that one of his proteges would use its pages as a platform to pressure Orthodox authorities.

And good for him. The kashrut authorities should have been way ahead of the grassroots in demanding accountability by Agriprocessors.