Where’s the beef?
Help me out here:
A production company has rented the lunchroom we share with our landlords, the United Jewish Communities of MetroWest NJ. Apparently they are shooting a commercial for Wendy’s. (I’m not privy to the script, but it seems they needed a non-descript corporate space and a shot of a loading dock. Nothing in the shoot suggests it is a Jewish-owned or -operated setting.) I assume they are paying rent, and will leave behind the improvements they have made to the room, including carpeting, fresh paint and curtains.
A fellow Jewish newspaper editor thinks we have a scandal on our hands, writing:
A treif commercial filmed in a Jewish federation a non-story? C’mon. How could people not want to read about that?
I responded:
I think it is a non-story, except to the degree that people will be more fascinated than outraged. They are renting a non-descript lunchroom at cost, unidentifiable in whatever comes of it….I applaud their efforts at raising revenue.
Are they actually eating Wendy’s at the shoot? Not clear. But in the years I have worked here, employees in the building, which includes our offices, the federation’s, and a JCC, eat both kosher or nonkosher lunches at their desks or in the lunchroom. The many non-Jewish employees certainly do not bring kosher food. The microwaves are not considered kosher by those who keep kosher.
So what do you think — is this a scandal in the making, or a simple business arrangement that leaves a charitable institution with a little more income and some capital improvements?
[UPDATE: My spy reports the film crew is using latex hamburgers. She's not sure about the french fries.]
JustASC is written by Andrew Silow-Carroll, Editor-in-Chief of the 
August 14th, 2008 at 12:46 pm
I agree with the latter… it benefits UJA in the long run and is a minor inconvenience.
But the campus should absolutely clarify and spell out for its employees what its kosher policy is once and for all — and how kashrut comes into play when UJA events are held in the atrium, etc. (that could be a story in itself!)
August 14th, 2008 at 3:11 pm
I agree with you and Lori. Unless there is someone who is outraged by this prior to a story being written about it, this is a non-story. In fact, I will go a step further and say that your fellow journalist should be ashamed of trying to create a problem just so that a story can be written about it. The press (not you of course!) seem to have lost perspective on the difference between reporting the news and making the news.
August 14th, 2008 at 9:07 pm
Andy:
The fact that a non-kosher fast-food chain is a using a Jewish facility is, at the very least, a curiosity. Personally, I don’t think it’s much of a scandal. But even if we are to assume that no one is upset by either the kashrut issue or the ethical aspect (at least in the view of some people) of letting a business that sells unhealthy food and which targets children use a Jewish facility, it is the sort of thing that would rate a mention in the news briefs.
But I know that it would be difficult for your paper — or mine — to report even in the most dispassionate manner — about an issue that concerns our publishers and which might — at least in some eyes — embarrass them.
August 15th, 2008 at 8:28 am
It’s ridiculous. There are wars going on in like 5 countries now? Don’t people have enough to be upset about?
August 15th, 2008 at 9:40 am
My original interlocutor points off-line that I am the only one to use the word “scandal” in our correspondence. My colleague was merely pointing out that the story was juicy and of reader interest, even if only as one of the lighter items we include in our “Kolbo” page of quirky news. As Jonathan says, a “curiosity.”
Sorry for the mischaracterization.
August 15th, 2008 at 1:18 pm
Andy,
Here’s my Israeli ‘curiousity’ – I do my Pilates in a dance studio that shares a building with Chabad. All day you see two kinds of people go in and out – haredi men and scantily clad women…
So I agree it would only be a story if somebody protested…
Allison
August 18th, 2008 at 10:22 am
It might be have been a problem is there were some violation of laws governing use of a building that is owned by a non-profit, or if a muckraker with a “beef” were to act out. Or if it were a kosher lunchroom, and non-kosher foods were being used in a way that violated the kashrut regs.
But getting capital improvements by a mega-corporation? I hate to mix milchigs with fleishigs, but….
“I’m lovin’ it.”
Lynda
August 18th, 2008 at 10:33 am
No kosher regs apply in the lunchroom, except at Passover, for some reason — at least none that I as a tenant or the employees are aware of.
August 19th, 2008 at 1:34 am
Since your room is not Kosher I don’t see a problem.
The only problem may be that certain people may not buy your paper just like if El Al flies on Shabbat,
but that don’t last to long.
I say if you can earn a profit then why not as long as they don’t mention in their adverts where the film was shot.