(no subject)

[Daniel Greenwood]

Eugene:

I think you are wrong on the Jewish law issue, as is Paul Finkelman.

As to wine, the Talmudic rule is that wine is rendered unkosher if it is

touched by anyone other than a shabbat-observant Jew.  Ethnicity isn't
enough.

As I understand it, modern wine processing is automatic and the wine
isn't touched by anyone.  See, e.g., Klein, A Guide To Jewish Religious
Practice.  Kosher wineries must have a rabbi to inspect the process,
perhaps continuously.  I don't know whether Manischevitz or other large
kosher wineries restrict employment in other positions, but I doubt it.
If they do, it would be to be doubly sure of no infringements, and
non-observant Jews would, no doubt, be more suspect than non-Jews.

As to grapes, I know of no restrictions on non-Jews.  Fruits and
vegetables are inherently kosher.

As to meat, the actual killing must be by a trained shochet, and there
must be rabbinical inspection to ensure that the shochet is slaughtering

correctly and that meat from individual unkosher animals (usually for
reasons of deformity) is not mixed in. Also that non-kosher animals,
such as pigs, are not slaughtered in the same location or where that
meat would come in contact with the kosher meat.   I believe that in
modern plants, kosher and non-kosher, nearly all jobs would be
unaffected by these regulations.  There are no bars on meat handling by
non-Jews.

I doubt that any Orthodox Rabbi would approve of a shochet who was
non-Orthodox or non-observant:  why would you trust someone who you know

does not observe the commandments to observe them?

For both rabbis and shochets, who are critically concerned with
enforcing religious obligations, religious observance -- and specific
religious training -- seems like an easy BFOQ.  The BFOQ claim goes well

beyond a "felt obligation to have only members of a certain religion
perform a certain job" -- the position holder is performing a religious
obligation on behalf of the entire community as a representative of the
community.   How could that be done by an outsider?

On the other hand, I'm sure there must be fringe communities that fear
that a non-community member might interfere with an otherwise kosher
process -- by deliberately putting a ham sandwich into the machine or
following a different rabbi's practices -- and therefore would restrict
employment in an entire food processing plant to trusted community
members.  Mere Jewishness couldn't possibly suffice for this concern:  a

true believer in an alternative sect's practices would be far more
threatening than an outsider.   This is a more difficult BFOQ problem:
if fear of the other is a basis for discrimination, nothing much can be
left of anti-discrimination principles.  In effect, these fringe groups
would be asking for a Amish-like license to secede from the general
society, or, if they were not fringe but dominant, for a Jim Crow-like
right to exclude.


--
Daniel J.H. Greenwood
University of Utah College of Law