Wish List 2004 - Update
In this week’s Kosher Today newsletter (locally archived copy), there’s encouraging news about one of our long-shot Wish List wishes. Nope, it’s not pareve chicken… it’s kashrut standards. Rabbi Sholem Fishbane of the CRC “has agreed to coordinate a revitalized AKO,” the Association of Kashrus Organizations. Originally convened “to solve common problems, share information…, and to project a united voice on kashrus,” the group will meet after Kosherfest in the New York headquarters of the Orthodox Union.
On the agenda:
* a universal definition for foods not requiring certification (”Category 1″)
* a plan for emergency kashrus situations
* basic guidelines for minimal, mutually acceptable standards
The agenda items sound promising. I’m going to try to find out more from the folks involved — especially which agencies are members — and I’ll report anything I dig up.
How exciting! If anything comes of this conference it would serve as a valuable resource for helping the newly observant (and those on their way), understand what, precisely, normative kashrus standards are in America. One of the saddest facets of Orthodoxy today is the cloud enshrouding what Orthodox observance actually mandates, versus the community’s latest chumra de jour.Although I am a little sad that its not pareve chicken