c. 1996 Religion News Service

NEW YORK (RNS)-It wasn’t the $11,000 fine that hurt the most, say Long Island butchers Brian and Jeffrey Yarmeisch. It was the damage to their reputation in the Jewish community after they were cited in 1993 for violating New York state’s kosher food laws.

Though the fine was soon rescinded, the publicity resulted in a drop-off of more than 20 percent of their business, they say. So, three years later, the owners of Commack Self-Service Kosher Meats in Commack, N.Y., filed a federal lawsuit in January to overturn the state’s kosher-food inspection laws.

The suit contends New York’s enforcement of religious dietary laws”amounts to an active promotion and recognition of the Jewish religion”in violation of the First Amendment. The brothers are seeking unspecified monetary damages for their loss in business.

Kosher-food inspection laws are on the books in about 20 states. Recent court cases have overturned similar laws in the city of Baltimore and in New Jersey.

Supporters say such laws do not govern religion but merely regulate truth in advertising.”We look at it as a consumer protection issue, much like labeling for low fat, low sodium or low sugar,”said Keith Stack, first deputy commissioner of New York’s Department of Agriculture and Markets.

Sellers of kosher foods-whether retailers such as the Yarmeisches or wholesalers-have their products inspected privately by rabbis or organizations known as supervisors. The Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America, for example, inspects foods at more than 3,000 sites nationwide, and its seal-a U inside an O-is commonly seen on kosher products.

New York state inspectors do not apply their own seal, but they check to ensure vendors are complying with kosher standards.

In the case of Commack Kosher, an inspector cited the store for failing to label 19 packages of turkey thighs as either being”soaked and salted”or”not soaked and salted.”Kosher guidelines require that meat must be soaked and salted to remove all blood.

The state fined the Yarmeisches $11,000 but later rescinded the penalty after the brothers successfully argued that the turkey thighs were still in storage and had not been packaged for sale yet.

But the damage, say the brothers, was done when the state, following regulations, published the notice of violation in prominent local Jewish publications.”In the Jewish community an allegation that a purportedly kosher facility acted in contravention of the laws governing kashruth (Jewish kosher law) is a reflection upon the integrity and reliability of the proprietors of the purportedly kosher facility,”the lawsuit says.

Brian Yarmeisch, in his only comment to RNS on the case, said the accusation stung.”My brother and I are the most honest people you’ll ever find in this business,”he said.

The state and the Yarmeisches’ lawyer, Robert Dinerstein, have been negotiating a possible settlement, although at present Dinerstein is still seeking a jury trial.

Experts say kosher-inspection laws run into trouble when a state gets too active in trying to determine exactly what is kosher. There are obvious areas of consensus, such as the rule requiring soaking and salting. Other examples include requiring that animals be slaughtered in ritual fashion, no mixing of milk and meat, and no pork or shellfish.

Disagreements center on minutiae, such as whether certain processed food can be considered kosher if its origins were non-kosher.

States that leave such matters aside and stick to the basics have a much better chance of having their laws upheld on consumer-protection grounds, experts say.”If a government is getting into the business of deciding what the appropriate standards are for kashruth, that’s when problems arise,”said Harlan A. Loeb, assistant director of national legal affairs for the Anti-Defamation League, which combats anti-Semitism and advocates strict separation of church and state.

But, he added,”The kosher consumer is entitled to the same protection as any other consumer of any product.” Rabbi Moshe Tendler, who served three decades on New York’s Kashruth Advisory Board, which guides the state on its kosher-food regulations, said the state has faced few complaints because it stayed away from debates over details.”We were careful never to get involved in a case where there was a disagreement within Jewish law,”said Tendler, a microbiologist who teaches Talmud and medical ethics at Yeshiva University in New York.”As long as there was some defense of it being kosher, we would accept it.” Tendler said New Jersey’s law was overturned-in a 1992 decision that was upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court-because officials there delved too deeply in determining what is kosher.

New Jersey’s current law requires only that vendors of kosher food display the name of the supervisor who declared the food kosher.

Jewish consumers who are more concerned about specifics of kashruth should be sure the supervisors of the products they are purchasing agree with their interpretations, experts say.

Federal authorities require that meats and other foods be kosher if they are labeled as such, and they have the authority to seize falsely labeled products or to halt interstate shipments. But the Food and Drug Administration and the Department of Agriculture do not inspect products for being kosher, relying instead on the private kosher supervisors to alert them to any violations. FDA spokesman Arthur Whitmore said no violations have been reported in recent memory.

The market for kosher food includes others besides Jews. Muslims, who have similar dietary laws as Jews, seek kosher food, as do consumers with dietary problems such as lactose intolerance.

MJP END SMITH