The China Olympics Are Not Kosher

by Irving “Yitz” Greenberg And Haskel Lookstein
Special To The Jewish Week

The Chinese government has authorized the establishment of a kosher kitchen at this summer’s Olympic Games, evidently in the hope of attracting Jewish tourists to the event. As Orthodox rabbis, we appreciate the efforts undertaken in recent years by various parties to make it possible to keep kosher even in far-flung corners of the globe. But what is at stake in China today is not just an issue of separating meat and milk. It is a question of whether to grant “kosher certification” to a regime that is enabling genocide in Sudan.

With the approach of Yom HaShoah, the day on which we remember the Nazi genocide (May 1, this year), it is time for world Jewry to declare: the Beijing Olympics are not

kosher.

In addition to the technical supervision of food preparation, there is an ethical dimension to kashrut, a dimension powerfully articulated by the early 19th-century scholar Rabbi Simcha Bunim of Psysha in his famous statement that food produced through the exploitation of workers is not kosher. Likewise Rabbi Yisrael Salanter, father of the Mussar movement, taught that the first thing to look at to make sure that the Passover matzah is properly prepared is the women baking the matzah; are they free from abuse and overwork?

We first wrote about this idea back in 1971, when we urged our congregants to support Cesar Chavez and the United Farm Workers Union in their struggle for better treatment of migrant laborers. We called on Jewish wine companies to avoid the purchase of grapes grown in California under exploitative conditions and we called on Jewish grocery shoppers to boycott non-union lettuce. People assume that all lettuce is kosher, but in our view, lettuce grown under intolerable conditions should be regarded as non-kosher.

That concept should be applied to the forthcoming Olympics in China.

The Chinese government’s oppressive policies have been graphically demonstrated in recent weeks by its mistreatment of the people of Tibet, not to mention such notorious past episodes as the Tiananmen Square massacre of 1989. Moreover, China’s friendship with Hamas and provision of advanced missile technology to Syria and Iran are cause for deep concern. And China is the single most important supporter of the genocidal government of Sudan.

Beijing is the largest foreign purchaser of Sudanese oil, the largest foreign investor in Sudan, and Sudan’s largest trading partner. China also provides arms to Sudan (in violation of the UN’s arms embargo). According to the Save Darfur Coalition, Chinese weapons and trucks have been used by the genocidal militias. China is the chief enabler of the genocide. As Jews living after the Holocaust, we feel particularly sensitive to genocide or potential genocide. We are keenly aware that during the Holocaust, the bystanders — local populations, the Allies (democracies and dictatorships alike) — which were indifferent to the persecution, enabled the aggressors to carry out their evil designs successfully. We feel that Jews should be extra strict — machmir — to avoid standing idly by while another person’s blood is spilled.

We remember all too well how Nazi Germany sought to attract visitors to the 1936 Olympics in order to distract attention from its persecution of the Jews. Hitler’s propaganda minister, Joseph Goebbels, called the 1936 games “a victory for the German cause.” The Chinese government is hoping for a propaganda victory of its own. Beijing would like to attract Jewish visitors to this year’s games, as part of its broader strategy of improving its image and deflecting attention from its complicity in severe human rights abuses at home and abroad.

Jews should not be party to the whitewashing of such a regime, kosher kitchen or no kosher kitchen. Enablers of genocide are not kosher. World Jewry should refrain from attending the Beijing Olympics.

Rabbi Irving “Yitz” Greenberg, left, is past president of Jewish Life Network and was chairman of the United States Holocaust Memorial Council from 2000-2002.
Rabbi Haskell Lookstein is the leader of Congregation Kehilath Jeshurun and the Ramaz School, and author of “Were We Our Brothers’ Keepers? The Public Response of American Jews to the Holocaust.” Research for this article was provided in part by The David S. Wyman Institute for Holocaust Studies.

Westchester Jewish Conference

Westchester’s Jewish Community Relations Organization