There have been many stories from around the globe of people who have protested the slaughter of innocent children and civilians in Gaza because of the “collective punishment” inflicted upon the Palestinians by the Israelis. Perhaps, hopefully, you are a moral person also and object to this.
While you may think that it is enough to voice your disapproval of these horrific acts in news threads or on blogs, you probably do not know that you have be forced to pay for the bullets, phosphorous bombs and mortar rounds that have be targeted on UN refuges, hospitals and schools in Gaza. NO? Actually, YES!
Every time you buy a product in the grocery store you are paying a portion of the price for that product to Israel so support the disgusting Zionist racism that is causing the carnage. It’s called the “Kosher Tax” but don;t let that name deceive you. It has nothing to do with the product being “kosher”… in fact, it is on such items as sanitary napkins, aluminum foil and even pork products! It’s an evil scheme to take your money, like it or not, and send it to support Israel’s genocide of the Palestinians. Just continue reading…
The “U” Tax!
© By Geraldo Fuentes (2014)
Get ready to be freaked out.
To some it is an old story, hardly newsworthy. To others it is evidence of a world conspiracy suggesting “the Mark of the Beast.” For me, it’s something quite frightening. It’s called “The Kosher Tax.”
According to the Official 2010 Census, there are approximately 6.5-million people in the USA who describe themselves as being ethnically Jewish. That’s a whopping 2.1% of the population. Of these 6.5-million, less than 25% admit to being Orthodox, attend Temple or are otherwise religious. That’s a population about the size of Philadelphia.
The 1.6-million Jews that observe traditions of the Torah and Talmud adhere to strict dietary laws that prohibit certain food combinations, methods of slaughter and eating certain “unclean” animals, such as pork and bottom-feeders like lobsters.
Food that meets these strict requirements must be supervised in its production by a Rabbi and only then will it be certified as “Kosher”. These foods are marked in a special way by affixing a Kosher symbol on the product’s label. The most common one in America is the letter “U” inside a circle, or the letter “K” — but there are many more.
So what? You don’t buy Kosher food — or do you?
Take a minute right now to check out your kitchen pantry or that bag of chips you’re munching. If you’re like me, you will be shocked to see that just about everything has one of these Kosher symbols on it. (Go ahead, I’ll wait for you to return…)
It seems that just about everyone in the USA — all 307,006,550 of us — are regularly buying Kosher food and paying this tax. That’s quite surprising, don’t you think?
Manufacturers claim that the increase in food prices due to this tax is “minuscule”, yet reports claim that the tax is levied on more than 400,000 products in 8,000 plants in 80 different countries. The Union (U) employs approximately 1,000 supervisors, mashgichimin Hebrew, and about 50 rabbinic coordinators. But they are not the only ones doing this. The next largest is Rabbi Bernard Levy’s “Committee For The Furtherance of Torah Observance” which uses the “K” symbol. Canadian Kosher products are stamped with the letters “COR” which stands for “Council of Orthodox Rabbis”. If you’re in another country, chances are they have a special organization collecting the tax and affix a special symbol on your food. Here’s a partial collection below.
Some more surprises!
What’s even more surprising is that some of the Kosher certified products are certainlyNOT produced for Jews. Consider the Premium Relish for Pork [below]. What’s up with that? Remember, pork is a definite no-no for those keeping Kosher.
This is NOT about Jews! It’s about ZIONISM!
When I tried to get information about the tax I was told by some Jewish organizations that I was anti-Semitic and my question was some kind of hate crime. That’s the “ace up their sleeve” to discredit anyone who objects to the murderous policies of the Zionist regime. Hey, I’m Mexican-American and I’m the last one to single anyone out for their race. This is about a morality and I’d be questioning it if it were Irish Catholics or my own Latino people who were doing this.
The Jewish Anti-Defamation League even sent me a pamphlet, claiming that many non-Jews prefer products with the Kosher certification, believing that it assures them of hygiene and purity. So I thought I’d test this hypothesis by taking a stroll through my local Safeway supermarket and speaking candidly with some fellow customers.
My first shopper was buying olive oil. After I introduced myself, I asked if he knew what the circle-U symbol on the bottle meant. “No, I have no idea.”
In the next aisle, an elderly woman was buying some chocolate cake mix. Did she know about the circle-U symbol? “I really never noticed it before. What does it mean?”
This continued with dozens of random customers until I was approached by a member of Safeway’s customer service who likely thought I was soliciting in their store. “Can I help you with something, Sir?” Sure enough, not even she could explain what it meant. She was shocked to see it on everything and when I saw her a few minutes later, after she had checked the products in many different aisles, she said, “I’m going to go crazy now that you’ve shown this to me. It’s on everything. What does it mean?”
Only one customer came close. “Oh, the U… it means the company used union labor, I think.” Close, but as they say in America, no cigar.
Another thing that kind of defeats the argument that non-Jews prefer Kosher products is that product labels appearing in advertisements usually have the Kosher indicia airbrushed out, except in Jewish trade magazines, where they feature red arrows to draw attention to the Kosher symbol. Hmmm.
“Kosher doesn’t taste any better; kosher isn’t healthier; kosher doesn’t have less salmonella. You can eat a Holly Farm chicken which sells for 39 cents a pound on sale, and next taste a Kosher chicken selling for $1.69 a pound, and not tell the difference. There’s a lot of money to be made! Religion is not based on logic!” – The Washington Post (November 2, 1987)
Billions of dollars? Do the math!
Back in 2003, Menachem Lubinsky, editor of Kosher Today, a New York-based newsletter, said the number of certified kosher products had soared from 16,000 in 1977 to 80,000, including such well-known food items as Oreo cookies. He said about a third of all supermarket items were certified kosher. In 2003, kosher foods comprised about $170 billion of the $500 billion in U.S. food sales.
That was then… this is now. Today the figures are shocking: Kosher certification is on over 400,000 food items, about 80% of the 1.508-trillion US dollars [*] spent on food and beverages annually! — source. Do the math… That’s some serious “minuscule” money!
Well, this is too weird. So I throw the question out to the public and seek an explanation. Why are 300-million non-Jews in America paying a tax that benefits a small, “minuscule” portion of the population. Perhaps there is a perfectly good answer — anyone?
Now, now…
Now some hateful people will claim that the money collected from this Kosher Tax is going to support the State of Israel. Many will have no problem with that, but some will. Before you get upset about this, the Anti-Defamation League’s pamphlet assures us that it is not. According to their pamphlet the money goes to the Rabbis who make the inspections and the dozens of organizations associated with the various Kosher indicia. I don’t know otherwise and apparently we have to take their word on this. But, wait a minute…
According to Wikipedia, The Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations (U):
“…supports a network of synagogues, youth programs, Jewish and Religious Zionist advocacy, programs for the disabled, localized religious study programs, and some international units with locations in Israel and formerly in Ukraine.”
Religious Zionist are described by Wikipedia as follows:
“Religious Zionists are observant Jews who support Zionist efforts to build a Jewish state in the Land of Israel.”
Leaving that controversy for a moment, some interesting things have been in the news of late. Most significant was the charge by some Kosher authorities that Hebrew National Kosher Hot Dogs were — ready for this? — NOT Kosher!
|
June 18 (Reuters) – ConAgra Foods Inc has been sued by consumers who contend that hot dogs and other products sold under its Hebrew National brand are not kosher.The lawsuit alleges that meat processing services provided to ConAgra by privately held AER Services Inc fell short of the standards necessary to label Hebrew National products as kosher. As a result, they said, ConAgra misled consumers and was able to charge premium prices.
Eleven individual consumers filed their complaint in May in Minnesota state court. ConAgra moved the case this month to a federal court in St. Paul. The lawsuit was reported last week by American Jewish World, a publication based in Minnesota. According to the complaint, Omaha, Nebraska-based ConAgra marks Hebrew National packages with a “Triangle K” symbol, and represents that the contents are kosher “as defined by the most stringent Jews who follow Orthodox Jewish law. ” But the plaintiffs said in the complaint that AER supervisors “did little or nothing” to address employee complaints that the meat processed for ConAgra was non-kosher. They also said Skokie, Illinois-based AER fired or threatened retaliation against those who complained. ConAgra spokeswoman Teresa Paulsen said in a statement on Monday: “While we can’t comment on pending litigation, we stand behind the quality of Hebrew National and its kosher status.” AER is not a defendant in the lawsuit. “The allegations in the complaint regarding AER are completely and utterly false,” Shlomoh Ben-David, AER’s president, said in a telephone interview. “There is no basis for them, and they are without any merit.” ConAgra has long used the slogan “we answer to a higher authority” to promote Hebrew National products. The plaintiffs are seeking unspecified damages and an injunction against further mislabeling. Their lawsuit seeks class-action status for U.S. purchasers of Hebrew National products over the last four years, and alleges negligence and violations of state consumer fraud laws. “This is an invisible fraud,” Hart Robinovitch, a lawyer for the plaintiffs, said in a phone interview. “How does a consumer who thinks he is buying kosher meat really know he is buying kosher meat? It’s a very, very difficult thing for a consumer to detect, unless someone investigates.” Other ConAgra brands include Chef Boyardee, Healthy Choice, Peter Pan and Reddi-wip, and are not part of the lawsuit. ConAgra shares closed down 2 cents at $24.95 on the New York Stock Exchange. The case is Wallace et al v. ConAgra Foods Inc, U.S. District Court, District of Minnesota, No. 12-01354. |
Is there “meat” in Coca Cola?
Rabbi Tobias Geffen was an Orthodox Rabbi living in Atlanta — the home of Coca Cola. When he was asked by his congregation whether Coca Cola was Kosher, he approached the company and asked to see a list of ingredients. The exact formula for Coca Cola is one of the most guarded and secrets any company (second only to how much the U-tax costs), so this was a big problem.
In a brilliant decision, the manufacturers gave the Rabbi a list of ingredients which included the real ingredients, but also listed many other items not used in the making of the soft drink. The Rabbi was asked if anything on the list was a problem. According to The Jewish Virtual Library:
“When Geffen was given the list of ingredients, he discovered that one of them was glycerin made from non-kosher beef tallow. Even though a laboratory chemist told Geffen that the glycerin was present in only one part per thousand (one part in 60 is dilute enough to earn kosher certification), Geffen informed the Coca-Cola Company that, since this glycerin was a planned rather than accidentally added ingredient, observant Jews could not knowingly tolerate its inclusion. Coke failed to meet Geffen’s standards.Back at the company’s laboratories, research scientists went to work finding a substitute for tallow-based glycerin and discovered that Proctor and Gamble produced a glycerin from cottonseed and coconut oil. When they agreed to use this new ingredient, Geffen gave his hecksher, or seal of approval, for Coke to be marketed as kosher.” [source]
But the controversy, first revealed by the Kosher test, remains today. Consider this brochure from Burger King which describes their Coca Cola “Classic”, apparently reverting to the old recipe.
Source: www.rense.com
Countries Ban Kosher Meat Because of Cruelty
When animals are slaughtered today, they are usually stunned with a metal bolt that is thrust against their skull, sometimes piercing it, and rendering them unconscious. That’s a good thing for the unfortunate animal because what follows is even worse. The animal has its throat cut and is hung up on a hook, skinned and disemboweled. You certainly wouldn’t want an animal to consciously face that horrible suffering. Not only is it bad for the animal but the release of adrenaline and other hormones associated with a painful death permeate the meat through the blood and, some say, can effect those who eat it.
But Kosher tradition requires that the animal NOT be stunned. Instead, it must be kept conscious and alive while it pumps its own blood out through its severed neck arteries and veins. Animal activists have deemed this practice cruel and have demanded that it be stopped.
Five European countries have banned Kosher killing methods [source] and the latest to join them is New Zealand. This has caused the Jewish community to claim that such acts constitute anti-Semitism and their refuting arguments begin by mentioning Hitler.
“One of the first steps in Adolf Hitler’s anti-Semitic drive in the creation of his Third Reich was instituting a ban on the kosher slaughter of animals.Today, as a new wave of ugly, and sometimes violent, anti-Semitism sweeps through the European continent, at least five countries have banned kosher food production, and one of them is considering halting all import of kosher meat.”
It’s a controversy that threatens the heart of Kosher tradition and practice. And it’s one that I will not even touch… and one that I’m sure will keep me awake with bad dreams tonight.
No Reply from the Big-U
I wrote to the Union (U) and asked them specifically about the aluminum foil and pork relish, but have not received a reply. Perhaps you can help.
The next time you go to your local supermarket, look around at who’s in there. It’s likely not Jews, Seventh Day Adventists, Hindus or other people, worried about their faith’s dietary laws. No, it’s hard working people trying to take care of their families in these difficult economic times. It’s people who have their own beliefs who expect others to leave them alone and not tax them each time they buy milk or cookies for their children. It’s people who would likely get angry if they thought they were contributing even a penny to a country with whose policies they don’t agree.
I put the question out there for someone to answer: Why would a manufacturer of things like aluminum foil or Pork relish feel obligated to be endorsed by such a “minuscule” population, making the majority of its customers pay a tax that has no relevance to them?… Just asking.
Now, back to my kosher Ravioli and kosher Dunkin Donuts coffee! Mmmmmmm!
Kosher tax? Heck, anyone who pays ANY taxes in the US is being forced to send money to Israel. And some of us are pretty pissed off about it.
On the kosher slaughter issue, I’m glad some countries are banning it. How a person treats animals is an excellent indicator of character. Not that we needed any further indication of the psychopathy of those who have been slaughtering the Palestinians for years.
Easy to understand how just about every country either threw the bastards out or discriminated big time everywhere. Only in these present corrupt times are they accepted and allowed to blackmail the whole world. How did they do it by extreme wealth which invariably leads to power and control.