ou response of the day

this in no way is a communication from the OU office to the public.  this is a modified version of a response i wrote today that i thought was entertaining enough to share:

Thank you for checking with the OU on your Kashruth question.

 

We’re sorry that you couldn’t have the drink you preferred with your meal.  We understand that it can be very frustrating to not have the ideal complement available to fully round out the meal.

 

In your first email you hit the nail on the head – it is politics.  Let us explain what that means.  We are a certifying agency, one of numerous agencies worldwide.  Various Hashgachoth have all different standards, none of which will we evaluate for the public.

 

It’s quite simple really – for us to allow in food from Hashgacha A and not Hashgacha B would lead to questions from consumers, similar to the one you posed.  However, they’d be more pointed, wanting to know why we are willing to rely on one agency and not another.

 

Beyond evaluating other Hechsherim (which we also do not have the time to do, given that there are so many, and we prefer to dedicate our resources to the products that we certify), we could also open ourselves up to lawsuits.  Imagine the uproar if it were published in a Jewish newspaper or magazine that the OU approves of Hashgacha A, but Hashgacha B is questionable.

 

To avoid this situation completely, we rely only on the products that we certify ourselves for the food establishments that are under our supervision.  Regardless of which Hashgachoth we may use, Israeli hotels we may frequent, or specific products we may eat, OU policy must stand.

 

In the same way that you rely on Rabbi *** to provide Halachic guidance for you, we rely on Rav Moshe Feinstein (who gave the Psak regarding milk in America). We are sorry to learn that you do not think highly of Rav Moshe’s Kashruth standards.  We’re not sure if you’re trying to imply that Rav Moshe was bribed by the local Dairy farmers to give the Psak, but we can assure you that he was not.

We’re happy to hear that you otherwise enjoyed your meals, and hopefully your full stay here.

I"ll leave it to you, my happy reading public, to imagine what the original letter said.