Maryland prison officials say inmates would continue to be offered the choice of kosher meals beyond Pesach.
The Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services announced in March it would offer kosher meals during Pesach to any inmates who are observant Jews.
The agency said that after Pesach ends, it will continue offering kosher meals three times daily to any of the approximately 130 inmates registered as Jewish, House of Yahweh, or Assembly of Yahweh.
Two Jewish inmates have sued the state prison agency, contending they were denied their right to religious freedom because the prisons didn’t offer kosher meals.
The agency said the religious diet program won’t add to food service costs.
(Source: Star Tribune)
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4 Responses
One is not supposed to print out the shem Hashem in any shape or form or try to pronounce the Yud-Kay-Vov-kay the way it is spelled.
Now that kosher food will be served ,will they have “reliable hashgocho” and also 3 minyonim daily?
#2 –
They’re probably religions of “elohim achayrim” in which case one would be allowed to.
The House of … is a Black Hebrew outfit. They’re not Jewish but strive to hold by halacha, although I can’t say to what degree. I know a mohel who they asked to perform a bris, and he did so with an invalid bracha.
As for the rest of the story I have mixed feelings. I’m glad that prisoners who make tshuva and are serious about it can have access to kosher food. What is depressing to me, however, is the large number of so-called frum Jews who commit crimes whether it be drugs or some kind of white-collar crime including tax evasion and failure to pay child support. The idea that in many prisons you could make a minyan should be shocking to every Torah Jew and raise questions about whether we share any responsibility for allowing such people to commit crimes.
A lot of people are in prison for doing things that are neither forbidden nor immoral, but happen to be against the law. There’s nothing wrong with that. There’s no shame in it. Why is it shocking? Why shouldn’t we allow people to commit such crimes?
In any case, whether people are serious or not, the main thing is that they’re not eating treif.