After a string of court decisions upholding a prisoner’s rights to kosher foods, a federal judge upheld the right of a New Hampshire State Prison to deny kosher food to an Orthodox prisoner because he ostensibly ate non-kosher foods.
Kuperman’s lawyers said that the prison’s withdrawal of kosher foods from Kuperman violated his First Amendment right to practice religion. A federal magistrate in 2007 ordered the State’s prisons to provide kosher food to prisoners that request them. While not wishing to pass judgment on Kuperman, several rabbis reached by KosherToday said they could see the prison’s point of denying kosher food to someone who also eats non-kosher.
One rabbi familiar with the prison system said that many states he knows never even ask whether the prisoner also eats non-kosher food. He said that he is familiar with Jewish prisoners who ask for the kosher fare on occasion, such as on Shabbat and holidays. The rabbi also said that some prisoners will eat non-kosher fare deducing that it is “only fish or vegetables.”
The debate seems moot at the moment since the prison has changed its policy.
(Source: KosherToday)
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8 Responses
nebach. how far we have fallen.
From a Yiddish point of view, he should be given kosher as often as possible. Every time he doesn’t eat non kosher, he’s saved from an Aveira.
From a legal point of view, why doesn’t he have the right to choose his level of religiousness? If he’s ready to eat non kosher when it’s not easy to find kosher, that’s his level of keeping to what if beleives he must keep. Just like with any Chumra that you take upon yourself. Many half religious Jews see the mitzvos as a nice traditional thing, or perhaps even as something that they really should be doing, and many other similar variations along these lines.
Haleivi(4) is absolutely right. If a Yid wants to eat kosher- you should and must give it to him !! Without regard as to what he eats any other time. This is so elementary that I cannot even see any other side to this argument.
Yes, if I were the one serving the food in the prison, I certainly would have to give it to him. But the question here is not if “You” should give it to him, or if “From a Yiddish point of view he should be given it,” but if the State Prison has to give it to him. And since they are not asking me, it is purely a legal question.
On the other hand it is very relevant to us. We must take mussar from this. There is always an eye watching us, and on the judgement day, if we say we did not do a mitzvah because we couldn’t, they will point out to us all the times we still didn’t when we could have!!
@#1 – unfortunately. @#4, etc – everytime a Yid eats kosher, it isn’t eating traif. these results can ultimately impact the Yid for the good. he must be entitled to kosher food. it isn’t for the secular sector to judge his level of orthodoxy.
HaLeiVi has some good points. I would respond that the penal system is not looking at this from a religious point of view. Providing kosher meals is more expensive. Why would they let a prisoner pick-and-choose when he wants kosher? Why should they pay the price (literally) so that he can practice religion when convenient? He may be just another prisoner trying to “pull one” on the system.
“A little light removes a lot of darkness”. Since when does infrequency of a mitzva devalue that mitzva when it is performed? A Jew should not be denied their right and obligation to perform any mitzva, no matter how many times they stumble.
#13, I beg to differ. The prison IS capable of accommodating requests for kosher meals. They are denying this prisoner his request. So, how can you agree with my statement, but only in selective situations?
Prisons accommodate OTHER prisoners who “get religion” in prison and all of a sudden become xtian bible thumpers or muslim. Should not the prison deny them certain privileges like attending services or obtaining hallel meals or sans pork meals by saying the prisoner didnt come into the prison that way? This prisoner is professed to being a Jew upon entry. All the more reason he deserves his request for anything to do with observance.