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June 13, 2003/Sivan 13 5763, Vol. 55, No. 42
McDonald's to sponsor kosher ed
RACHEL POMERANCE
Jewish Telegraphic Agency
NEW YORK - McDonald's and kashrut? Only in Israel, one might think.
But an Illinois court ruled May 20 that the world's most ubiquitous burger joint must sink $1 million into education about Judaism's kosher laws.
The money is part of $10 million that McDonald's must divide among a variety of plaintiffs after it was found that french fries and hash browns advertised as vegetarian in fact contained some beef flavoring.
The ruling by the Cook County circuit court ended a lawsuit that cobbled together class-action suits by plaintiffs around the country.
Ultimately, $6 million was assigned to vegetarian groups, $2 million to Hindu and Sikh organizations, $1 million to children's charities and $1 million to Jewish groups.
Jeff Rubin, director of communications for Hillel: The Foundation for Jewish Campus Life - which will receive $300,000 in the settlement - compared the case to the Hanukkah miracle.
"It's another positive thing that came out of hot oil," he said. "This will help us to promote an understanding of kashrut on college campuses around the world."
The plaintiff's lawyers determined the allocation based on the number of individuals that likely were affected by the mislabeling, said Cory Fein, a Houston lawyer who coordinated the allocation recommendations.
The following five Jewish groups were selected to divide the $1 million:
- Jewish Community Centers Association will receive $200,000 to develop curricula about kosher food laws and practices. The curricula will be distributed to JCCs throughout the country and staff will be trained to develop new educational programs.
- The Orthodox Union will receive $150,000 for education about kosher observances via meetings and publications and on its Web site. The money also will go toward educating kosher food supervisors.
- Star-K/Torah.org will receive $300,000 to expand its Web site to offer an online, interactive course for schools, hospitals, synagogues and others on creating and maintaining a kosher kitchen. Among other services, the site will provide research on the kosher status of nutritional supplements.
- CLAL - National Jewish Center for Learning and Leadership will get $50,000 to host conferences on kashrut and disseminate the resulting ideas.
- Two-thirds of Hillel's allotment will go toward building and renovating kosher dining facilities on campus. The remaining amount will be used for an educational program, "You Are What You Eat: A Kashrut Conversation," and to supply students with kosher recipes.
Several other Jewish organizations supplied educational proposals for consideration, but the lawyers wanted to select only a handful of groups.
"We wanted to come up with a relatively small number of groups so that the money would have some impact at the end of the day," Fein told JTA.
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