It isn't always private - I can remember a about a dozen years back, there was a bit of a kafuffle over certain Florida counties which had state-sponsored kosher inspectors. I don't remember what happened, but suspect they were dropped. Back when I worked in Manhatten, one of our programmers was a Conservative Jew - he always brought in his own lunch, and declined to join the rest of us in our forays into Chinatown. Every now and then I insisted that the lunch group let him pick the site, and once we wound up in a truely only-in-New York place; the Milky Way, a kosher dairy bar on lower Broadway with a spaceship theme. Among the gleaming chrome, black velvet, and fiberoptic stars, the black-clothed Hassiddim appeared almost surreal to this goy. (Imagine the closing scene from "History of the World, Part 1".) Peter Trei > Declan McCullagh[SMTP:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] > Protection racket? Nah. More like "I won't buy a lamp that's not > UL-certified" or "I won't buy a novel that Oprah doesn't recommend." > > Kosher rating systems are a wonderful example of private reputation > systems. There are hundreds of rating agencies; they seem to generally > coexist -- folks who are sufficiently interested can rely on whichever > they choose, or none at all. > > -Declan > > > On Mon, Apr 16, 2001 at 09:34:43PM -0500, Neil Johnson wrote: > > I was listening to a radio program on NPR (The cypherpunks favorite > statist > > medium :) ). > > > > They were discussing the problems with the certification of kosher food. > > > > Evidently there are many different organizations with differing ideas on > > what it takes to be kosher. > > > > They interviewed one restaurant owner who follows kosher practices and > has > > been certified by a rabbi. > > > > However, the local kosher certification organization says he isn't > because > > he doesn't have a full time rabbi on staff in the kitchen (who just > happens > > to HAVE to be from their organization). So most orthodox Jews won't eat > > there. > > > > Kind of sounds like a "protection racket" to me. > > > > Neil M. Johnson > > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > http://www.interl.net/~njohnson >