Rethinking what it means to be kosher

The Conservative movement of Judaism, moving beyond the traditional rules for kosher food, is offering a new seal of approval that would reflect working conditions, treatment of animals, and the environment. The Globe's Irene Sege reports:

"This is an example of the Conservative movement at its best," said Rabbi Wes Gardenswartz of Temple Emanuel in Newton, the region's largest Conservative congregation. "It's adhering to an ancient tradition and at the same time living with ethics and sensitivity to other people."

But not everyone is so thrilled:

Rabbi Chaim Wolosow of the Chabad Center of Sharon, an outreach arm of the ultra-Orthodox Lubavitch movement, is skeptical. "It's an insult to all the religious people and the Orthodox people and all the people who have the highest standards," he said. "It's saying they don't care about the workers and the animals. This assumes the Orthodox people who give hekhshers have not been doing that."

(Photo, by Essdras Suarez of the Globe staff, shows meat freezers at the Butcherie, a kosher grocer in Brookline.)