Kosher L’Pesach certification does nothing to improve the quality of the chocolate for the festival celebration and actually limits choices, increases costs, diminishes taste and undermines the powerful messages of the Chag. While Passover themed chocolate in the shape of matzah or the Seder plate
chocolate seder plate
or other Jewish symbols may enhance the décor of the Seder table, the Pesach hechsher does not necessarily make it the optimal Pesach treat as it certifies only that the chocolate has not been contaminated by chametz leavening. Admittedly for some markets that is absolutely enough.
Unfortunately, Kosher for Passover chocolate also unnecessarily divides Ashkenazim (Jews descended from Western Europe) and Sephardim (Jews descended from Spain). The Ashkenazi prohibition against eating kitniyot (literally “little things”) including legumes during Passover precludes the accepted use of soy lecithin as an emulsifier to make the chocolate smooth.
This prohibition does not apply to cocoa beans or coffee beans as they grow on bushes and trees and do not fall into the legumes category. Maxwell House Coffee developed its freebie Haggadah in 1932 in order to maintain its Jewish market during Pesach, reminding Jews through this marketing ploy that coffee beans may be consumed during Pesach. Maxwell House acquired Kosher L’Pesach certification for its coffee in 1923.
However, Sephardi custom permits kitniyot and thus the soy additive. This culture war between Sephardim and Ashkenazim with separate certification systems in Israel boils at Pesach when observant Ashkenazim in some communities are forbidden to enter the homes of Sephardim lest they be misled or tempted into eating kitniyot. Chocolate should not further that Pesach dissension.
Given that the pricier Pesach hechsher that divides the Jewish people over the soy additive does nothing to further the quality of the chocolate, the value of the Passover chocolate certifications does little to ameliorate other serious ethical concerns related to chocolate, particularly child labor and slave labor farming of chocolate.
Some advocates for kashrut prefer to separate the hechsher from food ethics, hesitating to conflate the two. The move to create ethical oversight for producers and purveyors of kosher food in general has taken the form of initiatives such as:
1. Uri L’Tzedek “an Orthodox social justice organization dedicated to combating suffering and oppression”; its Tav HaYosher certification that kosher restaurants in New York are safe work environments and pay fair wages.
2. In Israel Bema’aglei Tzedek “a pioneer in the field of Social Kashrut, offers the Tav Chevrati seal of approval granted free of charge to restaurants and other businesses that respect the legally-mandated rights of their employees and are accessible to people with disabilities.”
3. and, Magen Tzedek “kashrut for the 21st century… the world’s first Jewish ethical certification seal, synthesizes the aspirations of a burgeoning international movement for sustainable, responsible consumption and promotes increased sensitivity to the vast and complex web of global relationships that bring food to our tables.”
This year’s Pesach chocolate should be different: organic, fair trade, fulfilling the ethical values of the holiday.
