Magen Tzedek
US certification for kosher food
Magen Tzedek, originally known as Hekhsher Tzedek, (Hebrew: מגן צדק English translation Shield of Justice or Justice Certification, with variant English spellings) is a complementary certification for kosher food produced in the United States in a way that meets Jewish Halakhic (legal) standards for workers, consumers, animals, and the environment, as understood by Conservative Judaism. Magen Tzedek certification is not a kashrut certification which certifies that food is kosher in that it meets certain requirements regarding ingredients of food and technical methods of animal slaughter, but an ethical certification complementary to conventional kosher certification.
Magen Tzedek was initiated by Conservative Rabbi Morris Allen and was launched in 2011. It is sponsored by the Rabbinical Assembly, the American association of Conservative rabbis, the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism, the Central Conference of Reform Rabbis, and the Union for Reform Judaism. Magen Tzedek has met with harsh criticism from Orthodox Jewish rabbis and organizations. As of May 2013, no product bore the Magen Tzedek seal.
Creation
Magen Tzedek certification was initiated by Conservative Rabbi Morris Allen of Beth Jacob Congregation in Mendota Heights, Minnesota in 2007 following investigative reporting by Nathaniel Popper in The Forward regarding working conditions at the Agriprocessors kosher meat plant in Postville, Iowa. After a five-member rabbinic and lay commission visited the plant over two days and spoke with owners, senior managers and about 60 current or former workers and had reviewed reports from the Minnesota Department of Labor and Industry, Allen stated, “We weren’t able to verify everything Popper wrote, but what we did find was equally painful and filled with indignities”.
In 2008, a commission was formed to develop and apply “a set of standards that would certify that kosher food manufacturers in the US operate according to Jewish ethics and social values”. On January 31, 2011, the Magen Tzedek Commission was founded as an Illinois not-for-profit corporation with seed funding from the Nathan Cummings Foundation, which reportedly has given grants totaling at least $245,000 to Magen Tzedek since 2008.
“Magen Tzedek” enters the record as uS certification for kosher food. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Magen, Tzedek and certification can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 27, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q6730103. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 2011, 2013, 2007 and 2008.
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