How kosher is kosher? Inmate asks in suit

In the popular Netflix prison series “Orange is the New Black,” a fictional African-American inmate known as “Black Cindy” converts to Judaism so she can get tastier kosher food.

In real life Kentucky, prisoner William Harry Meece says he is being denied kosher food at the state penitentiary because the state says he is not kosher enough.

In a suit filed this week in federal court, Meece, who was born Jewish and was a member of a Reformed Jewish synagogue in Lexington, says he was kicked out of the state kosher food program for eating a rotisserie chicken from Sam’s Club that wasn’t marked “kosher,” signifying it was prepared in accord with Jewish rituals.

Meece claims the requirement to eat only foods stamped kosher applies exclusively to Orthodox Jews, and that Reform Jews, the biggest branch of the religion in the United States, can keep kosher by merely avoiding pork and shellfish or not mixing meat and dairy at the same meal.

In an interview, Senior Rabbi David Ariel-Joel of The Temple, one of two Reformed synagogues in Louisville, said Meece is absolutely right.

“Jews don’t keep kosher in one way, but in many ways,” said Ariel-Joel, who holds a Master’s degree in Jewish philosophy from the Hebrew University in Jerusalem and has backed Meece in his fight with the Corrections Department.

Lisa Lamb, a department spokeswoman, said it doesn't comment on pending litigation.

But she provided a copy of the Kosher Diet Participation Agreement, which the penitentiary adopted in 2008 to settle another lawsuit and which says, "I will not purchase, possess or consume any food items that are not permitted under my religious diet."

The state has a strong financial stake in limiting the number of inmates who qualify for kosher food to inmates who are legitimately Jewish. Kosher meals cost 72 percent more –  $1,913 a year per inmate versus $1,113 for non-kosher ones. Lamb said the state has served $46,736 worth of kosher meals so far this year at the four prisons that offer the diet.

And there are a lot of pretend Jews in prison: The chairman of Jewish Prisoner Services International, a Seattle-based ministry, once estimated that at least 20,000 U.S. inmates falsely identify themselves as Jews to win special diets, money from Jewish aid groups, and in some cases, a pathway to Israeli citizenship.

They include prisoners like Norman Lee Toler, an avowed white supremacist in Missouri who kept photos of Adolf Hitler in his cell and won the right to kosher foods in a federal lawsuit.

The current director of Jewish Prisoner Services, Rabbi Aryeh Blaut, said that while Meece might be correct in his personal beliefs, most prison systems have rules like Kentucky’s and that they make sense.

“If you are accepted on to the kosher meal program, you must be consistent,” he said in an interview.

He says that while not every item needs a kosher stamp to be kosher – an apple, for example, is inherently kosher – prison officials are not in a position to know what is kosher and what is not.

Federal law requires that states accommodate the religious beliefs of inmates, but some skeptics have asked if an inmate is so religious, what is he doing in prison?

That question could be raised about Meece, 43, who was sentenced to death in 2006 for killing three members of an Adair County family – Joseph and Elizabeth Wellnitz and their son Dennis – so that Meece and the family’s surviving daughter, Meg Wellnitz Appleton, could split her $550,000 inheritance.

Appleton, who pleaded guilty, killed herself in prison in 2014; Meece, who was found guilty, has insisted he is innocent, claiming his confession was coerced. His motion for a new trial is pending.

In letters to The Associated Press, Meece, a former landscaper and cab driver in Lexington who met Appleton when they were both enrolled at the University of Kentucky, wrote:  “I. Did. Not. Murder. The Wellnitz Family.” Former Adair Commonwealth’s Attorney Brian Wright, who prosecuted him, said he didn't want to trivialize religious claims but noted that Meece is a "convicted murderer and I think carrying out his sentence is more important."

But the Louisville lawyer who filed suit for him, Aaron Bentley, said even if he committed the murders, he has the right to avoid further sin by avoiding foods that conflict with his religious beliefs.

“As a Protestant Christian, I would say the New Testament teaches that all sins are the same and any time you are breaking God’s laws you are sinning,” Bentley said.

“He has very few freedoms in prison – and some would say understandably so,” Bentley added.

“But this is one of the freedoms he is entitled to.”

According to the suit, which asks that Meece be reinstated to the kosher food program, he initially received a warning in October 2015 for ordering food from the canteen that he claimed didn’t violate his definition of kosher. Bentley said it was chili.

Two months later, he was told he’d be kicked out of the food program for ordering the chicken from the prison’s recreation department.

Provided a regular food tray, he ate the kosher items and tried to supplement his diet with kosher food from the canteen, but prison officials determined he was engaging in a hunger strike and put him in solitary, according to the suit.

Returned to his cell on Death Row, Meece has been forced to eat non-kosher meals, under the threat of further disciplinary action.

Meece previously fought an unsuccessful legal battle to be able to worship in the prison chapel on Saturday – the Jewish Sabbath – rather than on Sunday. The Kentucky Court of Appeals ruled he can pray in his cell.

Bentley said Meece is “absolutely sincere” in his beliefs. Staff at the Temple Adath Israel in Lexington confirmed in an interview that he first began practicing and paying dues there in 1994.

“If they want to crack down on folks who are really not Jewish, we have no argument with that,” Bentley said. “But Bill Meece is not the guy they should crack down.”

Reporter Andrew Wolfson can be reached at (502) 582-7189 or awolfson@courier-journal.com

7 facts about keeping kosher

» The word kosher, literally meaning “clean” or “pure,” refers to food that has been prepared in accordance with Jewish rules and rituals so it can be eaten by religious Jews.

»  Because the Torah allows eating only animals that both chew their cud and have cloven hooves, pork is prohibited. So are shellfish, lobsters, oysters, shrimp and clams, because the Old Testament says to eat only fish with fins and scales. Another rule prohibits mixing dairy with meat or poultry.

»  Jews can ensure they keep kosher by buying products certified as kosher with a mark called a hekhsher that usually identifies the rabbi or group that certified the product.

»  Foods so certified are not "blessed." Rather it means the place they were processed is inspected to make sure kosher standards are maintained. Kosher meat, for example, must be slaughtered without causing pain to the animal, meaning that death occurs almost instantaneously.

»  Approximately three-quarters of all prepackaged foods in the U.S. have some kind of kosher certification.

»  Reform Jews are not required to keep kosher but if they decide to, they can accomplish that by refraining from eating pork or shellfish, or just observing dietary rules at home, rather than when eating out, or by becoming vegetarians.

»  Some Conservative and Orthodox Jews, and businesses, especially in Israel, have rebelled in recent years from buying products stamped kosher because of concerns about corruption and bribery in the inspection process.

Sources: Judaism 101.org; Reform Judaism.org; My Jewish Learning.org