And a small lesson in Jewish lies.
From the ADL website.
"The Kosher Food Tax is the biggest consumer fraud existing in America."
The bizarre claim by right wing extremists that kosher certification markings on food product labels ("kosher certification" "K," etc.) cost consumers extra money and represent, in effect, a "kosher tax" to make rabbis rich, is a striking example of the propaganda used by anti-Semites to trick the uninformed into accepting conspiracy charges and stereotypes about Jews.
Other anti-Semitic allegations regarding kosher designation on foods include charges that "the kosher food racket" benefits Jewish organizations while only a small segment of the American population desires such markings, and that even the meanings of the labels are guarded secrets deliberately kept from non-Jews to trick them into paying the "kosher tax"
Attacks on the labeling of food with the symbols for kashruth (traditional Jewish dietary laws) have been a standard ploy of anti-Jewish bigots in the U.S. for decades. Such symbols as the (U) "kosher certification" emblem of the Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations (UOJC), among others, confirm that products are kosher—i.e., that foods and production processes have been inspected by competent rabbis from the respective organizations and found to be in compliance with Jewish dietary law.
The cost to the consumer for this service is a miniscule fraction of the total production overhead; it is so negligible in practical terms as to be virtually non-existent. A May 18, 1975 New York Times article reported that the cost to General Foods' "Bird's Eye" Unit, for example, is 6.5 millionths (.0000065) of a cent per item. Furthermore, a representative of the Heinz Company has said that the per item cost is "so small we can't even calculate it," and that such labeling actually makes products less costly by increasing the market for them.
The biggest lie in that intentionally deceptive ADL argument is the last quoted sentence. They argue that increasing the market (i.e., raising the demand) for consumer items, by applying Kosher certification symbols to their packages, results in a drop in the price. Any student of economics knows that's contrary to the general rule of supply-and-demand, in which a rise in demand results in a rise in the price.
There is one way for a rising demand to trigger a lowering in the unit price of items. The requirement is that the rise in demand be very spectacular, more than an order of magnitude (a factor of 10), which is necessary to motivate the manufacturers of such items to research, invent, and invest in new technologies for making them. Then, after recovering the investment in the new technology, the manufacturers can drop the unit price and maintain their former profits.
But a modest rise in demand does not have this effect. A modest rise in demand causes manufacturers to raise their prices, not their volume, to reap the larger profits.
The ADL is, therefore, lying to us. Kosher certification may have a modest influence on demand, but it does not cause the very large increase in demand necessary to make the manufacturers upgrade their operations to an economy of scale higher than the one they were on already.
Why is the ADL lying? The Jews of the ADL lie in regard to the Kosher tax because they are Zionists and because money raised by the Kosher tax is used to subsidize the Israeli government. The Kosher tuna fish you buy helps Israel to pay for the machine gun that an IDF soldier will use to kill Palestinian children. It helps Israel buy bulldozers that will be used to smash Palestinian homes and crush innocent people. Many of the Jews in the ADL look on those horrible activities, if not with glee, as a necessary means to an end they desire: a greater Israel.
The ADL probably lies about a great many things. When they speak as though the "stereotypes" about Jews are malicious fictions, they are lying. Those stereotypes are more or less true. Are they telling the truth about the smallness (a few millionths of a penny) in the price increase for the average Kosher certified item? I can't tell you. The facts about fees for Kosher certification are kept secret.
Other anti-Semitic allegations regarding kosher designation on foods include charges that ... the meanings of the labels are guarded secrets deliberately kept from non-Jews to trick them into paying the "kosher tax."
When Jews lie, they often do so tacitly. Consider carefully what the ADL means you to understand from this quote from their website. They intend that you gain the impression that Kosher certification secrets are not being deliberately kept from non-Jews. They are also misdirecting you about which secrets are being speculated about. The issue is not (as they hint) that the symbols indicate Kosher certification; rather, the issue is that the size of the fees paid for the right to print the symbols is kept secret.
Making that impression in this way, tacitly and with misdirection, gives them an advantage that politicians sometimes call "plausible deniability." They can deny that they told a lie, and, with a little verbal spin, they can deny that they ever meant to mislead anybody.
But they do intend to mislead you. That's Jews for you. Remember that, and don't buy any Kosher certified foods (if you can help it).