Shopping for Children

Rabbi Melanie Aron

October 19, 2001

Several members of the congregation who have gotten to know me over the years, found the announced topic of this week's sermon quite amusing. Knowing how I avoid going to the mall at almost all costs, they wondered what possible insight I might be able to offer to the announced theme of "shopping." It seemed unlikely that I would reveal what would be the hot items to own for 2002 or even the best places to find the good deals in 2001.

Actually I was moved to speak on this topic, not by the glossy advertisements that come in my Sunday paper, nor even by President Bush's suggestion that we help our country by going out and buying something, but instead by the words of the V'ahavatah. We are told to love God bechol levavcha, uvechol nafshechah ovchol meodecha - with all our hearts and with all our souls and with all our might.

What is our might? It is not our physical strength, but our economic prowess. Our might is our economic resources- our wealth. How we use that wealth is a measure of our love of God. Aha, you say tzedakah, charitable donations. Well, that is fine and good, but that involves, on average, even in an ideal Jewish community, only 10% of our wealth. What about the other 90%? What about our routine transactions, in the grocery store, buying coffee to serve when company comes over, at the mall, buying shoes for our kids, and clothes for ourselves, or at the jeweler buying rings for our weddings or gifts for other special events in our lives? By the choices we make day in and day out, we can have an impact on some of the most defenseless members of our human society - children. I am thinking in particular of the children, often no older than my daughter Shifrah, who are working in fields and sweatshops around the world.

The International Labor Organization estimates that at least 120 million children work on a fulltime basis. Many work long hours, often in dangerous and unhealthy conditions, and are exposed to lasting physical and psychological harm. 12-16 hour shifts are common, six-seven days a week. Some work places are more like prisons, with metal gates, armed guards, and cinderblock walls topped with rolls of razor-wire. The worst off are those in bonded labor, whose family receives an advance payment to hand a child over to an employer. Often the workplace is structured so that the child can never work off that debt, as they are charged for expenses, interest and "mistakes" they make in their work.

The moral and economic dimensions of the child labor issue are complex. We wonder, would it be better if no children were employed, but then would they starve? Is it appropriate to work for better working conditions for children abroad, or is that sanctioning a double standard of what is acceptable for white middle class children in America v poor brown children in third world countries? Should we push for the withdrawal of foreign companies? The wages paid by multi-national corporations are often much less than a true living wage, but they are often higher than what people can earn otherwise. In addition insufficient information is available to consumers who want to make an informed decision. Most companies won't reveal the names and addresses of their factories and often refuse inspection by outsiders. Sometimes they make claims that are hard to verify. Very little information is available about the origins of the things we find on the shelves.

Still even with all those concerns there are some reputable organizations ranking companies and offering judgments about who is making an effort to care for the children of the world. One such organization is co-op America, which ranks companies as "ladder leaders," those who have gone well beyond accepted practice, "upper rung," those who recognize the importance of responsible practices and have demonstrated commitment to improving their level of responsibility," middle rung," "lower rung" and "bottom rung" companies.

You know I am not an enthusiastic shopper, but now that I know that J. Crew and Levi Strauss treat their workers better than Guess, the Gap or Old Navy, I would go to one extra store looking for jeans. Knowing now that Folgers, Taster's Choice, and Maxwell House are produced by bottom rung companies Nestles, Phillip Morris, and Proctor and Gamble, I will have to change my shopping habits and start looking for Fair-Trade coffee. Personally, I am actually glad to have another reason to buy ugly comfortable shoes from Birkenstock, Red Wing or New Balance, companies with a better record on child labor, and leave the high heels made in sweatshops on the shelves. My guess is that many brides-to-be would prefer that they not be presented with "dirty diamonds" - that is diamonds from Sierra Leone, Angola or the Democratic Republic of Congo, where funds from the sale of diamonds have been used to wage civil war against unarmed children. Recently our Reform movement has voted to support the clean Diamonds Act which would allow only diamonds produced lawfully to be able to be traded in the United States.

We don't all write letters to the editor, or lobby our elected officials, but we do all shop, even me, and on this National Children's Sabbath we can commit ourselves to shopping in ways that will be more protective of the world's children.