By Gigi Yellen-Kohn, JTNews Correspondent
I am talking music with Rabbi Aharon Brun-Kestler, Executive Director of the Va’ad HaRabanim of Greater Seattle—the people who grant the seal of Kosher certification. He’s a traditionalist, of course.
“I like the real solid standards of the early rock age — Chuck Berry, Crosby Stills & Nash’s classic period, Buffalo Springfield. Not so much for the message as for the music quality.”
Quality and tradition are what Brun-Kestler’s work is all about. Kosher certification is a complicated business. It combines skills in accounting and diplomacy with thorough knowledge of the intricacies of food manufacturing and religious law. Before coming to town a few months ago to manage the Va’ad HaRabanim — Hebrew for “rabbinic board” — Brun-Kestler was one of many rabbis working as a rabbinic coordinator, or accounts manager, at the New York City office of the Orthodox Union, the people who grant the “OU” seal. Perhaps the most recognized and universally accepted of the hundreds of kashrut symbols to be found on supermarket shelves around the world, the OU hired Brun-Kestler out of Albany, where he spent five years as the kosher supervisor at Beech-Nut, the baby food people.
For a man who today makes his living upholding tradition, Brun-Kestler’s career path was anything but traditional. Born in Columbus, Ohio, he moved with his family, “Jewish and spiritual, but not Orthodox,” he says, to North Dakota, and then to Tucson, where he graduated from public high school. Off to Israel at age 18 with Young Judea for what was supposed to be a year, he gravitated to a yeshiva, then to a technical college for computers and accounting combined with yeshiva studies. Six years later, with B.A. in hand from Bar Ilan University, he returned to the U.S. on a teaching fellowship in English at Boston’s Northeastern University. By this time married and a strictly observant Jew, he followed his wife Greta to Albany as she pursued an advanced pharmacy degree.
“I was unemployed,” recalls the rabbi, of his pre-rabbi days, “so I started working for the Va’ad in Albany, doing freelance hashgacha work.”
That meant he could hire out as a supervisor for events or products needing kosher certification. He took catering jobs, got a paralegal degree, and kept looking for work. Then the Beech-Nut job opened up. “I thought: for a few years, I’ll take it, what the heck?”
He stuck with it and moved from the field to the administrative side with the OU. He eventually made the cut as one of three finalists for the influential job of director of the Chicago Rabbinical Council, and “that got me interested.” So when Seattle’s Va’ad position was posted, it caught his eye.
“My wife said, ‘You’re not sending a resume to Seattle!’” But Greta Brun-Kestler hadn’t yet seen Seattle. Now they’re here, she has a good pharmacy job, and their four children, ages 10, six, eight, and “almost one” are happily enjoying the Pacific Northwest.
As for their hyphenated name, Brun-Kestler explains that his wife, with no brothers, wanted to continue her family name. The name, in fact, tells a lot about the man: “I value combinations of things; life has happened to me in interesting ways. I hope that will help me reach companies that otherwise would not be reached,” he says
Va’ad will scout the Northwest food scene to identify potential clients for its certification, including those who may not yet be aware of how, or why, to invest in such a thing. Just last month, Brun-Kestler hobnobbed with epicurean elites at the annual “Seattle Cooks” and Coffee Fest shows so he could learn local tastes.
He’s also introducing himself around town to communicate to Jews and non-Jews alike the value of traditional rabbinic certification. “We are setting a standard of dietary law that allows people to sit together at the same table and function. If I have kosher food, I don’t exclude anybody; if I don’t, I do.
“There are, in a way, two levels of Jewish life,” he suggests, “religious and communal. In religious life, there are fundamental divisions; but for all of our divisions, there is a necessity, a desire, to function together on a communal level.”
It is the importance of honest human connection that motivates Brun-Kestler’s work. “As a result of coming from where I do, I have a good idea of philosophically where I stand. I care what a person acts like and what they do a whole lot more than the color of their hat or their skin.”
While this straight-talker is the day-to-day business manager for the Va’ad, he received his rabbinical ordination “not long ago,” he says. He is also a member of the RCA — the Rabbinical Council of America.
Food certification is only part of the Va’ad’s work, though it is the most visible part in the broader community. The Va’ad also functions as a Jewish Court to rule on matters of Jewish law, including business or personal disputes, divorce and conversion. In addition, the Va’ad sends out regular e-mail updates on kashrut and other matters of interest.
The decision-making body of the Va’ad is a group of seven other men, all pulpit rabbis of Orthodox synagogues in the Seattle area. A small lay board assists the Va’ad on non-rabbinic matters including budgets, fees, and staffing.
The Va’ad has established new quarters for its office at 5305 52nd Avenue South. Rabbi Brun-Kestler can be reached there at 206-760-0805 during regular business hours, or via e-mail to [email protected].