At Baltimore's largest kosher grocery store, meat manager Chaim Fishman has learned to order twice as much poultry from his chief supplier as he used to. He knows that however much he orders, the company will ship half.
Three weeks after federal immigration agents raided the AgriProcessors slaughterhouse in Postville, Iowa, and detained almost half of its work force, Baltimore's kosher markets and caterers are finding ways to satisfy one of the nation's most dedicated clienteles.
"I'm ordering much more because I know they're going to halve me," said Fishman, sitting in an office above the Seven Mile Market in Pikesville.
"I'm getting about 25 percent of my supply from them. It used to be 75 percent."
Markets with customers who eat kosher foods are purchasing more beef, lamb, veal and poultry from other suppliers, including two in Baltimore.
Some customers loyal to Rubashkin - perhaps the best known label marketed by AgriProcessors - are buying, and in some cases hoarding, what they can find on shelves.
Some grocers say they have held off raising prices in response to short supply but may soon be forced to do so.
The raid, which the government called the largest criminal work site enforcement in U.S. history, has also stirred an ethical debate, locally and nationally.
While some rabbis note that the government arrested undocumented workers - not their employers - others say that the company was clearly complicit and that the case reminds them that keeping kosher is about more than what you eat.
"For my family and people who keep kosher, it's beyond how the meat is slaughtered - there has to be an ethical dimension to it, too," said Deborah Wechsler, a rabbi at Chizuk Amuno, a Conservative synagogue in Pikesville.
Wechsler said she is being careful to purchase meat and poultry from other kosher suppliers.
On May 12, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents raided the Postville plant in the latest crackdown at slaughterhouses that have become magnets for illegal immigrants looking for work.
The agency, an arm of the Department of Homeland Security, arrested nearly 400 employees on felony charges of identity theft and false documentation.
So far, almost 300 have pleaded guilty and been sentenced.
The government also alleged that employees were running a methamphetamine lab at the plant and that some workers were receiving less than minimum wage.
