This, Rabbi Genack, is what is known as brand devaluation.
Joey Kurtzman writes on Jewcy.com:
…Which brings me to the Agriprocessers scandal, in which the Orthodox Union certified a splendidly profitable but ethically abominable slaughterhouse run by Orthodox Jews.
Anyone who opposes the pointless torture of animals will agree that Orthodox Jews ought not use meat hooks to rip out the throat of cattle before leaving the animals to slowly bleed to death. Anyone who cares about this country's problem with illegal immigration will agree that Orthodox Jews ought not forge immigration documents in order to ruthlessly exploit undocumented Mexican workers, including children (one federal official called the mistreatment of workers at this Orthodox-certified facility "medieval.")
You don't have to be a Jew to recognize that the whole affair is a hillul hashem--a pitiful public disgrace in which Judaism and Jewish values are humiliated before all Americans, Jews and non-Jews alike. Orthodox Union President Stephen Savitsky might as well have purchased a 30-second spot during the Super Bowl, and broadcast himself shitting atop a copy of Pirkei Avot, the Talmud's foremost work of Jewish ethics.
For non-Orthodox Jews, the coincidence of this year's Tisha b'Av and the Agriprocessors scandal should serve as a wake-up call. Judaism tells us that a good, safe, and honorable future for the Jewish people is ours to make. To create that future, we must honor the principles of the Jewish tradition; in so doing, we must not defer to the false authority of those who claim to be our "elders," but whose behavior desecrates the same Jewish tradition they claim to uphold.
Let's start with this: After this year's Tisha b'Av, boycott kosher meat certified by the Orthodox Union. Just stop buying it altogether. Instead, buy the humane, eco-kosher meat recommended by the Shalom Center. It'll be better for you, and it may be better for the future of the Jewish people.
Let's put this another way.
The OU's brand is now synonymous with animal torture, identity theft, sexual abuse, exploitation and child labor.
And that's the short list.
And that's just for now.
Who knows what else will be revealed in court. And who knows how big the hillul hashem will be then.
And it isn't just the OU – right or wrong, it's Orthodox Judaism as a whole.
And for that the OU has no one to blame but itself – and, of course, that band of happy Chabad hasidim, the Rubashkins.