Jewish Values and Conflict Minerals

We are taught in Leviticus that "You shall not stand idly by the blood of your neighbor." (Leviticus 19:16).  We have a responsibility to respond and work to prevent attacks on humanity.

Jewish text devotes much time and space to the discussion of business ethics. This extends beyond the importance of paying a fair wage, providing a safe work environment, and having honest weights and measures. Our tradition demands that we must look up and down the supply chain to ensure that there are no deceptive practices. In the Mishnah (Baba Metzia 4:11), we are taught that:

A man whose wine is mixed with water may not sell it in a shop unless he had told the buyer (that it is mixed); and he may not sell it to a merchant, however, even when he informs him of the fact, because a merchant buys it only with the intention of deceiving the consumers.

We are clearly taught that it is our right, and our responsibility, to know and understand where our products are coming from, and what is going into their production. If the rabbis concerned themselves with wine mixed with water being sold in local shops, how much stronger would their reactions have been to conflict minerals, whose very sale is mixed with blood and death?