Okay, I admit it, fair trade is new to me. And I don’t really get it.

Today I came across hand-woven challah covers on a website called Fair Trade Judaica, and over the years I’ve come across fair trade tallits and challah covers sold by a Chicago-based distributor called MayaWorks (a few years ago MayaWorks bought 50 or 100 sets of tzitzit strings from us) and a similar operation in Albany called Mayan Hands Foundation. The designs have some charm to them, but when I hear the term fair trade, it sort of suggests to me that if you buy elsewhere, somehow you’re exploiting low-wage workers somewhere.

But the thing is, as far as I know, just about all hand-woven tallits are made in one of four places:

1. In the US by Jewish women weavers who run cottage businesses.
2. In Israel, by Jewish companies that I know for a fact don’t exploit their weavers.
3. In Guatemala, at a co-op of Guatemalan women weavers set up by MayaWorks.
4. In Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, by Beta Israel Ethiopians through an international organization (we sell one of their tallits).

So if you set out to buy a hand-woven tallit, there’s no one in the picture who is subject to exploitation.

On the Fair Trade Judaica blog, “a long-time educator” with a PhD who is a member of a local Fair Trade Coordinating Team at his synagogue, writes at length about the Tikkun Olam that comes about when you spend more money to buy “fair trade” Judaica that helps sustain communities in developing countries.

But what’s wrong with buying Judaica that helps sustain Jewish laborers and artisans in Israel? Isn’t that a Tikkun Olam as well?

Maybe buying your coffee from fair-trade exporters makes sense, but where is the great gain in supporting a working-class woman weaver in Guatemala instead of a working-class woman weaver in Israel?