Barbara Mannlein and her husband, Martin, use color-coded kitchen tools: red for meat, blue for dairy and green for pareve. (Martin Mannlein)
The Jewish dietary laws, termed kashrut, are many and complex. According to the Torah and the Talmud, Jews may not mix meat and dairy, and may eat only fish with scales and fins, and meat from ruminants with cloven hooves. Pareve — foods containing neither meat nor dairy, including… Read more »
Old Havana, seen here, has the only place to go for the kashrut-observant Cuban to pick up a piece of meat. (Shutterstock) (JEWNIVERSE/JTA) — For the kashrut-observant Cuban, there’s only one place to go for a piece of meat. Situated on Acosta Street in Old Havana is Cuba’s sole kosher butcher shop. For nearly 70 years, the privately run business has provided kosher beef to the country’s Jews, and only to… Read more »
NEW YORK (JTA) — Ritz has a new bacon-flavored cracker hitting shelves — with kosher certification The signature O.U.-Dairy symbol appears on the box of the Nabisco nosh. “There was much discussion over the decision about this product,” acknowledged Rabbi Moshe Elefant, COO of the Orthodox Union Kashrut Department.… Read more »
Ron Ben-Israel, a former dancer, has gone on to become the host of Food Network's "Sweet Genius." (Food Network) TEANECK, N.J. (JTA) — As the minutes on the clock tick away, the chefs run about their kitchens furiously trying to complete their Taj Mahal-themed desserts. “What have I got for you now?” booms the thickly accented master pastry chef Ron Ben-Israel as he overlooks the chefs’ workstations. “Another… Read more »
Last month, a contingent of leaders from the North American Conservative movement returned to the United States. All the members of this mission, rabbis, congregation leaders and philanthropists, had already been to Israel dozens of times. They are major activists in Jewish Federations, AIPAC, Hadassah, you name it. They… Read more »
The ancient laws of keeping kosher have now gone digital. Rabbi Eli Garfinkel of Temple Beth El of Somerset, N.J., has gained a reputation as something of a technophile, creating videos and podcasts on Jewish rituals and a website called askmyrabbi.com. Garfinkel recently found another high-tech outlet: developing smartphone… Read more »
The assembly line at Empire Kosher Poultry's plant in central Pennsylvania is the largest kosher one of its kind in America, with 240,000 chickens and 27,000 turkeys passing through every week. (Uriel Heilman) MIFFLINTOWN, Pa. (JTA) – The end came swiftly for the chicken I’ll call Bob. Propelled into a trough of sorts by a machine that tips a crate’s worth of birds onto the assembly line — “They’re like children, sliding down,” the head kosher supervisor said — chicken Bob was… Read more »
(JTA) — We appreciate Rabbi Shafran’s embrace of the importance of the work of Magen Tzedek when he states in his JTA Op-Ed, “to be sure Jewish ethical values in food production are no less important (than) halachic concerns, and are indeed embodied in independent halachic mandates. But they… Read more »
(JTA) — There is something ironic, to put it politely, about an effort championing ethics that speaks from both sides of its mouth. That would be the new certification seal for kosher food products, created by a Conservative rabbi and actively being promoted by his movement, that aims to… Read more »
Moosewood Cookbook author Mollie Katzen Lisa Keating) BERKELEY, Calif. (JTA) – Cookbook maven Mollie Katzen is in her Berkeley kitchen whipping up a little dinner for her daughter, who is home visiting from college. “Steamed artichoke and mashed parsnips,” Katzen says, describing the contents of the two pots on the stove. “Last night was eggplant in… Read more »
