Tuesday, October 29, 2013

"At Kosherfest, a 40-pound chicken nugget and a Conservative hechsher"

"The 25th-annual, two-day kosher food expo kicks off in Secaucus, N.J., tomorrow [today] and is expected to draw more than 6,000 people, all of them ready to nosh."

Kosherfest will feature products from over 300 companies and more than 20 countries.

For the first — and perhaps last — time, the expo will also include a kosher supervisory agency run by a non-Orthodox rabbi. Rabbi Jason Miller’s Kosher Michigan certifies more than 50 businesses and is one of only a handful of non-Orthodox supervising agencies in North America. In an email interview, Menachem Lubinsky, Kosherfest’s founder and co-producer, said that Kosher Michigan is “the first non-Orthodox agency that has even attempted to exhibit at the show” and that it “fell between the cracks.”

“The sales people did not realize that Michigan Kosher was not an Orthodox agency,” he said. “The show is under the kosher supervision of the Association of Kashrus Organizations (AKO) and there will be signs posted throughout the show that AKO takes responsibility only for those booths that are either AKO members or offer products that meet AKO standards. He is clearly not a member and his products do not meet AKO standards. Show management will take steps to assure that only AKO approved exhibitors participate in the show in 2014.”

Interviewed by phone, Miller, who is based in suburban Detroit and certifies over 50 companies, most of them in the Midwest, emphasized that he had not hidden his Conservative identity; in fact, Kosher Michigan’s exhibitor blurb, which he said has been on the Kosherfest website for months, states in the first sentence that the agency was founded in 2008 by a Conservative rabbi.

“Certainly the ultra-Orthodox do not want to believe a non-Orthodox rabbi is able to run a successful kosher certification agency, but the facts on the ground are that that’s what’s happening,” he said. “The marketplace — the consumers — have the loudest voice in this industry so the market will dictate which certification agencies are authentic and which are not … My goal has always been to increase the number of kosher options without increasing the cost.”

portions of an article written by 

17 comments:

Icepick said...

Lem's all about the food today. Don't celebrate too early, Lem, it ain't over yet!

Eric the Fruit Bat said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Eric the Fruit Bat said...

There was a Kliban cartoon of Chattanooga Jew Chew®, imitation pork flavored bubble gum, guaranteed kosher.

On the package was an illustration of a grinning rabbi blowing a big bubble.

Funny stuff.

Chip Ahoy said...

Easy to see how you treat the animal that you eat, how you kill it, would be a big religious deal, even among secularist. Yeah fashion an orthodoxy out of it.

Too, how all that is handled, with what implements,at every step. How things are kept cleaned and separated. All societies make a regular religion out of it.

A scene in the Last Samurai took time to show the differing attitude on aging peasantxxxx pheasasnt by hanging them upside down. The servant appalled at the unsightly spectacle cut them down out of respect for the birds then offed himself for countervailing his samurai master. Incomprehensible to the American samurai who flew into a rage. (Tom Top Gun whatshisname -- incidentally, I bought a t-shirt with a submarine on it that says "bottom gun" it's an actual US Naval thing, ironical, eh? I think it's funny but I never wore it. It's the sort of thing I'll give to somebody obnoxious.) In the script, he's a very good actor flying into a rage. Bottom gun.

But then when it comes to pickles it's another story entirely. There is no concern for the animal and things are much easier. There is cleanliness of the kitchen, of course, the separation of utensils, all that, but when it comes right down to the pickles themselves it amounts to the rabbi standing over a barrel of pickles, a cloth over his shoulders, his hands raised dramatically and proclaiming.

"God BLESS deze pickles!"

Boom, kosher.

Eric the Fruit Bat said...

"Man is the only animal that can remain on friendly terms with the victims he intends to eat until he eats them." ~Samuel Butler

Eric the Fruit Bat said...

Ever been to one of those county fairs where the kids in the 4-H club show off their pet livestock?

Kind of weird for a cosseted suburban boy like myself.

Trooper York said...

This is actually an outrage. Why can't people follow their religious practices without interference.

I saw an article on the Williamsburg Patch where a Orthodox clothing store is being sued by the city because is discriminates against "Non-Orthodox" people like hipsters. Why can't they run their lives in accordance with their religion? They are not hurting anybody.

Trooper York said...

Of course this is a private business trying to get over on the Kosher Market. No government involvement yet but I bet this guy is going to sue to force his inclusion in this market. You can see it coming a mile away.

Michael Haz said...

Dang it Chip, now I want, no I NEED, no I have a heroin addict's cellular-level craving for a good half-sour.

ricpic said...

Maybe the rebbe, being Conservative not Orthodox, can give the seal of approval to bacon! Now that would be a kosherfest worth attending.

rcocean said...

I always imagine a Rabbi getting paid money to bless the salt and make it Kosher.

rcocean said...

That's what makes it superior to regular salt.

Does Kosher pepper exist?

Michael Haz said...

I saw Kosher Pepper open for Kinky Friedman and the Texas All Star Jew Boys at Lillith Fair in 2009.

Trooper York said...

Keeping kosher is a serious thing to real Jews.

Just like abortion is anathema to real Catholics.

Or washing under their arms is to real Muslims.

You need to respect other religions despite how uncomfortable some of their practices might be.

rcocean said...

"Keeping kosher is a serious thing to real Jews. Just like abortion is anathema to real Catholics."

Those two statements could set off real firestorms among Jews and Catholics.

Who is a real Catholic or Jew? Set Phaser to CONTROVERSY.

ricpic said...

Muslims wash?

Trooper York said...

You know a real Catholic when you see one in Church on Sunday with their whole family.

You know a real Jew when he cheats you on your legal bill.

You know a real Muslim because you can smell him a block away.