Rosh Hashanah Recipes from Around the World Featured on JDC App
(JNS.org)—The American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (JDC) released a Facebook application that allows users to access Rosh Hashanah recipes from around the world. Dishes featured on JDC’s “Global Kitchen Facebook App”—along with do-it-yourself cooking videos—include lekach (a spiced honey cake from the British Isles) a traditional Eastern European kugel, and matoke (a sweet plantain-based stew from Africa). JDC’s Rosh Hashanah app can be found at https://www.facebook.com/TheJDC/app_171729139681988.
Despite Ban, Polish Jews Have Plenty of Kosher Meat
Warsaw—Kosher Today reports that according to Chief Rabbi Michael Shudrich, there will be plenty of kosher meat and poultry for the upcoming Jewish holidays. Indications that the ban adopted in Parliament may yet be overturned continue to surface. “Poland considers preserving the religious rights of the country’s Jewish community to be a national interest of supreme importance,” Polish President Bronislaw Komorowski said and added that he “will take significant steps to advance the issue of approval of kosher slaughter,” which has been banned since January. The ban has deeply affected the local cattle industry, which was previously one of the leading European exporters of kosher and halal meat. Kosher caterers and restaurants in Poland say that they have not had a problem obtaining kosher slaughtered meat as the lucrative Jewish tourist season comes to an end. Among those who have come out in support of overturning the slaughter ban have been Józef Kowalczyk, archbishop of Gniezno and primate of Poland, and Apostolic Nuncio Celelestino Migliore.
Kosher Peace Dividend Put on Hold in Middle East
Kosher Today—Rabbinic sources have long whispered that they frequently provide kosher certification in Egypt and Jordan, the two Arab countries that have signed a peace treaty with Israel. The sources say that for security reasons they never speak about these kosher certifications but acknowledge recent unrest in Egypt has for the time being resulted in a suspension of these kosher certifications. Several Egyptian factories that marketed reliably kosher food to Israel will be affected. “At a time when we cannot guarantee our workers’ safety 100%, the policy is not to put them in danger,” said a statement from Rabbi David Moskowitz, the Admor of the Shatz Hassidic movement in Ashdod and head of the SKS-Lemehadrin kosher label. As soon as the violence in Egypt subsides, the question of sending workers to supervise kosher food production will be reconsidered, he added. At some international food shows, at least one olive oil manufacturer from Jordan sported kosher certification from an Israeli rabbi.
