Last year while attending Kosherfest, an annual November event at the Meadowlands Convention Center (although not this year), I had the pleasure of meeting Elli Kriel. She stood in front of several posters advertising her catering service in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, for kosher visitors to the country. Typically she would prepare the food in her home and then deliver it to anyone staying in hotels that required it. Word in the business community was that if you were kosher and visiting Dubai you called Elli.
As we all know, on Tuesday of this week, September 15, an agreement known as the Abraham Accord was signed by the United Arab Emirates and Israel, officially normalizing relations between the two countries.
Suddenly Elli found herself a very major partner in the many events that have been going on behind closed doors and in the public eye as well. In my conversation with her on Sunday, September 13, she told me that she has to pinch herself to believe all that is happening. She and her family, due to her husband’s business, moved to Dubai six years ago from Johannesburg with two young children. Her husband, Ross Kriel, is now the president of the Jewish Council of Emirates and as I wrote this article he was on his way to Washington to participate in the signing at the White House on Tuesday.
Elli has been extremely busy and immediately knew she would have to have a well-respected hashgacha, which could only be done if she were to move into a commercial kitchen. The OU immediately sent a rabbinical supervisor to see what was needed to give Elli’s kosher kitchen the supervisory approval of the OU, and a mashgiach from Israel has moved to Dubai and is now supervising the seven chefs that Elli recently hired to keep up with the demand from kosher functions. The Abu Dhabi Department of Culture and Tourism has pledged its commitment to have kosher food available to all tourists that request it and has instructed all hotel managers to “include kosher food options on room-service menus and at all food and beverage outlets in their establishments.” All of the hotels were informed that they must seek kosher certification in the handling of kosher meals and they must be prepared in a specifically designated area.
As Elli mentioned, there will be a great influx of Jewish people coming to the area. Abu Dhabi, known for its opulence and magnificent golden mosques, and Dubai, as the capital of the UAE, with the tallest building in the world and shopping malls that apparently outshine anything any of us have seen here in the States, are sure to enhance the desires of many who have wanderlust (once this plague is over). The hotels in these areas are classified as extremely deluxe.
Israelis known to travel frequently will be able to hop on inexpensive flights and others will use the country as a stopover on their way to or returning from Israel.
As Rabbi Sarna said, in an interview that I watched, he feels totally safe in the United Arab Emirates.
These are exciting times for the world and especially for my friend Elli and her family. Her son, who is about to become a bar mitzvah in November, is hoping that his grandparents in South Africa will be able to celebrate together with them. Right now no one is allowed to leave South Africa.
Elli, I am so happy for your newfound fame. I know that with it comes tremendous responsibility and you have obviously demonstrated to everyone around you that you can do it. Hatzlacha!
By Nina Glick
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