From Red Thread Magazine – October 25, 2012
From Red Thread Magazine – October 25, 2012
Sam Daher, the owner of Sweet Dreams, explained that “over the years we’ve received many inquiries about kosher certification, but we didn’t get around to looking into it. Recently a patron told us about Rabbi Jason Miller and Kosher Michigan so we contacted him.”
Kosher Michigan is a kosher certification agency based in West Bloomfield that Miller founded in 2008. The agency certifies several local bakeries in West Bloomfield including a Just Baked location, New York Bagel Baking Co., and Baked Impressions.
“We’ve earned a wonderful reputation over the years for creating beautiful baked goods including gourmet wedding cakes,” said Daher. “We hope that becoming certified kosher will open new doors for us as we offer kosher products that meet the standards of our kosher and Hallal observant customers.”
All of the baked goods at the West Bloomfield store are handmade in the company’s Warren bakery. In addition to the bakery counter, Sweet Dreams will also offer a Nestle Toll House section in its newly renovated location.
This will be the first Nestle Toll House franchise in West Bloomfield, Daher said. All of the coffee drinks, ice cream, and soft-serve frozen yogurt will be certified kosher under the supervision of Rabbi Miller.
When Avi Olitzky, a Conservative rabbi, moved from New York to Minneapolis in 2008, he quickly became frustrated with the relative dearth of kosher offerings in the Twin Cities. The options he did find — a dairy café, a meat deli, a kosher market and a couple bakeries — were costly and limited. “I began to explore the scenario here,” said Olitzky, who is the junior rabbi at the 1200-family Beth El congregation in St. Louis Park, Minn. “I came to the conclusion there was no move to expand the kosher options in town. There was a split between those thinking it was unnecessary, and those thinking we don’t have a community to support it.”
What Olitzky found, though, was that both opinions were “erroneous,” he said. The proof is the success of Olitzky’s MSP Kosher, a free of charge, kosher certification organization that the rabbi founded in 2010 as an alternative to the Orthodox-run Twin Cities Community Kashruth Council. Olitzky launched MSP Kosher, “not with the goal of breaking the Orthodox monopoly [on kosher supervision],” but to lower the cost of kosher food, to increase the quantity of kosher food, and to create transparency in kosher certification in the Twin Cities, he said. While historically, local kosher certification agencies in most cities have been run by Orthodox rabbis, more and more Conservative rabbis are stepping up to the plate in order to expand kosher dining options for their communities.
Olitzky’s MSP Kosher began its work with the certification of Sebastian Joe’s Ice Cream, “one of Minnesota’s real gems,” Olitzky said, noting that the ice cream maker was “invested in the cause,” and made “a lot of serious changes” in order to gain the certification of MSP. “Their sales went up exponentially,” Olitzky said, “and they credit it with going kosher.”
Since then, MSP kosher has certified several establishments around the Twin Cities, including a kosher hot dog stand at Target Field, which Olitzky said could only afford to become kosher because of MSP’s policy not to charge for certification, and because MSP allows it to remain open on the Sabbath and on Jewish holidays. “We got some flack in the press because it is non-glatt,” Olitzky noted, “but it’s kosher. It is open on Shabbat and yom tov, but we go in the next morning and blowtorch the grill. We know that with the arrangement we have, they can’t substitute in non-kosher products, but on the slight chance they do, we blowtorch.” Olitzky stressed that his goal in forming an alternative to the Orthodox-run Twin Cities Community Kashruth Council was simply to provide more kosher options in town.
Likewise, Conservative Rabbi Jason Miller founded Kosher Michigan in 2007 in order to offer more kosher options in the Jewish community of Metro Detroit, where kosher certification previously had been dominated by its Orthodox Vaad Harabbonim. Miller now certifies some 30 businesses as kosher, including bakeries, spice companies, and ice cream parlors, and oversees kosher catering for Michigan State University.
Having an alternative kashrut certification agency brings many advantages to a community, Miller said.
“It brings the cost of kosher food down significantly. When there is a monopoly, there is price gouging, and it’s not good for anyone,” he said. “The goal is to provide some competition to local certification without lowering standards, to make it easier to manufacture kosher food, and to create more dining options for those who keep kosher.”
Miller entered the world of kosher certification as the year-round rabbi and kosher supervisor of Tamarack Camps, a large Jewish camping agency.
“Once I started doing that, businesses began calling me,” he said. “Some were not certified kosher because they couldn’t be — the owner was Jewish, but Reform, or open on Shabbat, and the Vaad wouldn’t certify them. There was a kosher butcher that was certified by the Vaad, but there were too many restrictions. They had to pay a mashgiach $15 an hour, even if they were closed. They couldn’t keep the keys to their own establishment.”
While the food these businesses were providing was indeed kosher, the business owners found it difficult to meet other requirements of Detroit’s Vaad — such as closing on Shabbat — and contacted Miller.
“There really aren’t any differences in standards [between Kosher Michigan’s supervision and that of Detroit’s Vaad],” Miller said. “The subtle difference is that I am more eager to certify Jewish-owned businesses open on the Sabbath.”
To do so, a document is created that sells the business to non-Jews during the 25 hours of the Sabbath. “This is a document used by the Orthodox as well,” Miller said, “although they are less apt to do so.”
The Rabbinical Assembly set up its own Conservative regional kosher supervision agency in the Mid-Atlantic region about 40 years ago, Rubin said, and it operated until last year.
“There was a need at the time,” Rubin said. “ And it grew. We had about 15 vendors. We were involved in kosher supervision for some time. Forty years ago or so, there was a pretty large Conservative community [in the Philadelphia area], and it was a more natural fit. Today the kashrut world has changed, and gotten more complex.”
And so kashrut supervision in that region is now, for the most part left to the Orthodox.
“We realized over time it was a bigger project than we could handle,” Rubin said.
Conservative rabbis did not really enter the world of kashrut supervision until the 1990s, said Rabbi Paul Plotkin, chair of the subcommittee on kashrut of the Rabbinical Assembly’s committee on Jewish law and standards.
“When I was at seminary as a student in the early ’70s, there wasn’t a lot of time allotted for training in kashrus supervision,” Plotkin recalled. “The attitude was, ‘don’t worry about it, the Orthodox will handle it.’ But by the time the ’90s came, I came to see there were all kinds of times Conservative rabbis were called to do supervision, but many of them didn’t have the practical training. So I argued for a number of years that we had an obligation to teach our colleagues who were called on for kosher supervision.”
In 1990, the Rabbinical Assembly ran its first kosher supervision-training program. Eighty rabbis came from all over North America to take the four-day course.
“It proved what I’d been saying,” Plotkin said. “There was a need and a demand for it.”
The purpose of the training was to teach Conservative rabbis how to supervise kashruth operations when there was not an Orthodox alternative in a given community.
“In the ’90s, Chabad didn’t have the footprint it has now,” Plotkin said, “so in a lot of towns, the Conservative rabbi was the most traditional rabbi in the area. That’s how it started. It was never the idea that this would be a big, national thing, and I don’t think it ever will be. If you want to produce a product, and sell it all over, I am not doing you a favor by having you hire me. Most people won’t accept me in the market you want to use me. If everyone will eat O-U, and 10 percent will eat Plotkin, why use Plotkin?”
Plotkin currently certifies two facilities: a Dunkin’ Donuts, and Ben’s Deli in Boca Raton, Fla. Unlike many kosher certifiers, Plotkin does not charge for his services, but instead does it to “enhance life for my community,” he said.
He was contacted by the owner of Ben’s, Ronnie Dragoon, after Dragoon saw an article Plotkin wrote for United Synagogue Review, in which he argued against the imposition of more stringent kashruth standards that work to limit kosher options.
“I wrote we should have a new certification: K-E, for ‘kosher enough,’ ” he said. “There is a segment of the population that wants to make more rules, and make keeping kosher more costly. They’ve blackballed everyone else, with the attitude that ‘if you don’t rise to my level, we won’t take you seriously.’ If we continue this, we will have less and less food, at more and more outrageous prices.”
Plotkin agreed to certify Ben’s, although Dragoon already had an Orthodox certification. Even so, it took Dragoon three years to work through all the changes Plotkin insisted upon before the Conservative rabbi would certify Ben’s as kosher.
Dragoon has maintained the Orthodox certification alongside his certification from Plotkin, in order to satisfy an Orthodox clientele that will not rely solely on a Conservative rabbi.
“I have had an increase in business with Rabbi Plotkin, because he is very well known and respected in South Florida,” Dragoon said. “But I’d be less than candid if I said I’d be comfortable with only a Conservative heksher, because I know some Orthodox people wouldn’t be comfortable with it. But Rabbi Plotkin is at least as strict as the Orthodox rabbi.”
The shop was under Kosher Michigan’s certification for two years offering an array of bagels, fishes, cheeses and drinks under Miller’s supervision.
“Proprietor Richard Steinik has decided to begin offering non-kosher deli meats as he does at his Livonia-based Detroit Bagel location and Kosher Michigan can therefore no longer offer its certification,” Miller said.
Two other Oakland County kosher bagel establishments under Kosher Michigan’s certification maintain their certification. Bagel Factory on 12 Mile Road at Telegraph Road in Southfield and New York Bagel Bakery on Orchard Lake Road in West Bloomfield remain kosher establishments.
Kosher Michigan is the kosher supervision and certification initiative of Rabbi Jason Miller, a Conservative rabbi, based in Metropolitan Detroit. Rabbi Miller promotes kosher observance through the supervision and certification of select institutions, vendors, and products meeting several criteria.
Students and Families Diversify With Different Food Options
August 13, 2011
Alqudus Halal Market on 2003 E Michigan Avenue (right next to the Green Door) has a steady stream of customers from all nationalities throughout the day.
By Toby A Ten Eyck
LANSING, MI — Michigan State University (MSU) is facing a number of challenges in the coming years, from competing on the football field in the newly restructured Big Ten conference to the rising costs of providing higher education to over 45,000 students. There is also a challenge in MSU’s cafeterias, as MSU Culinary Services try to meet the growing demands of students from various cultures and backgrounds. One such effort, was launched during the 2011 spring semester is kosher meals. The kosher meal service program is at Wilson Dining Hall. Through the program, kosher meals will be served during the dinner meal period, starting at 4 p.m., Sunday through Thursday of each week.
“It’s an idea that’s been out there for twenty years,” says Guy Procopio, Director of Culinary Services, “and finally everything’s in place to make it happen.”
The kosher program is the outcome of a combined community and campus effort. Rabbi Jason Miller of Kosher Michigan, Cindy Hughey, director of the East Lansing Hillel Jewish Student Center, and Charles Radd, principle owner of Woody’s Oasis restaurant in East Lansing, are the off-campus individuals helping MSU develop the program. Miller and Radd worked together for nearly a year to make it possible to offer kosher food to MSU students, which included buying all new cooking equipment.
Kurt A. Kwiatkowski, Corporate Chef for MSU’s Culinary Services, expects to serve between 25 and 40 kosher meals a day during the Fall semester of 2011. “These meals need to be made just before they’re picked up,” Kwiatkowski said, “to make sure everything goes as expected.”
Both Procopio and Kwiatkowski said they have seen students pick up a kosher hamburger, walk over to the salad bar, and put a slice of cheese on the burger, which means the burger is no longer kosher. “It’s what the kids want,” says Procopio. “They’re testing the boundaries of their religion.”
Michigan State University also offers halal options. Halal involves the same restrictions against pork as kosher food, and includes restrictions against consuming alcohol, and one is not allowed to eat land animals without external ears, such as snakes, worms, and insects. Kosher and halal options are likely to be only the beginning of alternative food options at Michigan State University. “Students are starting to ask for local options,” noted Kwiatkowski, “so we’re gearing up to offer Michigan-only food days.”
Guy Procopio, director of MSU Culinary Services said that Michigan State University is committed to meeting our students’, faculty, staff and guests’ special dietary needs based on everything from religious practices to food allergies and lifestyle choices.
This was printed in the August 14, 2011 – August 27, 2011 Edition
JTA | By Sue Fishkoff · April 11, 2011
SAN FRANCISCO (JTA) — The Conservative movement’s ethical kosher initiative may not have been intended as a wedge into the Orthodox monopoly over kosher supervision. But the planned rollout this summer of the Conservative-backed seal of ethical kosher production, the Magen Tzedek, coincides with an increase in the number of Conservative rabbis acting as kosher supervisors.
“I see an uptick,” said Rabbi Paul Plotkin, chairman of the kashrut subcommittee of the Committee on Jewish Law and Standards, the legal body of the Conservative movement.
At a time of growing activism in the Conservative movement around the issue of kashrut, the Conservative rabbinate seems to be moving into the kashrut business like never before.
Conservative rabbis for years have been giving kosher supervision to their own synagogue kitchens, as well as to local caterers and retail establishments patronized by their congregations. But they largely left commercial kosher supervision to the Orthodox.
That’s beginning to change, say Conservative rabbis active in the field. It’s partly due to the energy generated by the Magen Tzedek initiative, which will rate kosher food manufacturers according to prescribed standards of ethical behavior regarding workers, animals, the environment and financial dealings. It’s also a natural extension of Conservative interest in promoting kashrut, rabbis in the movement say.
“Our rabbis are as knowledgable about kashrut as their Orthodox colleagues, and care about it as much as they do,” said Rabbi Julie Schonfeld, executive vice president of the Rabbinical Assembly, the movement’s main rabbinical group. “But our emphasis is on raising Jewish adherence to kashrut observance rather than professional ritual kashrut supervision. Magen Tzedek is our unique contribution to building awareness around the impact that kashrut is intended to have upon our full development as Jews.”
The Magen Tzedek is being tested at three kosher plants to see how well the auditing process works. Once testing concludes after Passover, those three manufacturers will go through the actual Magen Tzedek evaluation procedure, and the first kosher foods carrying the new seal should be on supermarket shelves before Rosh Hashanah, according to commission co-chair Rabbi Michael Siegel.
The identity of the companies involved in the trial is being kept under wraps, but at least one is a “major food producer,” according to Rabbi Morris Allen, Magen Tzedek’s program director.
Conservative Judaism, like Orthodoxy, accepts the Torah’s commandments as obligatory, including kashrut. While the same general laws of kashrut apply, there are some distinctions — notably the standards governing wine, cheese and certain fish.
In recent years, Conservative kashrut certification has grown.
In 2008, Rabbi Jason Miller of Detroit founded Kosher Michigan, which certifies nearly 30 products and establishments. In addition to the bakeries and ice-cream parlors typically supervised by Conservative rabbis, Miller oversees a company that makes dried wheat used as an ingredient in other kosher products, and in March he opened the glatt kosher dining plan at Michigan State University.
“I got into this reluctantly, but once I did, it became a passion and a mission to show that kosher-observant individuals need not rely on Orthodox hashgachah,” he said, using the Hebrew word for kosher certification. “I wasn’t waving the banner five or 10 years ago, but once I became part of the kosher certification world, I realized the injustice of the Orthodox monopoly.”
In Minneapolis-St. Paul, a group of Conservative rabbis launched MSP Kosher last July. Headed by Rabbi Avi Olitzky of Beth El Synagogue in St. Louis Park, the agency does not charge for its service, which Olitzky says is aimed at providing more kosher food for Jews who do not necessarily adhere to the stricter standards required by Orthodox supervision, such as glatt kosher meat.
“Plenty of people in the Jewish community who keep kosher will eat dairy out,” he says. “I’m not interested in going into hashgachah as a business. I don’t think it should be a business.”
In the past two decades, Conservative rabbis have spearheaded lawsuits challenging a number of states’ kosher laws on the grounds that they constitute government interference in religious matters. In every case, the courts agreed that the existing laws indeed privileged Orthodox definitions of kashrut and overturned them. New kosher laws in those states only require that establishments advertising themselves as kosher disclose their kosher standards, not that they subscribe to Orthodox certification.
“It’s a fair, nonsectarian way to acknowledge there are different approaches to kashrut,” said Rabbi Shalom Lewis, who was behind a recent case brought on his behalf in Atlanta by the American Civil Liberties Union.
Orthodox reaction to these legal challenges has varied from shrugs to protestation. In New York and New Jersey, Orthodox rabbis in charge of enforcing the new laws say they do a disservice to kosher consumers who, the rabbis say, are interested only in Orthodox certification.
In Georgia, Rabbi Reuven Stein, director of supervision of the Atlanta Kashruth Commission, said he was “disappointed” by Lewis’ lawsuit, calling it unnecessary and unhelpful.
“Conservative rabbis do give hechsherim, and we’ve never had an issue with it,” he said, using the Hebrew word for kosher certification.
Conservative leaders long have said that Magen Tzedek is not a replacement for Orthodox kosher certification, and only will be given to manufactured products already carrying a recognized kosher label, or to raw products such as fruits and vegetables that don’t need certification.
Even so, the Magen Tzedek leadership characterizes its relationship with the Orthodox Union, whose label will appear on two of the three first products carrying the new ethical seal, as friendlier than the OU describes it.
Rabbi Menachem Genack, CEO of the OU’s Kosher Division, stands by the position he articulated soon after the May 2008 immigration raid on the Agriprocessors kosher meatpacking plant. The Iowa plant’s demise pushed the Magen Tzedek project to the front burner of Conservative movement priorities.
“We believe that all these important issues — the environment, workers’ rights and so on — are most effectively handled by government agencies that have the expertise and the mandate to monitor them,” Gernack told JTA.
He said the OU was “dismayed” at Allen’s appearance on a recent episode of the TV show “American Greed” devoted to former Agriprocessors CEO Sholom Rubashkin, who is now serving a 27-year prison sentence for financial fraud.
“The sentence is a travesty,” Genack said.
That doesn’t mean the OU will hinder Magen Tzedek or any other additional certification a kosher food manufacturer might seek.
“If there is a company that wants to use Magen Tzedek, we will not object to it appearing on the label. We also would not object to them putting halal on their label,” Genack said, referring to Muslim dietary laws. “These are marketing decisions the company makes on its own.”
Adding to the variety of dining options, students have yet another choice.
On March 21, a new kosher option was made available at Wilson Hall, said Samuel Appel, president of the Jewish Student Union. Having food to make students feel at home makes the transition from home life to being at a Big Ten university easier, Appel said.
“It’s important and will be utilized by many students on campus,” he said. “We’ve been trying to spread the word so everyone can use it and enjoy the convenience.”
To serve food that is certified kosher, the meat products have to be kept separate from dairy products and cannot be consumed at the same time, said Rabbi Jason Miller, director of Kosher Michigan, which certified MSU’s kosher option.
“It was a very important endeavor,” said Guy Procopio, director of MSU culinary services, in an email. “We are committed to meeting our students’, faculty, staff and guests’ special dietary needs based on everything from religious practices to food allergies and lifestyle choices.”
Cindy Hughey, the executive director of the MSU Hillel Jewish Student Center, said she went to MSU Residential and Hospitality Services and asked them to consider this option.
“It’s just another dietary observance the university should recognize,” she said. “There’s a selection of students who keep kosher and now they will have the opportunity to eat a full meal including a protein.”
Miller worked with Chuck Raad, the owner of Woody’s Oasis Bar & Grill, 211 E. Grand River Ave., for about a year to make the kosher option available.
“Kosher Michigan supervises the kosher kitchen as well as the area where the food is served to make sure all foods are strictly kosher,” Miller said. “We purchased all new equipment, utensils, pots and pans — everything in the kosher kitchen is segregated from the restaurant.”
Raad was interested in opening a restaurant near campus that would include a kosher kitchen, Procopio said.
“It seemed like a perfect match,” he said. “Our guests are thankful and thrilled that we’re offering a fresh, complete and hot kosher meal option.”
Miller, an MSU alumni, said it was difficult to keep kosher on campus when he was a freshman and is thrilled the option is available to students now.
Showing the university there was a need for this option was the main way to turn the idea into a reality, Appel said.
“It really helps cater to all people on MSU’s campus,” he said. “It helps bring in new students and helps them feel welcome. Those who keep kosher as well as Muslim students, who also have diet restrictions, will benefit from this option.”
Lauryn Holmes, a psychology freshman, said it is good students now have this choice.
“It’s better that students have this option,” she said. “The university needs to cater to everyone.”
MSU CULINARY SERVICES TO LAUNCH KOSHER MEAL SERVICE PROGRAM
Contact(s): Guy Procopio
EAST LANSING, Mich. – Michigan State University’s Culinary Services department will launch a new kosher meal service program on March 21 at Wilson Dining Hall. Through the program, kosher meals will be served during the dinner meal period, starting at 4 p.m., Sunday through Thursday of each week.
At Michigan State University, we are committed to meeting our students, faculty, staff and guests special dietary needs based on everything from religious practices to food allergies and lifestyle choices, said Guy Procopio, director of MSU Culinary Services.
MSU’s kosher meal service program was developed in partnership with Rabbi Jason Miller of Kosher Michigan, Cindy Hughey, director of the East Lansing Hillel Jewish Student Center, and Chuck Raad, principle owner of Woody’s Oasis restaurant in East Lansing.
“We are thankful for the support of Rabbi Miller, Ms. Hughey and Mr. Raad, who were instrumental in the visioning, design and certification of the kosher program,”said Procopio. “Without their help, this program would not have been possible.”
To accommodate kosher rules, all foods served through the program are prepared in a kosher kitchen at Woody’s Oasis restaurant in East Lansing. The program is certified by Kosher Michigan.
“All meals served through the program will be identified with a Kosher food icon,”said Kurt Kwiatkowski, corporate executive chef for MSU Culinary Services. “Guests can expect hot meals that include a protein, starch and vegetable on each plate.”
Pre-packaged kosher “Snack Attack Packs”are also offered at MSU’s Sparty’s coffee shop and convenience store locations on campus. Visit www.eatatstate.com for more information on the program and daily menus.
Culinary Services is a department of the Division of Residential and Hospitality Services.
With a sizable Jewish clientele, Josh Charlip knew it would make sense for his bagel store in Southfield to become kosher. But being certified by the Orthodox “Vaad” would have made it a challenge at an affordable cost, he said. So Charlip decided instead to seek certification from Kosher Michigan, a new agency started by Conservative Rabbi Jason Miller that has certified 19 businesses as kosher so far. Charlip, who is Jewish, says that while an observant Orthodox customer might not be convinced to nosh on a bagel from his store, his certification opened the doors to more customers.
Miller’s agency is part of a debate over who defines what is kosher; in general, Orthodox Jews are more stringent about observing Jewish law. Kosher Michigan was established at a time of growth for the kosher foods market, as non-Jews increasingly look for kosher approval on the products they buy: More than $200 billion in annual U.S. food sales come from kosher products.
While, traditionally, kosher certification was handled by Orthodox agencies, some say their interpretations have become too strict. But Orthodox leaders say they are uniquely qualified to determine what is kosher because of their expertise, experience and careful attention to God’s laws.
Kosher food is a growing industry, with about 40% of the $500 billion in annual U.S. food sales now coming from food products approved under Jewish law.
From Pepsi to General Mills to Nabisco, the biggest names in the food industry have many of their products certified as kosher to reach not only Jews, but others with discerning tastes. Even Tootsie Rolls are kosher, having earned Orthodox certification in late 2009.
But who determines what is kosher?
That question is being debated as some in the Conservative movement of Judaism are starting to establish kosher-certifying agencies that compete with those of the more-traditional Orthodox, who have long maintained kosher standards for Jews. Conservative Rabbi Jason Miller of Farmington Hills started Kosher Michigan in 2008 and now certifies 19 businesses or products as kosher, including bagel factories, grocery stores and chocolatiers in metro Detroit. Other states, such as Minnesota, New Jersey and Connecticut, have seen similar efforts by Conservative rabbis.
You don’t have to be Jewish
Kosher certification is increasingly important to many businesses whose owners are not of the Jewish faith because many consumers equate kosher with higher quality.
When Sally Burrell would attend trade shows promoting olive oils and spices from her Lapeer company, she said she would often get asked: Are your products kosher?
“If you say no, they walk away, ” she said.
That prompted her company, Lesley Elizabeth, to seek out kosher certification, but the Orthodox standards made it “pretty cost prohibitive for a small company” said Burrell, the CEO.
So she approached Kosher Michigan last year.
“My goal is to increase the options available for the kosher consumer, ” Miller said.
He and other Conservative rabbis say that in recent years Orthodox Jews have become more strict about defining what exactly is kosher. For example, fresh broccoli and strawberries are now out at many kosher events certified by Orthodox agencies because of concerns about insects. Some say that goes too far. But Orthodox leaders say they’re the ones qualified to determine what is kosher.
Rabbi Doniel Neustadt, head of the Council of Orthodox Rabbis of Greater Detroit (known as the Vaad), said the agency “follows the strictest kashruth standards in the industry, based on Torah and rabbinic tradition dating back thousands of years.”
“Proper kosher supervision is a complex task that can be assumed only by experienced professionals who have spent many years studying the field of kashruth, ” Jewish food laws, he said.
Growth comes from non-Jews
The debate comes at a time of explosive growth in the kosher food industry, according to market research company Mintel. One-third to one-half of the food for sale in an average U.S. supermarket is kosher, says Sue Fishkoff in her new book “Kosher Nation” (Schocken, $27.95). That upswing led to an increase in the number of kosher certification agencies – there are almost 1,000 kosher agencies in the U.S. now, up from just 18 in 1981, according to Kashrus Magazine.
Overall, annual sales of kosher products are $200 billion, with 86% of customers who buy kosher products not observant Jews. Most Jews do not keep kosher; only 21% of them follow the dietary rules, according to the most recent National Jewish Population Survey.
Michael Weil, 47, of West Bloomfield, who is Jewish, said he is looking for more options to keep kosher and so he likes Miller’s Kosher Michigan. While shopping at Johnny Pomodoro’s Fresh Market – certified as kosher last year by Kosher Michigan – Weil said: “The fact that there are more options makes it more convenient.”
Different standards
Miller gives an example of the differing standards between his agency and Orthodox certification.
If a store or bakery is run by a Jew who is not observant, Miller said, some Orthodox agencies won’t certify the establishment unless the owner gives his key to an Orthodox supervisor. The reasoning? If a Jewish person can’t observe Jewish laws such as resting on the Sabbath, how can that person be trusted to keep a kosher establishment?
Miller said such a restriction is not needed to make a place kosher.
“What he does in his private life has nothing to do with whether his challah (egg bread) is kosher, ” Miller said.
Neustadt disagrees that Orthodox standards have become tougher.
“Orthodox standards for kosher have not become more stringent, although it may be argued that the existing rules and regulations, which have been around for thousands of years, are being more aggressively enforced and there is a greater awareness of them, ” he said.
Still, Karen Rosenberg, 42, of West Bloomfield said Miller’s Kosher Michigan effort is the perfect fit for her family.
The mother of four said she didn’t observe kosher dietary rules growing up, but as she became more in touch with her Jewish identity as an adult, she started looking for affordable, kosher choices.
“He’s opened up a whole new door for my family, ” Rosenberg said of Miller. “It’s made it easier to go and get the products of good quality and at a good price…. It’s a very good thing for the Jewish community.”
Contact Niraj Warikoo: 313-223-4792 or nwarikoo@freepress.com