Sixth Sense

I got a really good laugh from an ad by a local retailer in Brooklyn depicting the scene in Megilat Esther where the wicked Haman leads the pious Mordechai through the streets of Shushan yelling “Take me to _____with its Lower Prices.” With the hectic Passover season looming, any retailer could use a bit of levity.

For students enrolled in yeshivas, the customary mid-winter vacation has been renamed “Yeshiva Week.” For several days in Miami Beach, it very much looked like the winter Catskills with entire families vacationing in the warmer (perhaps not as warm and as sunny as they would have liked but certainly warmer than back

This is crunch time for kosher in Miami Beach. Tens of thousands of snowbirds will be heading for the warmer climate in South Florida as school break goes into full swing. This, in addition to the customary winter vacationers. Kosher restaurants will be overflowing and in fact are already turning away patrons. Many

It seemed surreal to watch the euphoria in many communities in the hours after the commutation of Sholom Mordechai Rubashkin’s 27-year sentence by President Donald Trump. The community, and a host of legal, political and business leaders, rightfully felt that Mr. Rubashkin was the victim of an unjust and disproportionate

I met two kinds of people at Kosherfest. Those who are deeply embedded in the kosher food industry and those desperately seeking to grab a piece of the action. Those who are “in” were simply trying to figure out how to claim a bigger share and those who “wanted in” were looking for a foothold in what they perceive

It is hard to believe that it has been 29 years since I launched Kosherfest with just 69 booths and 600 visitors. Contrast that with the 400 booths and 6000 visitors of Kosherfest 2017. It was most gratifying to walk the aisles, see the magnificent exhibits and the innovative kosher foods. I remember the provincial small

If anyone doubts that Israel has emerged as a food Mecca, especially if one is kosher, a walk through the historic Machneh Yehudah market will put those doubts to rest. I actually spent a great deal of the recent holidays in an apartment just a block or so from this “shuk” – marketplace. It has been many years since

Alexander Rappaport is not your typical Orthodox Jew in Chasidic dress. He is articulate and very much tuned into the needs of the community. So it is no wonder that during these high holy days, he is busy providing thousands of kosher meals to the poor through Masbia, a network of soup kitchens he founded. A savvy user of

It appears that if you pay for a First Class ticket on a domestic flight nowadays, you may have to do with watching your neighbor’s eat but if you’re lucky your kosher meal will consist of an apple and some crackers, or perhaps a Sabra Hummus with crackers. This is apparently the experience of dozens of travelers who

I wish I had $1000 for each person that has asked me over the years what reference material I would recommend to understand the kosher market. I know what they are thinking: volumes of Hebrew books beginning with the Five Books of Moses to perhaps answer intricate questions about the mixing of meat and dairy on