OU Kosher Staff

Styrofoam Cups and Aluminum Foil

Over the past several decades the kosher industry has grown considerably. Food companies recognizing the profitability of the kosher market have pursued kosher certification in an effort to increase marketability and sales of their products. What has been especially remarkable is that the pursuit of kosher certification has not stopped with food. It is not unusual to find nowadays a hechsher on non-food items. Are there really any viable kashrus concerns with something that is inedible? This article will focus on three popular household items, aluminum foil and pans, Styrofoam cups, and paper towels.

Lo Basi Ella L’orer: Relying on a K’feila

If a non-kosher food falls into a pot of kosher food and we are not sure whether it was nosain ta’am, the Gemara (Chulin 98a) says that we can get a non-Jewish k’feila (chef) to taste the food. If the non-Jew can assure us that the non-kosher taste is not detectable, then the food is […]

OU Mesorah Conference on Mitzvot of Eretz Yisrael Both Enlightens and Educates Audience of Over 300

They came from Randallstown and Baltimore, MD; Edison and Highland Park, NJ; Monsey and Spring Valley, NY. They came from Lakewood, Teaneck, Elizabeth, Passaic and Jersey City, NJ. They came from Allentown, PA, Plainview and New Rochelle, NY and throughout the Metropolitan New York area. Speakers came from Eretz Yisrael via Boston and Stamford, CT. A crowd of over 300 gathered this past Sunday at Lander College for Men in Kew Gardens Hills, NY, for a fascinating eight-hour Harry H. Beren program on the Kedushat Ha’Aretz and Its Mitzvot, that is the mitzvot especially related to the land of Israel. The audience sat mesmerized by one powerful presentation and dynamic shiur after the other.

Mission Not Impossible: The Kosher Jew in a Non-Kosher Milieu

It is well-known that when Robert A. Heinlein entitled his most famous novel, “Stranger in a Strange Land,” he adopted a phrase from the book of Exodus. Very often, the kosher consumer feels like a stranger in a strange land. Whether it’s an executive in a hotel during a business trip, or a Ba’al Teshuvah in his parents’ home, kosher consumers must sometimes navigate their way in a nonkosher kitchen. The purpose of this presentation is to offer some points of guidance to those faced with such challenges.

Nothing Fishy Here! OU Releases “The Kosher Fish Primer” DVD

Nothing Fishy Here! OU Releases ‘The Kosher Fish Primer’ DVD To Clarify Issues Of What Makes These Creatures Kosher

OU KOSHER Releases Educational DVD Containing 91 Harry H. Beren ASK OU Kashrut Presentations

If you “ASK OU” Kosher about the intricacies of kashrut, you are going to get a very substantial answer, almost 55 hours worth.

That became perfectly clear today as the Orthodox Union Kosher Division announced the release of a DVD containing 91 presentations of ASKOU programs –kashrut education seminars presented by OU Kosher and made possible by a grant from the Harry H. Beren Foundation of Lakewood, NJ, in memory of Harry H. Beren z”l. Played end to end, the DVD would provide 25 hours of video and 29 hours of audio presentations.

OU KOSHER to Present Mesorah Conference IV on Perspectives of Eretz Yisrael at Lander College

OU Kosher To Present Mesorah Conference IV, On Perspectives of Eretz Yisrael at Lander College, June 15
OU Kosher will provide a halachic, historic and archeological perspective of Eretz Yisrael, the Land of Israel, Jerusalem, the Temple Mount and the special mitzvot that are connected to this holy land when it presents Kedushas Ha’Aretz and its Mitzvos, Sunday, June 15 from 9:30 a.m. to 5:30 p. m. at Lander College in Kew Gardens Hills, Queens.

Tevilas Keilim: Commercial and Private

Tevilas Keilim: Commercial and Private – Rabbi Elimelech Lebowitz – Recorded on August 11, 2006 at OU world Headquarters in NY,NY as part of the Harry H. Beren Ask OU8 Kashruth Internship Program.

Technical Issues in the Production of Cheese and Whey

Technical Issues in the Production of Cheese and Whey – Presented by Rabbi Avrohom Gordimer as part of the ASK OUTREACH program. Recorded at Mesivta Tiferes Yerusholayim on February 12, 2008.

ASK OUTREACH Divrei Chizuk from Rav Shmuel Kamenetsky

ASK OUTREACH Divrei Chizuk given by HaGaon Rav Shmuel Kamenetsky, Shlita to OU Kosher RC’s at OU World Headquarters in NY, NY on March 3, 2008. Greetings by Rabbi Yosef Grossman, Rabbi Dr. Tzvi Hersh Weinreb and Rabbi Menachem Genack precede Divrei Chizuk.