Just Bagels: Crunchy On The Outside, Chewy On The Inside
Just Bagels started as a small retail and wholesale bagel store in 1992. Today, the company occupies a 44,000-square-foot facility in the Hunts Point section of the Bronx, NY, running 24 hours a day, seven days a week, offering an extensive line of fresh, frozen, and parbaked products.
Professor Temple Grandin, Foremost Expert On Humane Slaughter, Visits Agriprocessors Plant
OU announces that Professor Temple Grandin, foremost expert on humane slaughter, visits Agriprecessors plant and expresses satisfaction with practices now in effect there.
Caption: OU Honors G. Jacobs Of Forest Hills With Kashrut Chair
At a warm, heartfelt and elegant event, one of the Orthodox Union’s most enthusiastic and long-standing leaders, Gustave Jacobs of Forest Hills, NY, and his wife Henriette, were honored at the naming and dedication of the Henriette and Gustave Jacobs Chair in Kashrut Education in the OU Kosher Division. The cocktail reception and buffet dinner, attended by a large gathering of Jewish communal leaders, was held recently at OU headquarters in New York.
Concession and Consumption: An Approach to Kashruth
It is no mere coincidence that men steeped in Torah law and learning chose to take up medicine as a profession. The Sages saw a clear connection between medicine and religion, between the body and the soul. Our bodies, they taught, belong to God and have been given to us on loan, as it were, during our stay on earth. Caring for the body by keeping it clean and healthy is a religious duty that honors God; neglecting and abusing the body is a sin that profanes Him. Thus, questions of nutrition or body care are approached halachically as earnestly and scrupulously as are questions of Jewish ritual. “The human figure,” says the Zohar, “unites all that is above and all that is below; therefore, the Ancient of Ancients has chosen it for His form.” “The body is the soul’s house. Shouldn’t we therefore take care of our house so that it doesn’t fall into ruin?” Philo inquired.
OU Introduces KosherProfessionals.com Website For Those In The Kosher Field
The Kosher Division of the Orthodox Union, which already maintains the oukosher.org website with its multiplicity of features for general audiences as well as for companies, has created a website specifically for professionals, to provide insights into the increasingly complex and changing field of kosher certification.
Dairy Labeling Policy
The Orthodox Union requires the use of the OU-D symbol on products that contain dairy ingredients.
Eggs And Blood Spots
In the past, most eggs came from fertile hens. It was beneficial to the farmers because a fertilized hen’s increased hormone levels stimulate more egg production. Of course, fertilized eggs will also, in the right conditions, grow into chickens. In modern commercial egg operations, this hormone enhancement is achieved (and controlled), by artificial means through the feed. The eggs themselves are not fertile; they will never develop into chickens. While in the past, every blood spot might have signified the beginning of a new embryo (safek sheretz ha’of), today’s commercial methods virtually insure that this is not the case.
Dairy English Muffins
The OU certifies many brands of English Muffins which are labeled OU-D and many others that are OU-Pareve. In light of the issur to produce dairy bread (Shulchan Aruch 97:1), how can the OU certify muffins as dairy? The following two answers have been suggested to this question, and each is followed by Rav Schachter’s comments:
Muffins have a unique shape.
Kaskeset: Part Two
In part one of this article, we discussed what the requirements are for fish to be kosher (i.e. that the fish needs to have “kaskeses” and what is a “kaskeses” ), as well as some of the common mistakes made in trying to determine which fish would qualify as kosher. In this article, we will discuss two practical methods to determine if a fish is kosher.
Bodek Kosher Produce: First in the Kosher Vegetable Revolution
So You’re Looking For An Easy Salad? No problem. Rip open a bag of lettuce, add dressing, and voilà – you’ve got your salad. Want something more exotic? Try the freezer section – broccoli, cauliflower, asparagus, frozen strawberries – all strictly kosher and ready to use. No big deal, you think. Couldn’t be easier.
