Dear Reader,
As Rosh Hashanah rapidly approaches and we start a new year, I struggle to keep track of all that has transpired in the past year. It was a year full of reevaluations, updates, and improvements to our workflow and systems.
With OK Kosher satellite offices strategic locations all over the world, it is incumbent upon us to actively review protocol and standards to ensure the same high standards of kosher are implemented throughout the world, even though we are all constantly connected through the latest technologies. In addition to hundreds of phone calls and video conferences, many of our rabbis and staff have been shuttling back and forth, from California to Israel, to ensure transparency and the quality of the certification in which so many of you place your trust.
Here at Kosher Spirit, we are starting the New Year with a new series called Your Kosher Kitchen, with the intent of conveying the applied, practical kashrus of all the kitchen appliances that we use on a regular basis and the possible kosher ramifications, one appliance at a time. We hope you will find it informative and we will start with the center (and hottest part) of the kitchen – the oven.
Color your world with an in depth look at the amazing world of food coloring by Rabbi Bentzion Chanowitz and read a fascinating account of kosher supervision in the IDF, based on an interview with our own Food Service Rabbinic Coordinator, Rabbi Kalman Weinfeld. We also bring you a spotlight on a unique wine company, Wyldewood Cellars, and their award winning elderberry wines, which, although it cannot be used for Kiddush, will be a perfect complement to your Simchas Beis Hashoeva or Simchas Torah table.
Kosher certification certainly requires an intense setup to ensure that things will all be done according to halacha. Equally as important is constant review and a monitoring system of checks and balances to ensure kosher consistency, which is what Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur are all about. It seems to me like its Rosh Hashanah in this office all year round, and as time goes by the years are passing faster and faster.
Wishing you and your family a gut gebentched yohr and k’siva v’chasima tovah, l’shanah tovah u’mesukah.
Rabbi Chaim Fogelman
Editor in Chief