Dear Reader,
While I was home with my family, taking cover from the super Hurricane Sandy, I was surprised to see that the U.S. Postal Service delivered the mail right to my door. I realized the truth of the motto, "Neither snow, nor rain, nor heat, nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds." Then it dawned on me that while most of us are taking a step back from our daily work schedule, taking a day off or working from home, there are people who can’t and won’t break from their critical and vital work—firefighters, policemen and women, emergency medical technicians and rescue operators all immediately come to mind. Not only are they not stepping back, they are working even harder!
And perhaps in some small way, in the spiritual realm, there is another group of people that get too little recognition for their work in the trenches and doing their job in snow or rain or 50 mile per hour winds—they are the kosher supervisors and mashgichim, without whom a kosher production would not be possible. While the banks and government offices were all closed and the skies dimmed with hurricane clouds, the lights were burning brightly at the OK headquarters in Brooklyn, New York and our internet servers were at full capacity with office personnel logging in and just doing their jobs.
Perhaps OK Kosher Certification should adapt the same motto as the U.S. Postal Service: "Neither snow, nor rain, nor heat, nor gloom of night stays these rabbis from the uncompromising supervision of their appointed kosher productions."
In this issue you will read about the annual OK Kosher Mashgichim conference and get to know some of these wonderful rabbis that span the globe just to ensure that the food that is served at your table and mine is kosher without compromise.
Wishing you a Freilichen Chanukah,
Rabbi Chaim Fogelman
Editor-in-Chief