The [meth lab and weapons] charges were among the most explosive details to emerge following the massive raid Monday at Agriprocessors in Postville, Iowa. In a 60-page application for a search warrant, federal agents revealed details of their six-month probe of Agriprocessors. The investigation involved 12 federal agencies, including the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the departments of labor and agriculture.

According to the application, a former plant supervisor told investigators that some 80 percent of the workforce was illegal. They included rabbis responsible for kosher supervision, who the source believed entered the United States from Canada without proper immigration documents. The source did not provide evidence for his suspicion about the rabbis.

The source also claimed to have confronted a human resources manager with Social Security cards from three employees that had the same number. The manager laughed when the matter was raised, the source said.

At least 300 people were arrested Monday during the raid, for which federal authorities had rented an expansive fairground nearby to serve as a processing center for detainees. The search warrant application said that 697 plant employees were believed to have violated federal laws. Agriprocessors officials did not return calls from JTA seeking comment.

Labels: Kosher

Nothing says Easter like a hot Knish!

Ramadan: It's all about the lox and shmear!


Celebrate the Sabbath with a bottle of vodka for your favorite Mormon!

Labels: Antisemitism, Humor, Jewish, Kosher

Labels: Conservative Judaism, Jewish, Kosher, Orthodox Judaism, Pluralism, Reform Judaism

"[I]n spite of the star dust being sprinkled over kosher foods, some claim that making kosher trendy is not a kosher thing to do. Most in the Jewish community are not swayed by star dust and are against turning Judaism into 'a modern, trendy cult,' says one of the heads of the rabbinical committee in America, who choose to ignore the phenomenon. 'This is just a fashion that will soon disappear", he says. "Everything Jewish is suddenly popular, but after the noise has quietened down and the storm has passed, only the core will remain, but anyway, the core is what's important in Judaism."

Labels: Celebrities, Jewish, Kosher

Labels: Jewish, Kosher, Synaplex

Labels: Conservative Judaism, Kosher

Labels: Kosher, Passover

Hooters heads for the Holy Land

U.S. chain to bring spicy chicken wings and Hooters Girls to Tel Aviv, says restaurants won't be kosher.

JERUSALEM (Reuters) -- U.S. restaurant chain Hooters, known for waitresses in low-cut blouses and short skirts, will open its first branch in Israel this summer, in the Mediterranean seaside city of Tel Aviv.

"I strongly believe that the Hooters concept is something that Israelis are looking for," Ofer Ahiraz, who bought the Hooters franchise for Israel, told Reuters on Monday. "Hooters can suit the Israeli entertainment culture."

At Hooters, scantily clad waitresses the company calls Hooters Girls serve spicy chicken wings, sandwiches, seafood and drinks.

Ahiraz said a specific location in Tel Aviv, Israel's most cosmopolitan city, had yet to be chosen, but he said it would not open restaurants near large religious populations, and they would not be kosher.

He said his plan was to open as many as five Hooters restaurants in the next few years, including one in the southern resort city of Eilat.

The Tel Aviv version of Hooters is expected to mimic most of the chain's other 430 restaurants in the United States and in 23 countries including China, Switzerland, Australia and Brazil.

Labels: Israel, Kosher

Labels: Kosher

Labels: Conservative Judaism, Jewish, Kosher

There is good news for kosher consumers who want their Duncan Hines Moist Deluxe Cake Mixes, certified kosher by the Orthodox Union, to have pareve and non-dairy status. The company has reversed a decision made in 2005 to switch the product to dairy, therefore rendering it unusable for cakes that are served with meat meals at the Sabbath table. The product line includes Moist Deluxe Classic Yellow, the best selling cake mix in the country, and other consumer favorites such as Devil's Food, Lemon Supreme and Butter Recipe Golden.

Pareve production began in September and Duncan Hines has begun shipping product to stores. It should be in most locations by November and December, the company says.

Pocahontas Brand Pork and Beans in Tomato Sauce- Food Service (#10 can) mistakenly bears an unauthorized OU symbol. The product is being withdrawn from the marketplace.

Dominion Farms in Texas has made statements that might be construed as them being under the supervision of the cRc. They have supplied live cattle for kosher shechita, but are not certified by the cRc.

It has come to our attention that packages of barley, such as those used for soup or cholent, may contain larva, insects or even live worms! This problem is not isolated to any specific brand or store. It is strongly suggested that each package of barley, or other similar grains, be inspected prior to use.

Bareman's Gourmet Heavy Cream is dairy, as indicated on the ingredient panel. However, the "D" was inadvertently omitted and the package only bears a plain cRc. The product is indeed dairy. Future packaging is being revised.

KNORR BEEF BOUILLON (the kosher variety) which contains lactose, has been erroneously been marked as Pareve. The product is Dairy.

Labels: Kosher

The evening of August 30 was a dark one for the kosher food industry.

First, a group of rabbis in New York discovered boxes upon boxes of nonkosher meat in the warehouse of a major kosher meat distributor. At roughly the same time, in Pennsylvania, federal agents seized 726 pounds of marijuana at a kosher slaughterhouse.

The drug bust occurred in Birdsboro at the G & G Poultry facility, which produces kosher chicken under the strictest rabbinic supervision. According to an affidavit from a federal customs agent, the authorities tracked the movement of marijuana in and out of the factory’s parking lot for more than a week before moving in. Of the four people who were arrested during the raid, three appeared to be G & G employees; however, none of them was Jewish. Two of the men arrested in the bust, which was first reported by the Reading Eagle, were undocumented Mexican immigrants, authorities said in a statement.

For kosher consumers, the more disconcerting news came from Monsey, N.Y., where rabbis found packages of nonkosher meat in the storeroom of a local kosher meat distributor. There was no immediate announcement about how long the nonkosher meat had been on the shelves, but Monsey, a heavily Orthodox town, has been plastered with handbills and letters warning residents to ritually cleanse, or kasher, any kitchen supplies that may have touched meat from the wholesaler, Shevach Quality Meats.

Giving voice to the gravity of the issue, Rabbi Meir Weissmandel, a local eminence, wrote a letter to locals Sunday, September 3, speaking of "this appalling transgression: the conspiracy of betrayers who misled the many and deceived in order to mislead Jewish souls and make them impure." [more...]

Labels: Kosher