Saturday, July 28, 2007

Celebrities Love the Kosher Restaurants

My favorite Kosher restaurant outside of Israel is Prime Grill in New York City. That's where I dined to celebrate my ordination from rabbinical school and also where I took our group of congregants from Agudas Achim when we visited NYC last December. The Kosher steaks are delicious and the ambiance is very classy.

Well, according to a ynet news article, many celebrities are big fans of Prime Grill as well. Madonna brought her dancers and musicians to Prime Grill NYC each night after her concert. Sasha Baron Cohen ("Borat") and Paris Hilton frequent the Prime Grill in Beverly Hills and Donald Trump and Bono are regulars at Prime Grill's Solo restaurant in Manhattan.

The article does more than just name drop the celebs who are choosing to go Kosher when they dine out. It raises the question of why Kosher food is now in vogue. Is it akin to the Kabbalah fad? Do people believe it is healthier?
"[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."

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