Issue

Volume # 83

Winter 2022(5783)

In this issue
Keeping Kosher, Becoming American
Cover Story

Keeping Kosher, Becoming American

Ensuring the availability of a wide range of kosher products in suburban grocery stores, and increasingly, supermarkets, was crucial to keeping on-the-fence Jewish consumers within the kosher fold.

Rabbi Julius Berman
Cover Story

Rabbi Julius Berman

Today when I walk into a supermarket, it’s actually difficult to find something that’s not kosher. That’s a far cry from how it was when I was growing up.

Dr. Chaim Wasserman
Cover Story

Dr. Chaim Wasserman

I have worked for the klal my entire career, and I must say that the people at the OU have an extraordinary selflessness.

Harvey Blitz
Cover Story

Harvey Blitz

In 1994, I was a member of the Kashrut Commission when the OU gave kosher certification to Hershey’s. It was a seminal moment.

Steve Savitsky
Cover Story

Steve Savitsky

The kids looked at me, flabbergasted: “Well, if you can’t trust the OU, you can’t trust anybody!”

Rabbi Shoshan Ghoori
Cover Story

Rabbi Shoshan Ghoori

It is not unusual for him to prepare by applying copious amounts of bug spray and donning heavy rubber boots and a netted face mask—all to protect himself from the snake bites, malaria and dengue fever he might encounter while journeying to plants tucked deep in the Amazon.

Rabbi Yisroel Hollander
Cover Story

Rabbi Yisroel Hollander

Even now, with airports still in post-Covid chaos and gas prices at nosebleed levels, the rabbi continues on his journeys. “Indefatigable is the word I’d use to describe him,” says Rabbi Nachum Rabinowitz, a senior RC for OU Kosher.

Phyllis Koegel
Cover Story

Phyllis Koegel

Over the past sixteen years, Koegel has brought in over 2,000 new brands and over 250,000 new products, among them Gatorade, Sambazon, Jelly Belly jelly beans, and Tootsie Roll.

Rabbi Alexander Rosenberg, zt”l
Cover Story

Rabbi Alexander Rosenberg, zt”l

A Jew once made a less than straightforward proposal to Rabbi Rosenberg from which he stood to derive substantial personal gain. Rabbi Rosenberg responded, “Un vos zogt G-t?” (“And what does G-d think?”)

Rabbi Chaim Goldzweig, zt”l
Cover Story

Rabbi Chaim Goldzweig, zt”l

“There’s no question that Rabbi Goldzweig was a pivotal player in the development of kashrut in America,” Rabbi Israel Paretzky, an OU RC told Jewish Action in a 2011 interview. “He was the OU.”

Don’t Let It Bug You
Cover Story

Don’t Let It Bug You

Indoor farming can bring about a revolution for the kosher consumer. If it’s done correctly, the vegetables could be grown bug-free and won’t require washing.

The Technology Behind OU Kosher
Cover Story

The Technology Behind OU Kosher

“Kosher certification technology is a journey,” says Greenman. “As technology in general becomes more complex and nuanced, we have to stay ahead of the curve in terms of both systems and security.”

My Siddur
Inspiration

My Siddur

I must confess that while I felt more and more familiar with the “new” nusach, I harbored a sense of guilt. Perhaps I had abandoned the custom of my father and my ancestors. Perhaps I was not being true to my family tradition.

How Do You Learn?
Mentsch Management

How Do You Learn?

As Chanukah begins, may we utilize the opportunity to understand how we each learn so that we might rededicate and re-initiate ourselves into Torah learning. This, then, is how I learn. How about you? How do you learn?

A Bigger Tent for Our Teens
In Focus

A Bigger Tent for Our Teens

As a ninth-grade public school student who made the rare decision to wear a kippah to school, I saw the cascading impact that decision had.