Omer 2025 Day 38

Day 37 | Day 39

Day 38: Kosher Nation: Why More and More of America's Food Answers to a Higher Authority by Sue Fishkoff
Tiferet in Yesod, Balance in Connection

"Kashrut is a force that both unifies and separates. It identifies its practitioners as part of the Jewish community and ties them to thousands of years of Jewish history, while at the same time setting them apart from those who do not keep kosher."

I first read this book in 2014, after I had been keeping kosher for a couple of years. A colleague recently described this book as, "the book that makes people stop keeping kosher," and she's not entirely wrong. I did keep kosher for another decade after reading this book, but gave it up last year, and part of that decision was because of this book.

When we started keeping kosher, it was part of a larger move toward observance in our lives. We started gradually - keeping "kosher style" (not mixing dairy and meat, but not necessarily buying kosher food), then progressing to "ingredient kosher" (checking the ingredients on the products we bought to make sure there wasn't anything unkosher in them, like pork gelatin in marshmallows), and finally investing in two sets of plates and only buying hechshered (certified kosher) products. It was a lot, but it felt deeply meaningful and not overwhelming, even when we lived in areas with fewer kosher options. Keeping kosher made Judaism an active part of our lives at least three times a day. It required a certain level of understanding of Jewish law and Jewish life. Hosting or accepting an invitation for Shabbat dinner necessitates a conversation about the personal level of kashrut for each individual. Everyone seems to have developed different rules for themselves about what they will or won't eat outside of their own home. Of course, some only eat kosher certified foods anywhere, meaning limiting themselves to kosher restaurants and kosher homes. But most non-Orthodox American Jews have developed their own systems - eating pescatarian out, only eating "cold contact" foods in restaurants, eating kosher chicken in an unkosher home. Despite the many complications of keeping kosher, there is something simple in the order and structure it provides. But I love how we each make kashrut our own.

Of course, I know Jews who require a hechsher on everything. I know Jews who eat bacon, but no other pork products. I know Jews from Maryland who make an exception for crab, the state food. I know Jews who will eat chicken parm, but not a cheeseburger. And while we might internally bat an eye at those people, each of those tweaks represents deep personal thought that the person has put into their diet because of their Judaism. Each choice elevates the act of eating from simple sustenance to a reflection on Jewish text. Kosher Nation examines how we have adapted kashrut to the modern food supply chain - really, how we have taken this ancient communal standard of eating and globalized it to certify everyday products and send mashgichim (kashrut inspectors) to factories in China and all over the world. And whether or not you keep kosher, that's a fascinating story.