LUBICOM CEO Menachem Lubinsky is the founder and co-producer of Kosherfest, the annual trade event for the kosher food & beverage industry and is the editor-in-chief of KosherToday.

Eye on Kosher shares Lubinsky’s personal reflections on kosher-related topics and is released on alternating weeks with My Sixth Sense, which can be found at http://www.koshertoday.com

Greater Focus on Women

Jun 20, 2009

Kashrus agencies and even pulpit rabbis have been paying greater attention to women of late, and for good reason. Women remain the dominant consumers of kosher products. It was about a year ago that Rabbi Yosef Grossman, Director of OU Kosher Education, began to hear from women that they wanted an advanced program on the technicalities and practices of kosher law.  In the following months, more than 80 women were in touch with Rabbi Grossman, seeking such a course. The OU is responding by offering a special kashrus course August 24-28.

Several Chabad centers around the country also sponsor special sessions on kashrus, specifically geared for women. In addition to classroom like lectures, the Chabad representatives lead tours of the kosher sections of supermarkets. The OU course will include such issues as Hafroshat Chalah (the separation or tithing of challah); blood spots in eggs; shaylos (or questions) dealing with chickens which should be brought to a rabbi for a halachic decision; meat and dairy control; identifying and purchasing kosher fish; and becoming an educated kosher consumer. The women will go on field trips to OU certified factories, hotel kitchens and food service establishments which, Rabbi Grossman said, will give participants “an appreciation for the complexities of modern day kashrut.” The students will tour OU Kosher, meet its rabbinic staff – both those who are based in the OU office (rabbinic coordinators) and those who work outside (rabbinic field representatives) – and come away with a heightened sense of how kashrut operates commercially and in the home.

Recently, the Star-K kosher certification agency announced plans for its first ever training event for women as kosher supervisors (mashgichot). The planned women’s conference in the Fall is for women that serve as mashgichot in the food service industry, mostly at catering halls and restaurants. The program will teach proper procedures for checking vegetables, explain the dynamics of the kitchen, review policies and procedures, and draw attention to specific issues mashgichot should to be aware of. The seminar will also include trips to various facilities for a more “hands-on” approach.

Many rabbis I spoke to welcomed these developments, calling them “long overdue.” One rabbi who offered a course for men n how to check vegetables for bugs said bluntly: “While the men listened and watched attentively, I had the feeling that I should offer the same course for women.” He did, with good results.