Israel Matzav

Shimon Peres eats 'fish' out

During my first week at the office in Tel Aviv, a couple of weeks after I made aliya, my co-workers told me they were ordering in dinner and asked if I wanted to order with them. I declined. They told me that they were ordering basar lavan, but I said no thank you. They asked if I wasn't ordering with them because what they were ordering wasn't Kosher, and I said yes, I was sure it was not. But I thought they were ordering white meat chicken (basar lavan literally translates to 'white meat'). They weren't. They were ordering that other white meat....

Jews in other countries still envision Israeli Jews as being traditional at worst. After all, those who don't go to synagogue still insist that the synagogue they don't attend be Orthodox. But sadly, among the chattering classes - particularly of Tel Aviv and Haifa - they are far from traditional, and often have no idea about Jewish traditions. My non-Jewish co-workers in New York knew more about being Jewish than many of my Jewish co-workers in that office in Tel Aviv. And when my brother-in-law was an emissary to the US in the late '70's and early '80's, he had to take a course in basic Judaism (even though he had studied in yeshiva for many years), because it seems that a Jewish Agency emissary a couple of years earlier had been invited to sit on the dais at a fancy banquet and when they handed him the water with which to wash his hands after the meal, he drank it....

So I'm not too surprised by what Shimon Peres allegedly ate in Mexico, even if there is a famous story in the Talmud about someone who was fed the same thing because he didn't wash his hands before the meal....

Mati Tuchfeld of Israel Hayom reported that in the course of the visit, Peres and his entourage entered a restaurant called Au Pied de Cochon, in the hotel where he was staying, and ate a meal.

The name of the restaurant means “The Pig's Foot.” This is also the restaurant's prized dish. The restaurant's sign features two piglets staring at each other, and the menu is decorated with images of pigs, which observant Jews are strictly forbidden from eating.

Peres, who speaks French, certainly understood the meaning of the name.

According to the report, several members of the Jewish congregation in Mexico, which sponsored much of the presidential visit, felt great discomfort upon learning that Peres chse to dine at this particular restaurant with his entourage, but did not have the courage to say anything to the president.

Peres's bureau said in reaction to the report: “This is a restaurant that is located in the hotel where the president was staying. The meal was a private lunch, to which no additional guests were invited. The president and his bureau staff made sure to abide by the laws of kashrut and ordered only fish and salad. In all of the formal meals he attended, the food was kosher lemehadrin.”

Is this what the Zionist dream has come to... Kosher pigs?

Labels: Jewish law, Kosher certification, Shimon Peres

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 10:15 PM