Prime Minister Netanyahu has a veal chop with Sheldon Adelson
The New York Post reports that after his speech to the United Nations General Assembly on Monday, Prime Minister Netanyahu
had lunch with Sheldon Adelson (Hat Tip:
Kikar Shabbat (link in Hebrew)).
Spies tell us that Bibi arrived at the small lunch hosted by Las Vegas casino billionaire Sheldon Adelson
for five people, for which “every single customer at the restaurant had
to go through a metal detector,” as the leader was flanked by Israeli
and American guards.
“The entire block was closed,” the spy said, adding, “There were even Secret Service men on the roof.”
We hear that Netanyahu opted for a veal chop as he held court.
The restaurant at which they ate was not a pricey midtown Manhattan Kosher restaurant. It's called Fresco by Scotto and it's on East 52nd Street. Here's a link to the
lunch menu. You will note that it includes items like Meat and Cheese Antipasto, Fresco Crab Cake Gnudi and a couple of lobster dishes. The Meat and Cheese Antipasto includes something called capicola. I had to look that one up with Mr. Google, but Capicola, or coppa, is a traditional Neapolitan Italian cold cut (salume)
made from pork shoulder or neck and dry-cured whole.
The average non-religious Israeli who might eat dairy products or fish (not those kinds of fish) in non-Kosher restaurants would likely not be caught dead in such a restaurant except with a sealed Kosher airline meal. Was Netanyahu's veal chop provided by El Al?
Non-religious Israelis in general are much less willing to abandon traditional Judaism than are their American counterparts.
I like Adelson's politics. I don't like his choice in restaurants. There are several Kosher restaurants in Manhattan (and in the midtown area) that are at least as upscale as this one. Here's
one I've been to several times and here's
another I'm still waiting to be treated to. The second one is four city blocks from where Netanyahu and Adelson ate.
Prime Ministers in Israel have fallen for less. Hmmm.
Labels: Binyamin Netanyahu, Kosher certification, Sheldon Adelson, treif
J Street is treif
Attendees at the J Street conference in Washington report that it is literally
not Kosher (Hat Tip:
My Right Word).
Of course, plenty of Jewish organizations serve non-kosher food at their events, and that’s fine. Given that the vast majority of Jews don’t keep strict, certified kosher, there’s no reason to foot that bill. But almost all Jewish organizations, and certainly all major ones, make the effort to provide kosher options for those Jews who do require a hekhsher. At the very least, they would offer kosher food for purchase.
Not so with J Street.
When I arrived at the conference this morning, before 8 a.m., I asked a staff person if the breakfast would include kosher options. She told me it would. But when the food arrived, there was nothing kosher to be found–not even fruit. I sufficed with coffee and decided to wait for lunch, when–with an hour of free time–I could rush on the metro to a kosher restaurant.
When that time came, I got ready to hurry out of the conference room only to be told by multiple J Street staffers that there were sandwiches for purchase across the building and yes, some of them were kosher.
You can guess what happened next. I arrived at the sandwich cart and requested the kosher option. I got a blank stare in return, and when I asked the manager she told me she had no idea what I was talking about. She hadn’t heard anything about kosher sandwiches. The best they could do, they said, was a regular turkey sandwich with the cheese taken off. No good. I bought a Clif bar, a Nature Valley, a Kit Kat, an apple and a banana. I filled the feast out with some mini Twix I found at a conference table.
Maybe I’m making too much of this, but I think that an intentionally Jewish organization that bases its platform on Jewish values should make more of an effort to respect a basic traditional Jewish practice. This is especially true for J Street, which emphasizes pluralism and acceptance. I think it’s great for an organization to encourage myriad political ideologies, but there needs to be space for a multiplicity of religious observances as well. And on perhaps the most practical level, I have trouble thinking about the nuances of US Middle East policy when I haven’t eaten all day.
Maybe if William Daroff is there, he can take everyone on a trip to Eli's (if you follow his Twitter feed, you know exactly what I mean). But why does it
not surprise me that J Street would run a conference that is 100% Glatt treif?
Labels: J Street, treif
