H eadlines
Area Restaurants Seek Hechshers
L OCA L
SASHA ROGELBERG | JE STAFF
AFTER BEN & JERRY’S
announced it would stop selling
ice cream in Israel’s West Bank
settlements, pro-Israel organi-
zations such as Brooklyn-based
Amariah demanded that the ice
cream company’s hechsher, or
kosher certification, be removed.

Some Australian grocery stores,
as well as Australia’s Kashrut
Authority, have removed Ben &
Jerry’s from lists of kosher items.

But this is not the same as
removing the brand’s hechsher,
the process of which is not so
simple. Kof-K, the Teaneck,
New Jersey-based organization
that certifies Ben & Jerry’s, has
a contract with the ice cream
company’s Israeli distributor
that doesn’t expire for another
year-and-a-half. Though the
organization’s hands are tied until
then, it is working with Unilever,
Ben & Jerry’s parent company, to
pressure Ben & Jerry’s to recon-
sider its stance.

“We hope that we’ll get
it reversed,” said Rabbi
Yehuda Rosenbaum, a Kof-K
administrator. But while some are fervent
about wanting the hechsher
removed from Ben & Jerry’s,
some Philadelphia establishments
are just as eager to get their own
kosher certification.

Jessica Boese, co-owner of
Cherry Hill, New Jersey’s new
location of Nothing Bundt
Cakes, isn’t Jewish but wants her
franchise bakery location to be
kosher to accommodate Cherry
Hill’s Jewish population.

“It’s relatively simple for the
amount that it is appreciated by
the community,” Boese said.

Because she, along with her
husband and co-owner, Steve
Boese, knew they wanted a kosher
establishment before opening,
they didn’t need to worry about
buying new equipment or making
new rules about staff bringing
non-kosher food into the kitchen.

For franchises like Nothing
JEWISHEXPONENT.COM Bundt Cakes or Insomnia
Cookies, getting a hechsher is
straightforward. “They have standardized
ingredients that are coming in:
They’re bound by the rules of their
franchise agreements to only use
certain suppliers that are coming
in, all with their own certifications
on it,” said Rabbi Yonah Gross,
an administrator for Keystone-K,
the Philadelphia organization that
supervises those area franchises.

One factor that complicates
the process of getting a hechsher,
according to Gross: serving meat.

Preparing meat at a kosher
restaurant requires not only
separation from dairy, but the
constant supervision of a Jewish
person to ensure the product is
being appropriately handled. That
can be a non-starter for many
restaurants that are most profit-
able on Friday and Saturday, as,
besides not being able to cook
meat on Shabbat, they wouldn’t be
able to hire a Shabbat-observant
supervisor, either.

“I don’t think we’d be able to
supervise a meat restaurant that’s
open on Shabbos,” Gross said.

Dairy restaurants also often
require continuous supervision,
but there are still more kosher
dairy than kosher meat restau-
rants in Center City.

Plant-based restaurants
Bar Bombón, Charlie Was a
sinner. and several HipCityVeg
locations around the city all
received kosher certification
from the International Kosher
Council on July 27. Supervised
by Rabbi Eliezer Hirsch of
Mekor Habracha Center City
Synagogue, these restaurants join
the ranks of other vegan kosher
restaurants in the area super-
vised by IKC, such as 20th Street
Pizza and Goldie.

“It really aligns with our
mission to bring plant-based
foods to people everywhere,” said
Nicole Marquis, founder and CEO
of Bar Bombón, Charlie Was a
sinner. and HipCityVeg. “Because
we really believe it’s the single
most important thing we can
do to have a positive impact on
our health, and, of course, on the
environment.” Marquis hopes for
her restaurants to become halal,
further expanding her clientele.

Like kosher establishments
that serve dairy or meat, vegan
restaurants also have to be vigilant
when washing produce and
checking them for bugs. Though
they don’t require constant
supervision, restaurants are still
required to have administrators
provide periodic checks to ensure
their standards are being upheld.

Not all vegan restaurants
are interested in becoming
kosher, Gross said. Some
restaurants source sauces with
animal byproducts because
customers requested them. That
these restaurants still advertise
themselves as vegan underscores
the importance that a kosher
certification has on guaranteeing
transparency between restau-
rants and customers.

Gross said he has noticed a
steady increase in restaurants in
the Philadelphia area applying for
certification. Marquis said that
she has seen a growing demand
for plant-based restaurants, and
members of the Jewish commu-
nity have asked for her restaurants
to get certified.

Despite Marquis’ anecdotal
evidence, there doesn’t appear
to be a major push from
Philadelphia-based restaurants
to become certified. Even so, the
establishments that are becoming
kosher — largely chains and
vegetarian and vegan restaurants
— indicate the growing desire of
restaurants to gain a more inclu-
sive consumer base, as well as
become more conscious of where
they source their food.

Conversely, kosher restaurants
may get the short end of the stick
if clientele are mostly limited to
the kosher-keeping community.

“For kosher restaurants to be
able to gain market share from
the non-kosher community,
that’s a big challenge for them,”
Gross said. l
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