JERUSALEM NEWS
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Events, happenings, and Opinions Concerning
Israel, Israelites, Judah, and Everyone Else
Jerusalem News-732
Jerusalem News-732
6 Adar-1 5768, 12 February 2008
1. Kosher Foods Becoming Fashionable in
USA
2. Is someone lying about dividing Jerusalem ?
3. Demographics- Palestinian Census a Bluff.
4. Max Rambow :
Photographs of a Miracle
5. Shemittah
Potatoes Escape Frost
6. 'Mommy, Where Are My Legs?'
7. Banana Republic
Olmert
seeks Germany's support for Gaza operation
1. Kosher Foods Becoming Fashionable in
USA
From: Steve Collins <scollins@sio.midco.net>
Subject: Fw:
Safety concerns drive shoppers to Kosher Foods
Shalom Yair,
You may find this interesting!
Steve
"Wary consumers of all kinds, worried about the safety of the food supply, are
finding an extra layer of confidence in food that is certified kosher, whether
at restaurants or grocery stores." (1st article below)
"A growing number of Chinese food manufacturers have joined the kosher
certification bandwagon due to international concerns over the safety of Chinese
products. US News and World Report weekly magazine quoted Mintel senior
research analyst Marcia Mogelonsky, who agreed that consumers view kosher
certification as the gold standard in quality
assurance."
(2nd article below)
Kosher sales sizzle as shoppers put
faith in foods' safety
http://www.palmbeachpost.com/business/content/business/
epaper/2008/02/09/m1a_KOSHER_0209.html
Palm Beach Post - Feb 9, 2008
GREENACRES - When Avi Bohbot is preparing shish kebab platters at his
restaurant, there's a very nosy someone looking over his shoulder.
Bohbot, who owns Best of Israel, a kosher restaurant and deli in Greenacres,
prefers it that way. Actually, the close supervision provided by Jerry Farkas
is required.
Farkas, 70, whose Hebrew title is mashgiach, is charged with ensuring the
restaurant's kosher status.
"I can't get close to the refrigerators. He is the only one allowed to bring the
food out," said Bohbot, 52, who runs the restaurant with his wife, Ateret.
Originally from Israel, the Bohbots opened their shop three years ago after
finding a dearth of kosher restaurants in central Palm Beach County.
The restaurant is glatt kosher, which means it follows the highest kosher
standards.
"I check everything to make sure it's 100 percent kosher," Farkas said. "I check
the vegetables to make sure they are free of insects. We wash them in a
vegetable wash."
That kind of scrutiny is helping to drive a boom in kosher products, and not
just in the Jewish community, experts say.
Wary consumers of all kinds, worried about the safety of the food supply, are
finding an extra layer of confidence in food that is certified kosher, whether
at restaurants or grocery stores.
"It is not that we suddenly turned into a nation of Orthodox Jews. More Jews
don't keep kosher than do keep kosher," said Marcia Mogelonsky, a senior
research analyst in the Chicago office of London-based market research firm
Mintel International Group Ltd. "The reason it is growing so much is the safety
factor. That is really a big issue for consumers."
"Kosher," which means fit or proper, was the most frequently used claim on new
products launched in the United States in 2007. With 3,984 new food products and
728 new beverages, kosher beat out "all-natural," which had 2,023 foods and 405
beverages, according to Mintel's Global New Products Database.
It's not coincidental that the surge in kosher labels came during a year of
foodborne illness outbreaks linked to products such as chicken pot pies and
peanut butter, including the second-largest beef recall in U.S. history.
"People are concerned about the integrity of the food supply," Mogelonsky said.
Kosher sales are also up for another reason, she said. Because the labels must
state whether an item contains milk or meat, buying kosher is an easy way for
those with food allergies to avoid certain ingredients.
"There are so many food-allergic and food-sensitive people out there. They use
the kosher label as a sort of shorthand," she said. "The same goes for
vegetarians who do not want to eat any meat products."
Food manufacturers say kosher certification has become a must because some
consumers will not buy anything that is not certified.
Kevin McElvaney, marketing manager at Domino Foods in Yonkers, N.Y., said almost
all of Domino's products have been certified kosher for at least 20 years.
"We got certification primarily because a lot of manufacturers that buy bulk
sugar from us want kosher ingredients to make a product that is kosher in the
end," McElvaney said.
Domino once had an edge over competitors whose products were not kosher, but now
many store brands it supplies, such as those for Winn-Dixie Stores Inc. and
Publix Super Markets, also are certified. Domino Foods is owned by a division of
Florida Crystals Corp. of West Palm Beach and the Sugar Cane Growers Cooperative
of Florida in Belle Glade.
"We are losing our point of differentiation as more retailers demand kosher
certification," McElvaney said. "We can't say no to them."
Also because of consumer demand, Tropicana Products Inc. has had its orange
juice certified kosher year-round for close to 30 years. That requires an annual
inspection by a rabbi to ensure that Tropicana is complying with all kosher
guidelines, said Karen May, spokeswoman for the Chicago-based company.
Some merchants say kosher sales also are growing for traditional religious
reasons.
In South Florida especially, the kosher sector has seen explosive growth because
of the increase in the population of Orthodox Jews, said Cyril Rubin, kosher
supervisor at Albertsons in the Mission Bay Plaza west of Boca Raton. He
estimates 60 percent of the items sold at his Albertsons location are kosher.
"It's also growing among Jews who are not observant," Rubin said.
Major mainstream brands such as Lipton, Nabisco and Keebler have
certified-kosher products on the shelves alongside niche firms such as
Tabatchnik, Ratner's and Rubashkin's. The store also sells imports from Israel.
"Every which way you turn, there are kosher products. ... It is really catching
on with a lot of people," Rubin said.
Albertsons shopper and longtime kosher devotee Doris Siskin of Boca Raton
believes it's safer: "There are more guarantees with it."
Judith Josephs, a Port St. Lucie tropical fish farmer who was shopping at the
Whole Foods Market in Palm Beach Gardens, said she's a Christian who believes
that kosher food is better and safer because it is based on the Bible and is
certified by a rabbi.
"In my opinion, the flavor of kosher chicken is much better than any other one
you can buy," Josephs said. "I do it for my health. I believe that God left
these instructions for a reason."
But despite the widespread public conviction that kosher is safer, there's
little research to back that up.
"The more sanitary precautions that are taken, the more cleanliness in any kind
of slaughter environment, the less likely it is that there would be a problem
with pathogens," said Douglas Archer, a professor in the food science department
at the University of Florida. "If you can make that leap of faith with kosher
and say that it is something that is an added value to the product, then the
consumer should make that choice."
Jeff Cronin, a spokesman for the Washington-based watchdog Center for Science in
the Public Interest, said there's "no evidence to suggest that kosher meat and
poultry is any more or less safe than non-kosher meat or poultry."
Mogelonsky, the Mintel research analyst, said some could argue that the
strictures of kosher mean a closer look is being paid to the products.
"Meat is slaughtered and handled in a different way," she said. "I tend to think
that due to the inspections, the products are safer to eat."
Still, restaurants that depend on regulars who follow kosher diets find they are
attracting others who want to eat a healthy diet, too.
Michael Aharon and Moshe Ariel, co-owners of Eilat Caf? a kosher dairy
restaurant west of Boca Raton specializing in Italian dishes and fish, said
their customer base includes Jews and non-Jews, as well as Muslim customers who
say kosher is close to the Islamic dietary laws known as halal.
"Kosher is known as a clean and healthy product," Aharon said.
During a recent evening at Best of Israel, diners included those who keep kosher
at home and those who don't.
Louis Karp, an attorney visiting from Teaneck, N.J., is an Orthodox Jew who
strictly follows a kosher diet.
"We eat it because it says we should in the Bible," Karp said.
And then there's Joe Vocaire, a Lake Worth retiree who isn't Jewish and doesn't
follow a kosher diet. Judging by some of the slim people in the restaurant,
eating kosher must be healthful, he figures.
But the main reason he likes it? "The food is very good."
Kosher Food Comes to Beijing Just in
Time for the 2008 Olympics
Israel National News - Jan 31, 2008
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/125099
2. Is someone lying about dividing
Jerusalem?
From: Steve Collins <scollins@sio.midco.net>
Shalom
This news story speaks for itself.
Steve
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=56073
3. Demographics- Palestinian Census a
Bluff.
Recently the results of a Palestinian Census were published.
The numbers were inflated as explained by the article below.
From: imra@netvision.net.il
THE PALESTINIAN CENSUS - SMOKE & MIRRORS
(Article by Yoram Ettinger, YNET, 10.2.08,
www.ynet.co.il/articles/0,7340,L-3504773,00.html )
(Abridged translated version provided by the author- distributed by GPO)
The Feb. 9, 2008 Palestinian census is not a cause for fatalism. In
contrast with the census, the accurate number of Judea & Samaria Arabs is
1.5 million, and not 2.3 million, and the number of Gaza Arabs is 1.1
million, and not 1.5 million.
The Palestinian census is refuted by Palestinian, Israeli and international
documentation of birth, death, migration, first-graders and eligible voter
registration in Judea, Samaria and Gaza, which has been systematically
conducted by the Bennett Zimmerman-led "American-Israeli Demographic
Research Group" (AIDRG).
While the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS) contends a 30%
population growth during the last 10 years, the World Bank documents a
substantial erosion of the Palestinian fertility rate and a significant
escalation of emigration from Judea, Samaria and Gaza. The World Bank
documents a 32% gap between the number of first graders per PCBS projections
(24% increase) and per Palestinian Ministry of Education documentation (8%
decrease).
A strange co-incidence has produced similarity between the 2007 census and
the PCBS 1997 projection toward 2007, in spite of dramatic volatility in the
areas of security, economics and politics, which has occurred since 1997,
and which has caused a boost in Palestinian emigration and decline in
fertility. For example, terrorism and counter-terrorism, the Hamas-Fatah
war, unprecedented (over 30%) unemployment, the rise in the price of oil and
a corresponding rise in demand for manpower in the Arab oil producing
countries, intensive UNRAW and PCBS-led family planning, an unprecedented
reduction of teen-pregnancy, a swift urbanization process, an all-time-high
Palestinian divorce rate, an impressive expansion of the education system
and the increase in Palestinian median wedding-age. The 1997 PCBS
projections have been refuted annually by the documentation produced by the
Palestinian Ministries of Health and Education and Election Commission, as
well as by Israel's Border Police and European observers, monitoring exists
and entries through Israel's, Judea, Samaria and Gaza's international
passages.
While the 2007 census ignores the bolstered emigration phenomenon, Israel's
Border Police and the European observers have documented net-emigration of
12,000 in 2004, 16,000 in 2005 and 25,000 in 2006, with expectation of a
significant rise in the scope of 2007 net-emigration. The extent of
1997-2003 average annual net-emigration was over 10,000, which has
characterized the entire period since 1950!
According to the PCBS website, the 2007 census was based on the 1997 census,
which was inflated by 30%, growing exponentially by the year. Thus, in
contrast with internationally accepted demographic standards, the 1997
census included 325,000 residents, who stayed abroad for over a year, as
well as students, who studied overseas, irrespective of their study period.
Israel subtracts from its census Israelis who are away for over a year, and
restores them following 90 days of stay in Israel. The 1997 census included
210,000 Israeli Arabs, bearing Israeli I.D. cards, who were doubly-counted:
as Israeli Arabs by Israel's Central Bureau of Statistics and as West Bank
Arabs by the PCBS.
In summation, the 2007 census for Judea & Samaria was inflated by 53%, and
the Jewish-Arab proportion west of the Jordan River - without Gaza -
documents a robust Jewish majority of 67%, compared with a 33% Jewish
minority in 1947, including Gaza. The most effective symptom of the
transformation - from Arab to Jewish demographic momentum - has been the
absolute annual number of Jewish and Arab births within Israel's "Green
Line." While the number of annual Arab births stagnated at 39,000 between
1995 to 2007, the number of annual Jewish births catapulted by 40% from
80,400 in 1995 to 112,000 in 2007.
There is a demographic problem, but it is not lethal, there is no
demographic machete at Israel's throat, and the demographic tailwind is
Jewish, not Arab. In fact, documented births, deaths and migration clarify
that Jewish demography has become a strategic asset and not a liability.
Hence, awareness of demographic reality could enhance the security,
political, strategic, diplomatic and economic options of Israeli doves and
hawks alike.
--------------------------------------------
IMRA - Independent Media Review and Analysis
Website: www.imra.org.il
4. Max
Rambow:
Photographs of a Miracle
The second picture reminds me of the back way to Yosemine our
family took when I was a kid.
I'm not sure I could drive again after an experience like this.
Max
Look at the picture above and you can see where this guy broke
through the guardrail, right side where the people are standing on the road
(pointing).
The pick-up was traveling from right to left when it crashed through the
guardrail. It
Flipped end-over-end, across the culvert outlet, and landed right side up on
the left side
of the culvert, facing the opposite direction from which he was traveling.
|
|
Now look at the 2nd picture below...
If this guy didn't believe in God before, do you suppose he
believes now ?
5.
Shemittah
Potatoes Escape Frost
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/125218
6. 'Mommy, Where Are My Legs?'
From: Valerie Knowles
My question is: Will BCC CNN ABC CBS BNC have the integrity to tell this story
as it is?
http://www.israelforum.com/blog_article.php?aid=1264508
7. Banana Republic
Olmert
seeks Germany's support for Gaza operation
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3505620,00.html
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