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December 24, 2004/Tevet 12 5765, Vol. 57, No. 17
Flying the kosher skies
LORI SILBERMAN BRAUNER
Jewish Telegraphic Agency
NEW YORK - The Orthodox Union is limiting its certification of kosher meals aboard El Al flights after two incidents in which nonkosher food was brought onto planes.
Officials at the union, which certifies the kashrut of meals provided by El Al's New York-based food service subsidiary, Borenstein Caterers, will certify only Borenstein's double-wrapped "Regal" meals that are prepared and packaged under the supervision of Rabbi N.E. Teitelbaum.
O.U. officials say the move is an effort to ensure the kashrut of the food served to passengers following incidents in Newark and Budapest in which it was compromised.
El Al passengers are offered a choice between the double-wrapped food and meals served in single-sealed or open trays. The Orthodox Union, the largest kashrut certifying agency in the world, previously certified Borenstein meals served open or with a single seal.
The union never certified all of El Al's food, only that prepared by Borenstein for flights out of New York, Chicago and Miami. Other El Al food remains under the overall supervision of the chief rabbinate of Israel.
The airline insists it takes appropriate measures to ensure the kashrut of its food.
"El Al goes so far above and beyond to maintain the world's only kosher airline," spokeswoman Sheryl Stein said, adding the airline even makes sure to observe the special kashrut laws for Passover.
Recommending that observant passengers only eat meals that have been double wrapped is "the only way we can guarantee the integrity of that meal," said Rabbi Leonard Steinberg, the rabbinic coordinator overseeing the O.U.'s Borenstein account.
The O.U.'s Web site notifies visitors of the changes.
Late last year, a group of travelers flying from Chicago to Israel on an El Al plane that was having mechanical problems was stranded for several hours aboard the aircraft in Newark.
Recognizing that many of the travelers were hungry, at least one crew member left the plane and returned with pizzas.
Passengers, many of them Orthodox Jews, asked if the pizza was kosher, and were told that it was.
Most of the observant travelers decided not to eat the pizza, which turned out to be nonkosher, according to one woman who declined to give her name.
On a flight grounded this fall in Budapest while Israel's Histadrut labor union was on strike, "the entire plane was served nonkosher cheese sandwiches," Steinberg said. "There was no announcement that it was not kosher."
El Al officials acknowledge the incidents, but insist they were isolated and in no way reflect company policy.
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