Israeli Chief Rabbinate tackles quandary of pastry fillings
(JNS.org) Members of the Israeli Chief Rabbinate’s Kashrut Division called a meeting this week to discuss the problematic and potentially misleading shapes of an Israeli bakery staple, the puff pastry that is stuffed with various cheeses, meat or vegetable fillings, Israel Hayom reported.
One such pastry, about the size of your palm and shaped as a triangle, is particularly worrisome, and the rabbis involved are seeking to alter its shape in order to differentiate between dairy, parve (neither meat nor dairy) and meat fillings.
Kol Chai Radio, which broadcast the unique discussion, reported that a number of bakers, pastry chefs and industrialists in the food industry were invited to the meeting alongside rabbis who certify eateries as kosher. The participants sat around a table laden with pastries and discussed the questions that arise from the pastry’s geometry.
Rabbi Hagai Bar Giora, who is chiefly responsible for industrial kashrut certification, addressed the physical separation between dairy and parve pastries, and stressed the gravity of clearly delineating dairy products on the shelves.
“That the cheese pastry is shaped like a triangle and the potato pastry is square has taken root in public consumer consciousness. We have received complaints from customers who bit into a triangular pastry under the preconceived notion that cheese was inside and discovered meat instead. Keeping kosher is of the utmost importance,” said Bar Giora.
The Chief Rabbinate is expected to release a new set of procedural guidelines to help the public distinguish between the dairy and parve fillings in like-shaped pastries, thus allowing customers to avoid breaking the laws of kashrut, and aiding those with lactose intolerance to avoid health issues.
Obama’s visit to Israel will not center on the peace process
(JNS.org) President Barack Obama is not visiting Israel this spring to restart the stalled Israeli-Palestinian peace process. Instead, his goal is to mend fences with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the Associated Press reported.
“That is not the purpose of this visit,” White House spokesman Jay Carney said Wednesday regarding the peace process.
One major area of disagreement between Obama and Netanyahu has been the setting of a “red line” that, if crossed, would prompt U.S. military action against Iran over its nuclear program. Obama has thus far resisted Netanyahu’s calls for a red line, calling those calls “noise” in an interview with the CBS program “60 Minutes” last year. The two leaders would be well-served finding common ground on the Iranian issue when Obama visits Israel, American Thinker political correspondent Richard Baehr told JNS.org.
“There is a special need for [U.S.-Israel] coordination on Iran, especially if sabotage or military action against Iran is a possible option, as it certainly is at least for Israel,” Baehr wrote in an email.
Obama last fall reportedly nixed a meeting with Netanyahu when the prime minister was in the U.S. for the United Nations General Assembly. The White House, at the time, denied that report.
Prof. Eytan Gilboa of Bar Ilan University told the Associated Press that Obama’s Israel visit could yield talks with Netanyahu leading to “a new page in American-Israeli relations, and personal relations between Obama and Netanyahu.” Baehr was less optimistic, saying, “Obama and Netanyahu have met several times before, never with great warmth or accomplishment.”
Reports: EU unlikely to designate Hezbollah as terror group despite findings
(JNS.org) Due to the opposition of countries such as France and Italy, the 27-member European Union is unlikely to designate Hezbollah as a terrorist organization despite the Bulgarian investigation that implicated the group in last summer’s bombing of a tour bus carrying Israelis, AFP reported.
The EU’s top counter-terrorism official, Gilles de Kerchove, had told EU observer last month that a conclusion by the Bulgarian investigation that Hezbollah was the perpetrator would not automatically lead to Hezbollah being placed on the EU’s terrorism blacklist.
“First, we need to reach conclusions with strong evidence that it was the military wing of Hezbollah. That’s the prerequisite, even in legal terms, but then, as always in the listing process, you need to ask yourself: ‘Is this the right thing to do?’” he said.
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, after the Bulgarian findings were released, urged global governments “and particularly our partners in Europe” to “take immediate action to crack down on Hezbollah.” But Italy, Cyprus and Malta are all influencing French opposition to taking action against Hezbollah, according to AFP, with Italy’s desire stemming from the fact that it is a major contributor to the United Nations peace force in Lebanon, where Hezbollah is based.
Daniel S. Mariaschin, executive vice president of B’nai B’rith International, wrote in a column for EU observer that the EU in its refusal to blacklist Hezbollah “has refused to declare the obvious, often defending its intransigence by claiming Hezbollah has two distinct faces: a ‘political’ wing and a ‘military’ faction.”
“But using Hezbollah’s seats in Lebanon’s government is a false excuse to grant these terrorists any semblance of legitimacy,” Mariaschin wrote. “Does anybody believe that the ‘military’ and ‘political’ branches of Hezbollah are located on different planets?”
“Sadly, it seems even the attack in Bulgaria may not be enough for the EU to do the right thing,” he added.
Jewish child and 20-year-old attacked in France
(JNS.org) Two young Jews were attacked in France this week, one in Marseille and one in the same Toulouse school where a gunman killed a rabbi and three Jewish children in March 2012.
On Monday, a young man wearing a Star of David pendant was assaulted outside Marseille’s main railway station, Gare Saint-Charles, by a group of men who approached him on a scooter, shouted anti-Semitic slurs at him, hit him, stole his MP3 player and 100 euros, tore the pendant off his neck, and drove away.
Meanwhile, on Wednesday at the entrance to the Ohr Torah school in Toulouse, which was renamed from Otzar Hatorah after the shooting last year, a student left the school wearing a kippa and was approached by a woman brandishing a knife. School guards immediately arrested the woman, and she was later sent to psychiatric detention. She did not reveal a motive for trying to attack the student.
Since the March shooting at the Toulouse school, anti-Semitic incidents in France have increased by 45 percent, reported SPCJ, the security service of the French Jewish community. Eugene Caselli, the president of the Urban Community of Marseille Provence Métropole, expressed his “profound indignation and rage at this unacceptable act of racist violence,” according to the Jerusalem Post.
Coptic Christian Pope condemns Egypt’s Islamist government
(JNS.org) Egypt’s Coptic Christian Pope, Tawadros II, expressed unprecedented sharp criticism of the country’s Islamist government and of the “national dialogue” promoted by President Mohamed Morsi.
“We must and will actively take part in any national dialogue in which we see a benefit for the nation,” Tawadros told the Associated Press. “But when we find that a dialogue ends before it starts and none of its results are implemented then we realize that it is not in the interest of the nation.”
A broad coalition of Christians and secular liberals has opposed Morsi’s overtures and accuse him of establishing an Islamic-style dictatorship. Violent protests have erupted recently as a result.
Pope Tawadros II also asserted Coptic rights and dismissed his group’s status as a minority.
“We are a part of the soil of this nation and an extension of the pharaohs and their age before Christ. Yes, we are a minority in the numerical sense, but we are not a minority when it comes to value, history, interaction and love for our nation,” he said.
Tawadros – who was elevated to the papacy in late 2012 – has taken a usually vocal political stance compared to his long-time predecessor, Pope Shenouda III. His forceful statements come at a time when many Coptic Christians are fearful of the increasing Islamic extremism in the new government.
Meanwhile, two Coptic Christians were sentenced to three years in prison for stealing weapons for soldiers during a Christian-led protest against persecution by the former interim military government, the New York Times reported.
A video of the protest showed military vehicles and soldiers firing into the mainly Christian crowd. More than 27 people died in the October 2011 incident, mostly Coptic Christians.
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Preceding provided by JNS.og