Back to Basics

Enough of all the self pity. I appreciate all the very nice comments I got for the last two posts but it sort of feels like when your mom tells you your the greatest. Anyway some fun stuff has been happening here in the holy land that is worth talking about.

Last week, Barkan wine, Israel's second largest winery by volume, acceded to the request of their supplemental kosher certifier, to remove all Ethiopian Jews from having any contact with the wine. It seems that it is the opinion of the B'datz Edat Haredit ("BEH"), which is run by the anti-Zionist , Jerusalem faction, that Ethiopian Jews are not in fact Jews. For those of you who don't know, it is forbidden for non-Jews to come into contact with kosher wine. If they do, it renders it not kosher.

The funny thing is, that this questioning of the Jewish status of the Ethiopian Jews, was equally puzzling to the Haredi Chief Rabbinate who was very angry with the Jerusalem faction for questioning THEIR decision to accept the Ethiopian Jews as Jews.

I guess what goes around comes around.

Back to our saga. When word of this got out there were cries of racism, coercion etc. When asked, Barkan said they needed to have this certification or they will be forfeiting this entire market to Teperberg ( the fourth largest winery) and it was too big of a market to let go.

The other way of saying this is that g-d forbid they should be tied for third with Teperberg if all it means is insulting Ethiopian Jews and anyone else with a moral compass.

The call to boycott Barkan was fast and fierce. Within a day the CEO announced that his company would not be party to racist policies and all Ethiopians were returned to the jobs they held before the BEH's ban.

The next day the BEH removed their certification.

Surprisingly, Barkan is still in business.

Of course, this gets one thinking. Boycotting Barkan is certainly a step in the right direction. What is life if you can't be part of a meaningful boycott. All the cool kids are doing it.Yet, this one was misplaced. The boycott belongs against the BEH. ( not to be confused with other B'datz agencies).

They are amongst the most vile of all those who propagate the concept that they are more important to g-d and the only real Jews. Their certification is the best because it is the strictest. I am surprised they let Sephardim work with the wine. They must be slacking off a bit.

The money that is made by this organization is used to boycott the army. It is used to boycott the state and by extension it is used to beat little girls in Bet Shemesh who wear shirts with sleeves above their elbows ( you need to live here to get that one). I decided I was going to boycott all products with their certification.

I recently saw that my favorite bottled water had the hated BEH  and so I looked at the others.

Neviot, they had it.

Mey Eden, no good.

This was crazy.

Why does water need certification anyway.

Ein Gedi. Ok this one had a B'datz Mehadrin but not the BEH.

This is my new favorite water.

I needed some ground pepper for my hamburgers,

for my July 4th BBQ,

in Israel .

Found some but it had the BEH. Found a different one, had the same. Is Chili pepper the same as Black pepper?

Just kidding

OK, I bought it anyway. Too many people were coming and you  must have ground Black Pepper for a good hamburger and reputation will always trump principle (what??? and also for those of my extremely liberal friends who not only can not bear to hear the presidents name, but might be offended by reading it, please note the context in which the word was used and the lower case t. You know who you are).

I am not giving up on this. For the most part, imported brands do not have the BEH. That is a start but I prefer to buy Israeli. I will do more research and let you know. Meanwhile wherever you are, think about the fact that even a simple action like buying water could be supporting something abhorrent.

Next fun fact. There were 5 minor earthquakes in the north of Israel over the last 36 hours. A member of the Knesset from the Shas party has on good authority ( and divulged to the press) that the cause of this was the possible building, in the future, of a pluralistic prayer area on the Western Wall. I found this extremely amusing because I know for a fact it was due to all the arrogance and sinat chinam  ( baseless hatred) coming from certain sections of the Haredi community

Boy did he get that wrong.

Great news for those of you who like to hang out in Tel Aviv. Dr. Shakshuka, who arguably makes the worlds best shakshuka, just opened an outpost called Bino on Rothchild in the center of town.

Yay

If you don't know what Shakshuka is perhaps this is not the right blog for you.

Next up how the haridim and Netanyahu are playing Lapid  like a fiddle.