No kosher food to be found at J Street conference.

yourjewishnews.com ^ | 2/28/11

[Nachum]

The J Street national conference in Washington, D.C. has emphasized that they are pro-Israeli. Yet they didn’t say anything about being pro-Jewish.

This morning Jikileaks reports that the J Street organizers at the Washington Convention Center are not offering Kosher food at its Jewish conclave with more than 2,000 participants. J Street boasts that hundreds of their attendees are rabbis.

The Jikileaks person on the ground at the J Street extravaganza explained his dilemma: “I arrived at the sandwich cart and requested the kosher option. I got a blank stare in return, and when I asked the manager she told me she had no idea what I was talking about. She hadn’t heard anything about kosher sandwiches.”

Kosher foods are those that prepared with strict rabbinic oversight. Observant Jews believe you are what you eat. It’s pretty shocking that J Street was so indifferent toward their own Jewishness as to not offer any Kosher food options at its conference.

The lack of Kosher food does make sense. J Street’s director once said his own staff was alienated from Judaism and once bragged to the New York Times that many instead prefer to conduct Buddhist Seders.

Yourjewishnews.com/Pajamesmedia.com

[COBOL2Java]

I’ll bet it was Halal...

[dalight]

dalight gave you a good answer. Were I to summarize it, I’d suggest you need to look to places other than simply physical health in understanding dietary laws.

Condescending much? I just pointed out that that the Dietary Laws are healthy.

As far as looking further, Kosher practice is religious practice. It asks us to do things that if we fail at them have very little real consequence, but as we learn to keep Kosher, we learn to control our appetites and concentrate on each desire that wells up in the context of holiness. Ultimately, the practice teaches us how to rise above being a slave of our cravings and yearnings and become the will that choses what to eat and how to act in accordance with our holy purpose.

Now, if you want deep, we can go as deep as you like.

[dalight]

dalight gave you a good answer. Were I to summarize it, I’d suggest you need to look to places other than simply physical health in understanding dietary laws.

I misread this, but past the jabs, I did summarize the real purpose of Kosher.

Yes, you (elcid1970) should reach to other sources to understand this. The just because answer works for kids but adults need more. And fortunately, there is so much more. The Reform person who handed you that misstatement probably learned this by half listening to their Rabbi and then repeated this bit as folks are wont to do. This is why some teachings are held back especially among the learned in that they fear a rino will become a unicorn when folks are done misinterpreting them.

Nevertheless, many Reform congregants are very superficially involved in their own faith just as can be said of almost every faith in the US today. It is not a disease of Reform but a nationwide plague of the attempt to Secularize our society which bred the culture wars. Rather than pointing at this sect or that and saying they are "stupid" instead learn what are the teachings and what they are trying to accomplish and then you will have a good basis for understanding. Kosher is a great practice and it gives to those who practice it a myriad of blessings.

[SJackson]

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Amongst JStreets flaws, this is a silly issue.