Rabbinic alumni from Yeshiva University’s Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary (RIETS) visited STAR-K Kosher Certification’s offices, during their Yarchei Kallah, held in Baltimore, Maryland, April 22-24. Participants traveled from as far away as Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, and Oakland, California, for this annual event for American and Canadian Rabbonim, coordinated by Rabbi Jacob J. Schacter, University Professor of Jewish History and Jewish Thought and Senior Scholar at Yeshiva University Center for the Jewish Future.

Over the summer, STAR-K’s Baltimore offices hosted two Mashgichim Review Seminars which were attended by close to 50 mashgichim. The participants, who act in a kashrus supervisory capacity primarily for restaurants, caterers, camps, and college campus Kosher programs, came from throughout the Maryland-Pennsylvania region.

Rabbi Daniel Presman traveled 10,800 roundtrip miles, a 22-hour roundtrip flight from his hometown of Porto Alegre, Brazil, just to attend STAR-K’s ninth annual Kashrus Training Program, July 16-19, held in its Baltimore offices. Hearing about the program via an email, he was convinced that it would be well worth the trip– he was not disappointed.

The field of Kashrus is diverse and multi-faceted. These attributes are mirrored in the multi-talented, eclectic STAR-K Kosher Certification’s Kashrus Administrators, who recently took Kashrus on the road to audiences in Baltimore, Lakewood, North Miami Beach, and Oak Park, Michigan. Their topics spanned everything from Astronomy to Kosher Organic Certification.

It should have come as no surprise when the Philippine Department of Agriculture sponsored the first official Philippine Pavilion at last month’s Kosherfest 2012, which included manufacturers of Kosher-certified products derived from coconuts, bananas and processed mangoes. Consul General Mario L. de Leon Jr., of the Philippine Consulate General New York, cut the ribbon at the pavilion and spoke at the Interest Session provided by Kosherfest organizers. The way was paved for Filipino exporters of processed food to explore the lucrative niche market of Kosher-certified food products.

A Supreme Effort for Kashrus

I doubt if any of the 3000 plus attendees at the 2012 Jewish Federations of North America’s General Assembly (GA) had as great an appreciation as I, of the efforts made to ensure the food they ate met the fod service industry’s highest kosher standards.

It’s a busy Friday afternoon, with just a couple of hours left until Shabbos. Not the best time, perhaps, for your husband to be unsure about the kashrus status of the chicken you are about to cook! You try contacting your Rav, but to your great dismay, he is unavailable.

STAR-K Kosher Certification, Inc. made history, last month, when its Director of Development Steve Sichel, conducted the first non-GMO (genetically modified organisms) organic kosher inspection – allowing for triple certification for the ordinarily individually conducted, time-consuming inspections within a normal working day. The comprehensive audit was performed for the Hain-Celestial Group’s WestSoy product line, in Boulder, Colorado.

Twenty-five years ago, Rabbi Moshe Fuller, z”l, a young Mexican student at Ner Israel Rabbinical College in Baltimore, filled a tremendous void in the world of Jewish outreach when he founded Or HaNer. Recruiting teenagers primarily from Central and South America, Rabbi Fuller provided them with the opportunity to come to the States and experience Torah-true Judaism during their summer and winter school breaks.

If you are an eruv checker or rav hamachshir in one of the dozens of cities across the United States, Israel, Europe and Australia that has an eruv, you can now review hilchos eruv and pose your eruv shaylos, gratis, with no strings attached!

When Rabbi Chaim Glazer, an eleventh grade rebbi at Yeshiva Toras Chaim, in North Miami Beach, Florida, was teaching his class about Kelai Elanos (the issur of grafting two trees of different species together), his lesson plan research led him to a STAR-K Kashrus Kurrents article on hydroponics–the cultivation of plants in a nutrient solution rather than in soil. Always seeking to give his students “beyond book learning experiences”, Rabbi Glazer contacted the author of the article, STAR-K Kashrus Administrator, Rabbi Zvi Goldberg. Rabbi Goldberg suggested that he and the bochurim learn about the halachic implications of hydroponics, face-to-face–despite the fact that they were about 950 miles apart–using a video camera.

STAR-K Certification has long enjoyed a successful and harmonious relationship with Turkey for over 25 years, providing Kosher certification for scores of Turkish companies. The STAR-K symbol appears on everything from Turkish-produced beans to candy, condiments, fruits, vegetables, juices, jams, honey, oils, nuts, pasta, pickled products, rice, sauces, teas, and vinegars.

Jenna Fogel’s grandparents keep kosher and she has eaten kosher foods, but she admits she never really understood the meaning behind them. “I always thought a rabbi said a prayer and put a kosher stamp on the box and then it was considered kosher,” says Jenna, a Chemical Engineering major. Such kashrus misconceptions were clarified for Jenna and nineteen of her fellow Johns Hopkins University students when STAR-K Kashrus Administrator, Rabbi Zvi Goldberg, led them on a recent tour of Baltimore’s Seven Mile Market.

Twenty-two years ago, a young Mexican bachur who was learning at Yeshivas Ner Yisrael in Baltimore, filled a tremendous void in the world of kiruv when he founded Or HaNer. Recruiting teenagers primarily from Central and South America, Rabbi Moshe Fuller, z”l, provided them with the opportunity to come to the States and experience Torah-true yiddishkeit, during their summer and winter school breaks. Although the young husband and father was recently niftar, his dream lives on through the thousands of students he was mekarev, many of whom subsequently attended yeshivos. Today, there are yeshivos and learning programs throughout Latin America, and a kollel in Panama, thanks to Rabbi Fuller’s impact.

Only two shuls stand in Lviv, Ukraine today. The home to approximately 6,000 Jews once bustled with 98,000, before the Second World War. Miraculously, the observance of kashrus and other mitzvos have undergone a recent revival; the collapse of the Soviet Union no longer forces Torah observance underground. Considering that just ten years ago, there were virtually no kosher products being produced in the Ukraine, Star-K’s annual Kashrus Seminar had an even greater zechus of hosting Rabbi Mordechai Bald of Lviv.