By Caroline Scott-Thomas

Star-K Kosher Certification has begun providing triple inspections to certify plants and products as non-GMO, organic and kosher, which it says can save companies time and money on individually conducted inspections.

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!

Washington Jewish Week, July 2009

“The kosher consumer has an influence in the marketplace that goes way beyond actual numbers,” said Dr. Avrom Pollak, president of STAR-K, which certifies as kosher everything from major appliance to food, alcohol and some prescriptions.

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.

New Program Expedites Kosher/Organic Certification

BALTIMORE, Md. and SAN DIEGO, Calif. —STAR-K Certification, Inc., today announced a new joint kosher and organic auditing program with Quality Assurance International (QAI), effective January 1, 2009.

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.

An article that appeared in Euroscope Magazine – for BASF employees in Europe [No. 2/2007]. The essay discusses the STAR-K Kosher certification program at numerous BASF facilities worldwide.

To read the full article, click here.

Teshuva (Responsa) regarding Sabbath Mode ovens by HaGoan HaRav Moshe Heinemann Shlita, Rabbinic Administrator of the Star-K

Click here to view.

Rabbi Apisdorf, well-known author of the successful award-winning Rosh Hashanah Yom Kippur Survival Kit, has collaborated with STAR-K on the just released Kosher for the Clueless but Curious.

Click here to view full article.

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.

KOSHER TODAY

Wolf Appliance Company, a leading manufacturer of luxury cooking instruments and corporate companion of Sub-Zero Freezer Company announced that the majority of its products are now certified as Sabbath – and holiday – compliant by Star-K Kosher Certification. All of the models of Wolf’s gas range top, gas cooktop, pro-range, dual fuel range, electric cooktop, and built-in electric single and double oven are approved for use in acordance with the rules spcified by Star-K. “We have worked hard to receive this certification,” said Jim Bakke, president and chief executive officer for Sub-Zero/Wolf. “We strive for product design that is aesthetically innovative and ergonomic, as well as beneficial to the specific needs of the Jewish faith.”

By: Staff Reporter
KOSHER TODAY

…Remarkably, the Star-K strives to maintain a healthy balance between its role as a local kashrus service agency and as a national symbol. This past summer, some 2000 Jewish athletes saw the local hospitality side of the Star-K. Baltimore was the host city for the North American Maccabi Games. As a result of the Star-K’s supervision, the athletes, housed at the state university in suburban Towson, were able to eat kosher throughout the 4 days of the competition. The big hit for the athletes, who came from 20 cities and several foreign countries, were the tens of dozens of kosher-certified Krispy Kreme donuts made available to them during breaks in the games.

By: Dan Mayfield
adapted from SCRIPPS HOWARD NEWS SERVICE

Three years ago, Eagle Ranch Pistachios of Alamogordo, N.M., got a request from one of its best customers. “We were requested to get a kosher certification from a customer we have a real good relationship with, a diamond broker in New York,” Eagle Ranch co-owner Marianne Schweers said. “We do a lot of corporate gifts through the company. It’s home-based in Israel and decided it wasn’t going to do business with anyone that wasn’t kosher. So we said we’ll give it a shot.”

The following article discussing STAR-K’s Sabbath Mode appliances was penned by Annie Groer and appeared in the Washington Post on April 16, 2001:

In the beginning, strict biblical edicts governed cooking during the Jewish Sabbath and holy days.

These days, appliance-makers are adding features to help Jews cook yet comply with bans on work during the day of rest and starting fires on holidays. Dacor (since 1989), KitchenAid (since 1996) and General Electric (beginning this week) offer ovens and stoves equipped with what all call a “Sabbath Mode.”