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Friday April 22, 2005

Three guides take different tacks for keeping kosher

by morton i. teicher
correspondent

Most people associate “kosher” with food and dietary laws.

This conventional understanding animated Lise Stern and Trudy Garfunkel enough to write their superior guides to maintaining a kosher kitchen.

By contrast, Ron Isaacs, rabbi of a Conservative synagogue in Bridgewater, N.J., has taken the meaning of “kosher” as “proper or fit, the correct way to do something according to Jewish law and tradition.” Consequently, food is only one of the 44 topics he examines in “Kosher Living.”

His easy-to-follow format divides each subject into four sections: What’s Kosher, What’s Not Kosher, What the Experts Say and Sources. In the first two sections, he asks many unusual questions, such as: “When is it kosher to have an abortion?” “Is it kosher to do stem cell research?” “Is it kosher to own a gun store?”

To each of these questions and to many more, Isaacs provides clear answers, always recognizing that Reform, Orthodox and Reconstructionist Jews may have other views. He cites sources, mainly from the Talmud and the Bible, displaying his impressive erudition and his considerable research. The book is an authoritative manual, richly demonstrating a broadly enhanced understanding of what “kosher” means.

Pursuing a different objective, Stern and Garfunkel have each produced valuable guides to the Jewish dietary laws and how to observe them.

Stern is a journalist, specializing in food. In “How to Keep Kosher,” she addresses such questions as: “How, When, and Where to Keep Kosher,” “Where Do These Kosher Laws Come From, Anyway?” and “Why Keep Kosher?” She discusses kosher food and beverages, making the kitchen kosher and the Jewish holidays. She concludes with some recipes for Shabbat and festival meals. She also lists some useful Web sites, including two that provide a database of kosher restaurants, markets and caterers. Her comprehensive presentation will appeal to all Jews, regardless of their level of observance.

Garfunkel, instead of referring the reader to the Internet, offers a 100-page worldwide directory of kosher hotels, resorts, tours, cruises, camps, restaurants, caterers, markets and bakeries. She discusses the history of kosher foods in America. She offers more than 50 pages of recipes. Recognizing the special problems of vegetarians and the lactose-intolerant Jews who wish to keep kosher, she provides two excellent chapters addressed to these individuals. Her “Kosher for Everybody” is a practical, down-to-earth handbook that constitutes a first-rate resource for all those interested in kosher observance.

Taken together, these three books constitute a set of valuable and authentic reference works, basing solutions to contemporary issues on Jewish tradition. They enrich our understanding of how and why to be kosher, not only with respect to food, but also with regard to living robust Jewish lives in all aspects of our existence.

“How To Keep Kosher” by Lise Stern (303 pages, William Morrow, $24.95).

“Kosher for Everybody” by Trudy Garfunkel (272 pages, Jossey-Bass, $19.95).

“Kosher Living” by Ron Isaacs (286 pages, Jossey-Bass, $24.95).

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