Cooking according to ancient Jewish Law as laid out in the Bible is not an easy task in 21st century Hungary; Some complain that in this fatty-meat-loving nation, the only Kosher product is Palinka, a traditional brandy.
"It’s difficult to find Kosher ingredients and food products here," says Oberlander, still smiling while stirring soup and overlooking warm vegetables. Phone calls to companies didn’t calm her down. "It is somewhat better than when we arrived here from America in the 1990’s shortly after Communism. But factories still use the same machines for preparing meet and vegetables, while Hungarian margarine contains animal fat. That’s not Kosher."
Hungary isn’t alone. Around the world, it has become increasingly difficult for consumers to trace the origins of and ingredients contained in food products, or the way they are processed, say Orthodox Rabbis from at least 15 countries who gathered near Budapest to discuss the impact of globalization on Kosher food.
SUPERMARKET WORRIES
"It used to be when someone wanted to eat Kosher, he went to his backyard and took it from there," explains Hungarian Rabbi Slomo Koves, who helped organize the conference held last week in the town of Rackeve. "Today, you go to the supermarket and take something from the shelf, which most likely doesn’t come from the country where you live. Even if it does, the ingredients in that certain product come from 15 different countries all over the world," he complaints.
That’s why rabbis from Israel, Turkey, Germany and a dozen other European countries have decided to set up a database to help each other identify products and to approach companies to target the estimated 20 million potential Kosher customers, "including Muslims," adds Koves.
He tells BosNewsLife that the conference in Hungary also focused on China, which has become one of the world’s largest food producers. "In China we have two concerns. There is a concern about the quality of products and about the Kosher issue. Since there is no large Jewish community in China, we have to import rabbis from overseas to supervise Chinese factories."
STAYING IN HUNGARY
However without a thriving Jewish community, rabbis are not queuing up to settle in a country where religion has been discouraged by the atheistic authorities, Koves admits.
He himself prefers to stay in Hungary, where the 28-year-old is the first Orthodox rabbi to be ordained since the Holocaust, when 600.000 Hungarian Jews were killed.
He praises his wife for managing to overcome Hungary’s clear love for cholesterol. Koves ends the interview with a prayer. "I have just eaten another great Kosher meal." And that’s something, he thanks God for. Every day. (Parts of this BosNewsLife News story have aired on Deutsche Welle Radio.).
