`OTEDNeTELISI

Brought Down

Orthodox Union limits certification of El Al food.

LORI SILBERMAN BRAUNER
Jewish Telegraphic Agency

New York
he Orthodox Union is limiting its certifi-
cation of kosher meals aboard El Al flights
after two incidents in which nonkosher
food was served to passengers by El Al crews.
Officials at the O.U., which certifies the kashrut
of meals provided by El Al's New York-based food
service subsidiary, Borenstein Caterers, will certify
only Borenstein's double-wrapped "Regal" meals
that are prepared and packaged under the supervi-
sion of Rabbi N.E. Teitelbaum. O.U. officials say
the move follows incidents in Newark and
Budapest.
The union never certified all of El Al's food,
only that prepared by Borenstein for flights out of
New York, Chicago and Miami. Other El Al food
remains under the overall supervision of the chief
rabbinate of Israel.
The airline, for its part, insists it takes appropri-

T

T1

ate measures to ensure the kashrut of its food. "El
Al goes so far above and beyond to maintain the
world's only kosher airline," El Al spokeswoman
Sheryl Stein said, adding, "The food meets the
highest standards of kashrut."
Recommending that observant passengers only
eat meals that have been double wrapped is "the
only way we can guarantee the integrity of that
meal," said Rabbi Leonard Steinberg, the rabbinic
coordinator overseeing the O.U.'s Borenstein
account. Because the double-wrapped meals are
fully sealed, they can theoretically be heated even
in a nonkosher oven without risk to their kashrut
status.
Late in 2003, a group of travelers flying from
Chicago to Israel on an El Al plane that was hav-
ing mechanical problems were stranded for several
hours aboard the aircraft in Newark. Recognizing
that many of the travelers were hungry, at least
one crew member left the plane and returned with
pizzas.
Passengers, many of them Orthodox Jews, asked

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El Al's Perspective

El Al officials acknowledge the incidents, but
insist they were isolated and in no way reflect
company policy. Emphasizing that the crew mem-
bers, who are trained to handle on-flight kashrut
issues, acted completely on their own, Stein said,
"Proper repercussions were taken against the flight
attendants involved."

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if the pizza was kosher, and were told that it was.
They went around the plane offering the pizza,"
said one woman on the flight. Most of the obser-
vant travelers decided not to eat the pizza, which
turned out to be nonkosher, according to the
woman. She also said some El Al staff ate the pizza
in the airplane's kitchen.
On a flight grounded last fall in Budapest while
Israel's Histadrut labor union was on strike, "the
entire plane was served nonkosher cheese sand-
wiches," Rabbi Steinberg said. "There was no
announcement that it was not kosher."

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