Trayfe Dining in the Jewish State

Apparently, dining in Israel isn’t as kosher as it used to be. My seminary colleague Irwin Huberman reports that there is a restaurant, near his hotel in Jerusalem, which serves pork, shrimp and calamari (squid) – “a real trayfe banquet”. While a non-kosher restaurant in Jerusalem may be a news event, consumption of pork in Israel apparently is not.

In the 1960’s my uncle Isidore, a Labor Zionist, visited Israel, stayed in a kibbutz and ate in the communal dining hall. He was shocked when the meal served on the first evening of his visit was roast pork.

In 1979, my wife, Marilyn, bought a pigskin trench coat at Saks Fifth Avenue in Troy, MI. It was made in Israel. The brand name was Beged Or – “garment of light”. Cynic that I am, I asked Marilyn whether she supposed that the pigskins were imported into Israel and crafted into a coat there or whether the pigs were raised and slaughtered in Israel. In the latter case, I wondered, what became of the rest of the pig? Did it end up at kibbutzim like the one that Isidore visited?

In the 1990’s, I posed this question to Cantor Rene Coleson, z”l, at North Shore Synagogue in Syosset, NY. She had visited Israel frequently and told me that she indeed had seen pork served in a number of places. She said it was most often referred to on menus as basar lavan – “white meat”.

This is just one aspect of the discussion about what it means to be a “Jewish State”. Does it mean simply “A State for the Jews”, as some translate Theodore Herzl’s ground-breaking 1896 manifesto, or should it be something more? Other areas of life affected by the answer to this question include marriage and divorce regulations, Shabbat and holiday observance and exemption of yeshiva students from military service. It is difficult to determine “how Jewish” Israel ought to be.