Kosher trips
Kosher trips
Kosher trips
Wrote and edited: Yair Bar-Zohar
Date: 21.06.2006
We feel it's important to mention that keeping kosher cannot be achieved in its traditional way, with a kosher supervisor and a kosher certificate. It might upset some people, and that's why we recommend you bring food from home.
The food in the hotels
There are two primary types of traditional trips:
A trip where all the food comes packed with kosher certificates, and there's only the need to heat it. The food comes either from Israel or from a factory that has a kosher certificate from a known body.
A trip where you count on the food of the hotel (and the hotel isn't kosher). Therefore you take care of products that doesn't have severe kosher problems.
It's important to mention that fruits and vegetables don't have any kosher problems. If you cut them with a knife you brought from home, its fine.
Potato wrapped in tinfoil some might ask for a double wrapping of the potato. Peas, carrots or other fresh or frozen vegetables (like sunfrost) can also be wrapped in tinfoil.
Baked fish in the over wrapped in tinfoil the whole fish is preferable or a fish that was cut in the factory and not in the hotel's kitchen.
Boiled eggs in a kosher pot are fine.
Things that you can eat
Butter watch out for diet butter or margarine.
Milk When its cow milk and you're in a country that has enforcement system regarding these subjects.
Rice wrapped in tinfoil and baked in the oven you should pick the rice or make sure it isn't picked.
Olives simple ones without any additions.
What you can bring from Israel
Natural bread (without fat).
Tuna.
Soup powder.
Soup nuts.
Crackers.
White cheese (not yellow).
Eggs that were boiled in the kitchen.
Small bags of mustard, mayonnaise, thousand island gravy, ketchup and vinaigrette.
The highlights in the trip
Any cutting needs to be done with a kosher knife, which basically means bringing a knife from home.
Cooking in a kosher pot solves a lot of problems in a small hotel it's quite easy to find but in a big hotel, it might be difficult to find.
It's important to remember to bring disposable tools.
It's recommended to bring cans with an attached handle to it.
It's recommended to take made meals in a sealed and transparent package, due to security demands.
Flight Food
In El-Al flights the meals are kosher.
Kosher meals can be ordered with other airline companies. You only need to check if they took care of it.
In foreign charter flights it's clear that there is no way to receive a kosher meal, so everyone needs to make their own personal sandwich instead of the meal.
Restaurants
Kosher restaurants abroad are very expensive. Even so, it doesn't mean that the food will be tasty.
The opening hours of the kosher restaurants abroad can even surprise you, therefore you should always check the opening hours by calling the restaurant and don't rely on religious websites that usually don't get updated.
Electricity on Sabbath
Make sure that you get a lower floor in the hotel since they don't use a Sabbath elevator (needs to be taken care of prior to the vacation).
Take care that you'll receive a key to the apartment and not a magnetic card (needs to be taken care of prior to the vacation).
Make sure that you won't get inside the hotel using an electric door, or ask the staff to power down the door or open it for you. Hotels near Jewish communities are used to this.
Carrying on Sabbath
You need to remember that religious people don't take anything with them on Sabbath (because there's no mix). It requires prior preparations.
Tallith for Sabbath morning prayer
There are synagogues that have talliths used by the guests. In case they don't have, you'll need to bring one yourself.
There are synagogues that require you to bring your personal tallith before the Sabbath enters (needs to be reminded) and return it after Sabbath leaves this arrangement requires praying at the same synagogue.
In any case, it's very important to update the charger before you come, and make all the arrangements for the tallith, because sometimes there are so many guests, and they lack enough talliths.
Tour on Sabbath
Take in account that some people might not take water with them to the tour on Sabbath, so plan the trip in such a way that you will all walk near places where they have public fountains and public toilets it requires early planning. Make sure that they don't charge you for using the toilets.
Entering the Jewish community buildings on Saturday
Usually, there's a guard in every Jewish community building, and he doesn't allow entering without showing passports.
Religious people don't take their passports on Sabbath. Therefore, you need to come with the entire group and update the guard or the man in charge that these people don't walk with their passports on Sabbath. You should come with some identification marks, which could solve some entering issues for people how are late for the Morning Prayer or those who prefer walking alone.
Prayers
Moring prayer before breakfast.
Evening prayer After the evening plan.
The afternoon prayer needs to be in the program. Its short (takes about 10 minutes), but it's in the afternoon, the time for all the activities. You need to remember that religious people's time is managed by the time abroad.
It means you take the hours of the day and divide them to 12, and according to this you know when to pray, and the time for many other important things. Because it depends on the sunrise and sunset, it changes from place to place. Therefore, it's very important to have a list of the times along the trip, in case you move from one country to another or you travel to a distant location in the same country. You need to check the times for every place. There are some websites that take care of these problems, like: http://www.sederolam.co.il/ShabbatZmanim/Times.asp .
In this site you can find the times and you can get information about kosher restaurants, synagogues and more. Still, just to make sure, make a phone call to these places and ask them (to be updated). It's worth finding a mikve along the route. It's hard to find them, so you should be prepared at home. You can use the site above, but make sure with a phone call.
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