This really has nothing to do with Kashruth, but there is no way we could pass this up. The article was posted on Failed Messiah and is an op-ed piece from Haaretz.

Haredi Member of Knesset wants swine flu called “Mexico Flu.

“Making swine flu kosher: A symptom of the disease of Israeli politics

By Benjamin L. Hartman, Ha’aretz

On what must have been a slow day at the Knesset, the de facto head of the Health Ministry, MK Yakov Litzman, stated Monday that swine flu would be from here on in referred to as “Mexico Flu,” as pork is non-kosher and considered unclean under Jewish law.
(bold print is ours)
While “Mexico Flu” sounds like something you’d contract during a long weekend in Nuevo Laredo, and which could be treated through a quick visit to a local free clinic, swine flu can kill, and if the early reports end up to be correct, it may have already made its way to Israel.

Litzman was quick to point out that the authorities are on top of things and are prepared to handle any cases of swine flu, even though the authorities in question are currently being managed by a man who just tried to rename swine flu so that Jews in the State of Israel will not be forced to utter a reference to pork.

While this may seem to be just the semi-weekly “Haredi government minister gone wild” comment that makes for great office banter, the truth is that it’s just one more in a series of state-sanctioned declarations by a government official that serves only to further humiliate Israel in the eyes of the world. ………………
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Just when we thought we were safe from Chareidi idiocy, along comes this yahoo with yet another example of stupidity. Come on- did this guy take stupid pills or something? The worst part of all of this is MK Litzman is serious and expects people to follow his edict.

Sigh……… How tragically sad for us.

An open letter to the Queens Vaad:

We expect the highest standards of Yiddishkeit from the Vaad. Imagine our deep disappointment at the Vaad’s horrendous behavior regarding Streit’s Matzah. Frankly, we were shocked. With no evidence to go on, you simply instructed all of the stores under your supervision that they could not sell Streti’s products.

Shame on you! It could not have been a kashruth problem, because your own spokesman said that the product was indeed kosher. You told people who had already purchased the product that they could use it. Yet, you forbid it. What’s up with that?

When did the Vaad resort to gangster techniques to fulfill its dreams of total control? Stores could not disagree with you lest they lose their Vaad certification.

J’accuse! We accuse the vaad of lashon harah, rechilut, onaat devarim, geneivat hadaat and more. The Vaad indicated that Streit’s had a chezkat kashrut, but none the less said the product was forbidden.

Do we look like fools? Do you all believe that we are stupid people? You deliberately sand-bagged Streit’s. Were you an honest group of rabbis, you would have spoken with Streit’s months earlier, not a few weeks before Pesach.

Perhaps you should disband the Vaad, and ask the good people of the Queens Jewish community to find a group of honest rabbis who actually follow the dictates of the shulchan aruch and not the dictates of rabbis who claim to have a special link to God and who claim to know exactly what He wants outside of the Torah.

Shame on you all. Please go away and make room for honest rabbis who only want to do God’s work as outlined in sacred texts.

(As reported on Failed Messiah blog) The Jewish Star Calls For Ouster Of Head Of 5 Towns Rabbinical Board

Streit’s ban unprofessionally handled in a manner unfair to Streit’s, Rabbi Soleveitchik and the Jewish community.

Editorial: Change needed at Vaad HaKashrus of the Five Towns and Far Rockaway

It would be a big problem if a portion of an observant Jewish community were to lose faith in, say, kosher food supervision and became less careful about kashruth as a result.

Yet, that’s the kind of risk the Vaad HaKashrus of The Five Towns and Far Rockaway apparently decided to run when, with a month to Pesach, stores under its supervision weredirected to turn away matzo and matzo products made by the iconic Streit’s company.

There was no new or otherwise urgent information about Streit’s kashruth or any belief that the fitness of its products for Passover was in any way compromised. In fact, the Vaad said that Streit’s products could be used on Passover and there was no need to return or replace items already purchased.

As a result, some kosher consumers were confused and worried; others, quicker to sense “politics” at work, were infuriated. When people who keep kosher go out before Pesach to buy a product specifically because it’s just been “banned,” as some did, that’s evidence of a serious failure of public relations, at best.

Yet the Vaad utterly failed to offer a compelling explanation for the sudden action it took with no prior warning to the Streit’s company or its respected Rav HaMachshir (kosher supervisor).

Compounding the perception problem, from the Vaad’s point of view, was that some of its own members, rabbis of shuls in the Five Towns and Far Rockaway, as well as some rabbis in surrounding communities, did not (or could not), even in public, support the action taken in their names.

From the pulpit of the Young Israel of Woodmere, Rabbi Hershel Billet said, “The decision to remove Streit’s from Five Towns stores was a mistake. It was not in the best interest of the kosher consumer who should have had the choice to purchase that product. And it was not done in a manner that was fair to the Streit’s company and its hashgacha. All rabbis in the community who are members of the Vaad must share in the responsibility for decisions of the Vaad. When errors are made it is our responsibility to correct them.” He took care to not pass the buck or push blame for the incident onto any individual.

Here’s how any professional would have properly handled concerns about kashruth supervision at Streit’s: After Pesach, or many months before, privately communicate with the company and its hashgacha, laying out issues and proposing solutions.

Going public should have been the very, very last thing to happen, and only if no other resolution was possible. Instead, the matter was handled in the most unprofessional, hurtful, dictatorial manner possible — this, in a community full of professionals (many of whom, let’s be candid, do not take dictation so well).
Why would someone responsible for kashruth standards do anything to sow doubt in the minds of kosher consumers whose continued “buy-in” to kashruth is essential?

Unfortunately, the question assumes a basic understanding of matters of public perception and public relations — people skills, in other words — that experience has led us to believe does not exist in the current professional leadership of the Vaad.

For that reason we have respectfully and regretfully concluded that, in addition to tightening their own volunteer oversight and inviting renewed input from handpicked lay leaders, the members of the Vaad should share responsibility for the Streit’s fiasco by accepting the resignation of the current head of the Vaad of the Five Towns and Far Rockaway and find someone new.
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The same should be done at the Queens Vaad. They are just as guilty.

This story comes from Kosher Today:

Worrisome Trend of More “Kosher Style” Passover Menus
New York…Offering a Passover menu to patrons is good business, even if the food is just “kosher style” and not certified kosher. For years, Balducci’s has been offering the traditional Passover foods with the caveat that the food is not kosher. In fact, Balducci’s courts its kosher style patrons during the High Holy Days as well. The practice has drawn criticism from certification agencies and rabbis out of fear that unsuspecting customers will think that the food is authentically kosher. The New York Post reported that “chefs at three of the city’s best Mexican restaurants—Toloache, Dos Caminos and Rosa Mexicano” were offering Passover menus. The Post quoted Meghan Young, chef at Dos Caminos Soho, as saying that a chili-infused Passover menu was a no-brainer. “We do special menus on holidays like Christmas, so why not add Passover?” she says. “There’s a large community of Orthodox Jews in Mexico City and Guadalajara, and New York has a large Jewish population too, so it makes sense. Despite the [ingredient] limitations, this is a holiday where a lot of eating goes on.” Continued the Post: “Over at Toloache in the Theater District, chef Julian Medina rolls tortillas from matzo “masa,” not only as a nod to the expansive Jewish population in his birthplace of Mexico City, but to honor his conversion to Judaism after marrying his wife, Annie. Like any mensch, soon after the wedding, he got into the kitchen and learned a thing or two about traditional Jewish cooking. “I always help my mother-in-law with the cooking, and I thought it would be nice to celebrate the holiday at the restaurant, too,” says Medina. Many other restaurants throughout the country also offered the kosher style Passover foods on their Web sites.

Atalanta Corp has announced a new line of kosher goat cheeses made in Canada.

Celebrity International introduces kosher fresh goat logs of cheese. Certification is by the COR.

Flavors include: Plain, Honey, Cranberry and Cinnamon, Garlic and Fine Herbs, Dill and Rum Raisin Goat.

Logs come in 4.5 ounces and 10.5 ounces.

These cheeses are amazing! Try them for yourself!