As I sit in my terrarium-like cubicle at Star-K Kosher Certification, trying to think how to best describe working here before Pesach, I can’t help but think of a beehive. Although the first Seder is just three weeks from tonight, and a lot of you are just now seriously cracking down on preparing for the “P-word” (with the exception of one fellow who came to sell us his chometz on February 18, because he was heading for Israel and staying through Pesach!), here at work, we have been preparing for Pesach 5774/2014 since a week after Pesach 5773/2013. And we will continue to help our Kashrus Hotline callers, emailers, and texters to the last minute possible, even past candle lighting (but before shkia, sunset) on the first Seder night.
“At Star-K, we get ready for Pesach the way Eisenhower got ready for D Day!” quips Star-K Kashrus Administrator Rabbi Zvi Holland. “Our already busy Hotline skyrockets to the intensity of more than a thousand calls a day.”
This year, on Shushan Purim, March 17, the Hotline fun began with 272 calls. The following day there were 304 calls, and the day after, 348 calls. That number only increases as we head towards “P-Day.”
Star-K Executive Vice President Pesi Herskovitz, one of Star-K’s original employees, looks back with fond memories to pre-Pesach days in the early 1980s, when Star-K was located in an upstairs classroom of the Suburban Orthodox shul on Seven Mile Lane. “Avrom and I did everything ourselves,” recalls Mrs. Herskovitz, referring to Star-K President Avrom Pollak. “We cleaned up the office for Pesach. We cleaned out the fridge, and we vacuumed.
“I remember when we couldn’t take a breath or take a break,” Mrs. Herskovitz recalls. “The Hotline questions came from everywhere: mashgichim, consumers, travelers, and rabbanim from various communities that did not have an infrastructure in place….In the late 70s, our Hotline was limited to a couple hours a morning. We expanded it little by little. Today, the hours have increased to all the hours we are in the office.”
Mrs. Rivka Leah Goldman is one of Star-K’s designated kashrus Hotline specialists and Star-K’s “oven expert.” She fields pre-Pesach as well as year-round calls from across the globe. In addition to her run-of-the-mill pre-Pesach calls about how to kasher an oven for Pesach and smooth cooktop kashering information, she has had her share of non-standard calls.
“One year, a man called up frantically from an appliance store,” shares Mrs. Goldman. “His oven either broke or exploded. It was just a few days before Pesach, and he was desperate; I could tell by his agitated voice. I felt so bad for him; I caved in and recommended a particular stove brand and model, something we don’t usually do.”
Sometimes Mrs. Goldman’s gets questions that have nothing to do with stoves and, actually, nothing to do with the laws of Pesach. “Years ago, during our high call volume days, a couple of unusual calls from elderly callers stand out in my mind. One lady wanted to know if it was okay to make her charoses a week in advance of Yom Tov. The other one asked me for a Pesach recipe. I thought it was sweet and shared one with her.”
Hotline calls run the gamut from more common questions to less common ones. The most common repeat questions are: Can you drink bottled water without a kosher-for-Passover certification? Which toothpaste and mouthwash are kosher for Pesach? Which children’s pain relievers can I buy that are kosher l’Pesach? The more unusual Hotlines questions include: Can you smoke flavored e-cigarettes on Pesach? Can you smoke marijuana on Pesach? Can you use nicotine patches on Pesach? Can you use worms as bait when fishing on Pesach?
While on the topic of animals, Kashrus Hotline questions about pet food, especially before Pesach, are not infrequent. Although pet food does not need to be kosher, it does need to be chometz-free on Pesach, due to the prohibition of benefiting from chometz over Pesach. Star-K Kashrus Administrator Rabbi Zvi Goldberg makes an annual pre-Pesach trip to Petco, a pet supply store, to inspect pet food labels for chometz .
“Although I first research the ingredients of pet food online, because of reformulation and other reasons, it is better to see the label on the product that is on the shelf myself,” explains Rabbi Goldberg. “When I go into the store, I explain what I am doing so they won’t think I am snooping. This year, one of the workers told me, ‘We have the Passover list already.’ I told him, ‘I don’t think you have the new one yet; I’m the one who makes it up!’”
One of the most interesting pre-Pesach Hotline calls that Rabbi Goldberg received was from a consumer who called to suggest that Star-K use its influence to make a takanah (directive) to prevent people from sending mishloach manos that are chometzdik, since Purim is so close to Pesach.
“I didn’t know we had so much influence,” admits Rabbi Goldberg. “I’m glad this woman has so much confidence in us!”
Other questions that have been directed to Rabbi Goldberg include, “Can I use a guitar pick made by Wheatware, a company that sells biodegradable wheat-based products?” and “Are non-gebrochts breadcrumbs kosher for Passover?”
“Pesach is like our tax season, because besides ongoing, year-round questions, people call with their questions that are pertinent to Pesach,” says Rabbi Goldberg. “The phones and emails that we encourage people to ask don’t stop coming. Since a lot of people have a custom not to sell real chometz, they will ask if such and such a product, for example, licorice, really is chometz.”
Of course, the annual Star-K Passover Directory, which includes both the Star-K Comprehensive Information and Product Guide and Rabbi Gershon Bess’ Passover Medicines and Cosmetics Guide, does help minimize the number of pre-Pesach calls that the Hotline receives. Now that it is available online and in an easiest-ever searchable app (thanks to Duvys Media), the pre-Pesach “this place is a zoo” mantra is not quite as prevalent as it was when I first started working here, over a decade ago. And this year, for the first time, a free one-page Quick Pick list, by category of item, will make it a cinch for the consumer to identify and purchase things like kosher-for-Passover pain relievers and laxatives.
Since my desk is located within close proximity to the office of Star-K Kashrus Administrator Rabbi Dovid Heber, who is also the director of Star-K’s computer department as well as the Rav of Kehilas Ahavas Yisroel Tzemach Tzedek, I am privileged to get a close-up look at how he juggles his many hats during the year; even more so, as it gets closer to Pesach. He, together with Rabbi Zvi Goldberg, is one of the main coordinators orchestrating the production of Star-K’s Passover Directory.
“After Succos, we start to meet and give out deadlines for the Pesach Directory. “Many kids in yeshivos and schools don’t like leap years, because you have to wait an extra month until Pesach,” Rabbi Heber points out. “But if you are in kashrus, you love it, because you have an extra month to prepare. Instead of dedicating the month of Shvat to the Pesach Directory, it is pushed up to Adar Rishon. In kashrus, ‘mishenichnas Adar marbim besimcha’ takes on a slightly different meaning. By Rosh Chodesh Adar, the directory is pretty much complete!”
Star-K Computer Specialist Rivky Benyowitz notes, “I start working on the Pesach book around the Chinese New Year which falls out in January or February, depending on the year. I work predominantly with Chinese companies, and I can take advantage of this Chinese holiday, when these companies are closed. I also deal with companies in Singapore, Hong Kong, Viet Nam, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, South Korea, and Thailand. Assisting Rabbi Mushell, I check on the products manufactured in these countries to verify that there have been no changes in production. I have to admit it is pretty crazy for those three or four weeks or so, before our Passover Directory goes to print.”
Although Rabbi Heber says that the week after Purim is usually quiet, because the Pesach Directory is at the printer and the Pesach shailos (inquiries) have not yet started pouring in, the following week – three weeks and counting until Pesach – the shailos really begin. “The pace picks up rapidly two weeks before Pesach,” notes Rabbi Heber. “One week before, our office personnel will be inundated with calls, as many kashrus administrators around the world will be at their destinations, whether in Sydney or Strasburg. At home, it will be a family project, all day erev Pesach, to field questions. My family will answer those questions that they can read straight from the directory: for example, ‘Does aluminum foil need a kosher-for-Passover hechsher?’”
As Pesach quickly approaches, Rabbi Heber multitasks his regular day-to-day workload, servicing Star-K companies (most of which do not really fathom what a kashrus organization’s pre-Pesach frenzy is all about!), while answering a plethora of Pesach shailos about medications, nutraceuticals, and pharmaceuticals. Rabbi Heber’s office is also the go-to office for consumers in our community to check their toiletries, cosmetics, and fragrances for Passover acceptability, according to the guidelines set down by Star-K’s Rabbinic Administrator, Rav Moshe Heinemann. “This year, I reviewed the ingredients of the inventories of four make-up artists: three local ones and, for the first time, one located in Lakewood, New Jersey,” says Rabbi Heber, who visited the business.
“The Star-K website’s comprehensive Passover page is fortified to withstand an onslaught of international proportions,” notes Rabbi Holland. “Last year, the Pesach page was hit over 300,000 times in the days before Pesach. This year, three weeks before Pesach, the Star-K online Pesach guide had already been read by thousands of people in dozens of countries, from as far away as Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, England, Germany, Greece, India, Israel, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Netherlands, Nicaragua, Russia, Slovenia, Spain, and Switzerland – not to mention the United States.
“Diabetics, celiacs, rabbanim, and pet owners from around the world avail themselves of our Hotline during the pre-Pesach season, more so than any other time in the year,” continues Rabbi Holland. “Star-K’s team of Hotline question responders is trained to answer the full line of Pesach shailos, with rabbanim waiting to answer those questions that are not already in the team’s internal guide. Commonly expected questions include, what is kosher for Passover without a symbol? What is acceptable for children? What and where can Sefardim find such-and-such for Pesach?”
As the Hotline picks up pace before Pesach, so does the Star-K shatnes lab. There is a rush to get new clothing checked and, if need be, have shatnes removed and altered before Yom Tov. With yeshiva boys home on a break doing last-minute clothes shopping, Star-K shatnes tester Rabbi Emanuel Goldfeiz’s hours are increased from the usual one hour weekly testing schedule. So, too, do the Star-K vegetable checking training sessions pick up steam (no pun intended). Training the extra mashgichim who are needed during the Pesach season necessitates the increased availability of the makeshift vegetable checking lab in our office’s fleishig kitchen.
As I pen this article, and while all this is happening on the Star-K home front in Baltimore, Star-K Kashrus Administrator Mayer Kurcfeld is in Cincinnati, where he is giving a pre-Pesach presentation, including a bug-checking practicum, to shul members of Rabbi Avrohom Weinrib’s Congregation Zichron Eliezer. “One of the things I emphasize is that every single item that you pick up in the store, even in a Jewish one, has to be checked for a kosher-for-Passover symbol on the label,” says Rabbi Kurcfeld. “It is commonplace that in national supermarket chain stores, for example, that year-round, non-kosher-for-Pesach matzah is found in the special Pesach display found in the Pesach aisle. Of all things, the matzah was chometzdik! Who would have dreamed that the matzah, itself, was not kosher for Passover?”
On a more humorous note, concerning matzah, Rabbi Kurcfeld told me that his files contain a copy of a letter, written to a fellow rabbi, in March, 1990, by a woman in the public relations department of McDonald’s. Although Star-K would certainly never condone eating in McDonald’s, this is what it said:
Dear Rabbi:
Certainly, when you think of the up-coming holiday of Passover, you don’t usually think of McDonald’s Restaurants. However, throughout the year we have been well patronized by Jewish families in Rockland County...and we very much appreciate their business. Even Jewish customers who observe kosher laws in their own homes will stop in for a cup of coffee…a respite from a long day of daily chores and/or shopping.
We would like to mention that during the Passover holiday, we will make available matzah, kosher-for-Passover, in our three locations: McDonald’s, Nanuet-Route 59; McDonald’s, Spring Valley-Route 59, McDonald’s, Suffern-Route 59.
Our employees have been instructed to handle the matzah as follows: Remove directly from matzah box with a sanitary plastic glove and place on a disposable plate for the customer.
We don’t often get the chance to celebrate with the Jewish community – other than the menorah we display during Hanukkah. Nevertheless, we would like you to know that we do appreciate your patronage and wish you and your congregation a happy Passover.
© Margie Pensak 2014
