Where There Is A Will There Is A Kosher Way
The Kosher Dubai Story
Where There Is A Will There Is A Kosher Way
It has been a little while since my last blog. I have been busy preparing for Passover not just for my home but for Temple Beth Am where I will conduct the holiday services. I have written 4 sermons and will share them as blog posts after the holiday. If you would like to follow our services during the Yom Tov days, please use the following link. https://www.beth-am.org/live-stream
It is advised that you leave the computer on before shabbat for the three days.
Services begin at 9.30am. The Men’s Club will sponsor the Virtual Pesadik kiddush immediately after the service.(lol)
For those of you who know me it will come as no surprise that I am a subscriber to Kashrus Magazine. In addition to kosher updates, the magazine has many interesting articles about kashrut from around the world. One so impressed me that I asked for and received permission to summarize and share the article with you. It is the kosher side story of the Abraham Accords, perhaps President Trump’s greatest achievement in his presidency.
Prior to the Accords the United Arab Emirates had a small Jewish community made of Jews from around the world who lived in the UAE for commercial and professional reasons. They kept a low profile and one family, the Kriels kept a kosher home. The woman in charge was Elli Kriel, who prepared the kosher food in her kitchen. Not surprisingly the name of her kosher catering company was Ellie’s Kosher Kitchen. This is her story.
The Kriels are from South Africa and her husband worked for an energy company. He was commuting between Dubai in the UAE and Johannesburg when the company asked him to move to UAE.
In 2013 Ellie her husband and 2 of her three children moved there. The oldest stayed in South Africa to finish her schooling. Their two greatest familial challenges were keeping kosher and continuing to live a fully observant lifestyle.
Their two children attended an American international school and the parents decided to address the identity and religious needs right from the beginning. They met with a teacher and told her that they were Jewish and kosher. The kids would not attend Saturdays and Jewish Holy Days and would not eat any food the school offered. If there were birthday parties in class, they asked to be informed in advance so they could provide snacks from home. ( This reminded me of what we had to do with our children in Broward Florida.)
That was when the” bashert” moment happened. The teacher explained she was from New York and Jewish as was the other teacher. It was smooth sailing after that.
It was a small Jewish community, with maybe 20 or 30 people attending services. Ellie was finishing work on her PHD in sociology when she arrived and immediately needed to source kosher food. She discovered that there were a lot of products for sale that had kosher supervision symbols on them. People in Dubai came from all over the world, and wanted to eat the foods they were familiar with. The stores imported them, and many had hechshers from the US, England, South Africa and India. What she could not get were hard cheeses and kosher meat. Since there was constant travel from all over the world to Dubai, she asked friends to bring her suitcases of meat, spices etc.
As more people heard there was a kosher family in Dubai, they would call her asking where to get kosher food.
In November of 2018 there was a conference in Abu Dhabi with a group of rabbis attending. The organizers could not get kosher food for the rabbis and were embarrassed. The UAE as a matter of policy is inclusive of all other religions and people and wanted to be good hosts to their guests. This may be because the people in the UAE were Bedouins who were nomadic and therefore open to and hospitable to all kinds of different people. They asked Ellie’s husband what they could do, and he immediately offered them a solution. He would ask his wife to prepare and send over kosher food. For five days she cooked for the conference and that was the beginning of Ellie’s Kosher Kitchen.
What followed were more requests, more conferences, more visitors having kosher food sent to their hotel rooms. Two years ago the UAE dedicated a year to promoting tolerance of different people and religions which brought more travelers to the UAE, and interestingly, more Jewish residents of the UAE to the surface. Ellie built a website, developed menus and was off to the races.
Then came “The Kosher Banquet”.
It was August 31- September 1 2020 and she catered a special banquet in Abu Dhabi. The attendees included an American delegation with Jared Kushner and national security advisers, and an Israeli delegation of national security advisers and director generals of various Israeli ministries. The OU now supervised the entire operation including their newest client, Ellie’s Kosher Kitchen.
She no longer cooks from home. She is no longer dependent on suitcases of meat but is importing substantial amounts, as well as increasing amounts and varieties of kosher wine.
She has her own kosher kitchen in the Hilton Dubai Al Habtoor City. You can order off of her web site and the meals are sent to your hotel with instructions to the hotel kitchen on how to warm up the food. She also allows hotels to order meals which are offered as in room dining.
During the last Hannukah break at least 40,000 Israelis went to Dubai and the kosher demand was through the roof. There are now at least 3 kosher restaurants, and some hotels are being koshered for a week or so during major holiday seasons. There are special kosher packaged tours and you can even go to Dubai for a strictly kosher travel tour for Passover; and to think, it all started in Ellie’s kitchen. Where there is a will there is a kosher way.
If you would like to read the entire story and the other features in the magazine you can contact the publisher. I received permission from the publisher to use his article and he advised me that a special rate of $20 for a year’s subscription (regularly $28) is available to you if you mention me. You can email them at kashrus@aol.com or call 732–534–9363, or mail to KASHRUS, POB 1216, Jackson, NJ 08527.
I have no financial interest in the magazine and do not receive anything from them. He was kind enough to let me use some of the information from the article and I am reciprocating his generosity.
Hag kasher vesameach to all my readers, have a happy and kosher Passover.