First kosher supermarket opens in Dubai
Dubai has opened its first kosher supermarket, with 130 square metres of space selling products imported from Israel, Europe and the United States, Rabbi Levi Duchman said. More than 100 members of the Jewish community gathered for the opening ceremony.
Rimon is the first kosher supermarket in the Gulf region. Its opening was a response to the growth of the Jewish community on the shores of the United Arab Emirates following the normalisation of relations with Israel in 2020.
The shop will host a Jewish food market every weekend, selling hot kosher Shabbat meals. Rimon is reportedly located in central Dubai, a short drive from the Burj Khalifa skyscraper.
It is worth noting that the UAE capital has a number of kosher companies that prepare food for the hotels, which is important in light of the developing relationship with Israel and with the increasing tourist flow from the Jewish state from September 2020.
In September 2020, a certified Armani/Kaf kosher restaurant started operating at the Armani Hotel Dubai. In 2021, Kosher Arabia, a kosher kitchen producing up to 2,000 meals per day, began operating in partnership with Emirates.
It is important to understand that kosher food is not a type of national cuisine, but any food prepared according to strict Jewish laws. For example, Italian, Georgian or Thai food can also be kosher. They simply will not contain pork, sea creatures, some kinds of fish, birds and even vegetables; they will not contain meat and animal milk at the same time.
The word ‘kosher’ came from the concept of kashrut, the laws and regulations pertaining to Jewish life. The body of these regulations is described in the Torah, the main Jewish body of religious texts. Of the more than 600 commandments, more than 50 concern food and define what constitutes kosher food.
The requirements are mainly for the cultivation of crops, slaughtering of livestock and pre-treatment of raw materials, and the composition of foods. All impurities and unnatural additives are practically always excluded. In other words, kosher means “kosher” – conventional and natural.
Source: The Jerusalem Post
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