OU publishes Passover kashrut booklet in English

The Orthodox Union kashrut authority has published for the first time a booklet in English providing clear instructions for foreign visitors in Israel about which food products and restaurants are kosher for Passover.

The OU said that many thousands of tourists who come to the country for the holiday observe Passover’s unique dietary laws, but are not sufficiently proficient in Hebrew to be confident that the food they are buying in supermarkets and other stores meets their standards of kashrut observance.

The organization has therefore published tens of thousands of its new booklets and is distributing them in the central tourist hotspots of Jerusalem, Beit Shemesh, and the Gush Etzion settlement bloc. It is also available on the OU’s website.

“The OU’s guide is a real revolution for the English-speaking consumer in Israel, and allows them for the first time to get comprehensive, clear and up-to-date information about kashrut in Israel over Passover,” said OU director in Israel Avi Berman.

“We’re proud to lead this important and necessary process, and hope to turn it into a long-term tradition.”

The OU intends to publish the booklet every year ahead of Passover and says it will help promote tourism to Israel over the holiday.

Along with kashrut information, the booklet also contains recommendations for hiking and leisure activities over the festival, as well as advice for cleaning one’s car, in accordance with Jewish law requiring the removal of all leavened products and remnants from one’s possession, and other useful information for tourists in Israel over Passover.