The Jewish community of Rochester, New York welcomed COR – The Kashruth Council of Canada, for a Pre Passover community event on Sunday March 31st at Congregation Beth Sholom. Rabbi Tsvi Heber, COR’s Director of Community Kosher, Rabbi Dovid Rosen, COR’s Director of Industrial Kosher and Richard Rabkin COR’s Managing Director traveled to Rochester to share their expertise and help the community prepare for the upcoming Passover holiday.
Rabbi Avi Kilimnick, the rabbi of Beth Sholom opened the session by thanking the COR delegation for traveling to Rochester, and for bringing the food. “We have so many reason to be thankful to the COR,” said Rabbi Kilimnick. “Most importantly, their presence here in Rochester is pure chesed –they are here simply to help and teach us, and for that we are grateful. But also, they came here with sushi. We don’t have any kosher sushi in Rochester so we definitely have to thank them for that.”
Rabbi Rosen went through a PowerPoint presentation outlining the most frequently asked Pesach questions. Rabbi Heber conducted a live seminar demonstrating how to check romaine lettuce – and other produce – to ensure that they are insect free. Rabbi Rosen invited those in attendance to contact COR’s text-a-rabbi service with their questions. He said that last year on erev Pesach alone he answered 800 questions and he said that this year he wants to see questions coming from Rochester. “I am going to be looking for questions coming from the 585 area code!” Rabbi Rosen said.
Rabbi Kilimnick concluded the event by thanking the COR team for coming. “We should do this again. In fact, COR should come for Shabbos and we can have a whole kashrus shabbaton.”
Rabbi Dovid Rosen (L), Rabbi Tsvi Heber, Rabbi Avi Kilimnick, & Richard Rabkin