FailedMessiah.com

Roman Toilets Gave No Clear Health Benefit; Romanization Actually Spread Parasites, Researchers Find

The study found fish tapeworm eggs to be surprisingly widespread in the Roman Period compared to Bronze and Iron Age Europe. One possibility suggested for the rise in fish tapeworm is the Roman love of a sauce called garum.

Haredi Rabbis Ban Sidewalk Cafés, Grab-And-Go Fast Food

“We have a duty to warn and alert the public to the phenomenon which has spread in our city: the cheap culture of eating while walking in the street. This was considered cheap behavior of the fringes of society or the weak-minded until a few years ago, and the public would treat [the practice] as such."

Food History: The Origin Of Ketchup

Where did ketchup (or catsup, or katchup) come from and why do some brands, like Heinz, specify they are "tomato ketchup"? Is there any other kind? And what's with those names?

Following A Healthy, Doctor Recommended Diet But Still Can't Lose Weight? Israeli Researchers Discover Why

Ever wonder why you and friend can eat an almost identical diet, choose the same foods and follow the same recipes, but she loses weight or maintains a healthy weight while you lard on the pounds? Israeli researchers from the Weizmann Institute of Science appear to have discovered why.

Early Farmers Exploited Beehive Products At Least 8,500 Years Ago, Scientists Show

"The most obvious reason for exploiting the honeybee would be for honey, as this would have been a rare sweetener for prehistoric people. However, beeswax could have been used in its own right for various technological, ritual, cosmetic and medicinal purposes, for example, to waterproof porous ceramic vessels."

The History You Didn't Learn In Yeshiva: The Taboo Against Eating Pig Predates The Torah And Predates Jews

Many Middle Eastern societies had strong taboos against eating pork, taboos that predate the giving of the Torah. Here's why.

Israel Likely Had The First Hummus In The World, But It Wasn't Jews Who Ate It

Inhabitants of the Land of Israel likely ate the first hummus in the world, but those inhabitants weren't Jews – and they also weren't Arabs. So who were they?

Defendants In Halal Meat Fraud Plead Guilty

Cedar Rapids, IA-based Midamar and Islamic Services, along with brothers Jalel and Yahya Nasser Aossey, were named in a Dec. 5 indictment alleging 92 charges. However, all defendants reached plea agreements with government prosecutors just before a jury trial that was scheduled for last month. In a separate trial in mid-July, William B. Aossey Jr., father of the two Aossey brothers, was convicted by a jury on 15 of the 19 charges brought against him. He was taken into federal custody pending sentencing, and his appeal for a new trial was recently denied.

 

Israeli Researchers Use Ancient Tools To Reconstruct–And Eat–Prehistoric Cuisine

A group of intrepid Israeli researchers recently went back to the dawn of the Stone Age…and made lunch.

Researchers Find Proof In Israel Of Earliest Ever Human Agricultural Cultivation

The new study offers evidence that early humans clearly functioned with a basic knowledge of agriculture and, perhaps more importantly, exhibited foresight and extensive agricultural planning more than 10,000 years earlier than previously believed.

Why Do We Eat Dairy Foods On Shavuot Morning?

There are many rabbinically posited explanations for the custom of eating dairy foods on the morning of Shavuot, some more fanciful than others. But the real reason may have much more to do with practicality and non-Judaism-related local custom than to any holy reason rabbis might imagine.

In Tel Aviv, Hummus Delivered To Your Door On The Cheap, From Uber

The on-demand car service Uber is doing something special for Israel Independence Day in Tel Aviv.

2015 FailedMessiah.com Matzoh Rankings

See who won – and who lost – this year's Passover matzoh challenge.

Switch From Hunting To Farming Caused Negative Changes To Human Jaw, Teeth Placement, Researchers Find

Hunter-gatherers had almost no malocclusion and dental crowding, and the condition first became common among the world’s earliest farmers some 12,000 years ago in Southwest Asia. “Our findings show that the hunter gatherer populations have an almost 'perfect harmony' between their lower jaws and teeth. But this harmony begins to fade when you examine the lower jaws and teeth of the earliest farmers.”

Women Can Work As Kosher Food Inspectors, Chief Rabbi Belatedly Says

For years the chief rabbinate has prevented women from filling this role, prompting Member of Knesset Aliza Lavie of the Yesh Atid Party to file a petition with the High Court of Justice several months ago, demanding that the chief rabbinate allow women to work as kosher food inspectors. This prompted Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi David Lau to walk back the rabbinate's previous ban.

Israel's Sefardi Chief Rabbi Bans Special Bug Free Super Kosher Vegetables

In a groundbreaking ruling, Israel's Sefardi Chief Rabbi Shlomo Amar, who is also the haredi-controlled state chief rabbinate's senior decisor of Jewish law has banned so-called mehadrin vegetables that are 'bug free' because they pose a danger to health.

Demonstration Today Against State Rabbinate Kosher Supervision Monopoly

The demonstration is sponsored by the Yerushalmim movement, which includes Orthodox, non-Orthodox and secular members, and is backed by Orthodox rabbi and rosh yeshiva Aaron Leibowitz.

Her Lips Are Sealed – From Treife

An orthodox woman goes to a top flight non-kosher culinary school and can't taste what she cooks as a result.

The Documents: Satmar Contaminated Matzoh

A Satmar matzo bakery in Williamsburg, Brooklyn was found to using contaminated well water to bake its matzos. The city tried to shut the bakery down, but legal maneuverings by Satmar kept it open through to the start of Passover and kept the matzo it baked in the homes and stomachs of Jews. For the first time, here are the key documents of this case:

Passover Food Reviews

Matzoh and macaroons ranked and reviewed.

Rabbis Force Restaurant To Sideline Female Servers

A venerable haredi-owned Jerusalem restaurant with a diverse clientelle made up of many non-haredi customers will restrict the working hours of female servers in order to keep its haredi-issued kashrut certificate. According to its owner, zealots "jealous of the place's success" pressured the kashrut supervisors of Badat"z Agudat Israel to ban waitresses from working on Thursday nights when many haredi yeshiva students traditionally eat out.

As Chefs Become More Observant, Kosher Menus Go Gourmet

Duck leg confit served with white bean cassoulet. House-made lamb bacon. Mexican-inflected California cuisine. Not the offerings you would have expected at a kosher restaurant 20 years ago, perhaps not even a decade ago. But a handful of high end, innovative kosher restaurants, primarily in the gastronomic capitals of New York and California, have sprouted in the past decade, immutably changing the kosher dining landscape. And that change is driven by ba'alei teshuva.

Don't Supersize Me

Today's food culture is at loggerheads with traditional religious values. So why don't we notice it?

Another State, Another Republican Bill To Outlaw Whistleblowing Videos Of Slaughterhouses, Corporate Farms, And Food Processing Facilities

"This bill criminalizes whistle blowing on any animal facility and that could be whistle blowing for animal cruelty, which of course is what our principal concern is, but it's so broadly written it would include food safety practices, environmental pollution and labor issues," Humane Society says. Similar bills have been introduced by Republicans in Iowa and Florida.

Dangerous Eating Disorders And Haredi And Orthodox Jews

“It’s too much,” said a 23-year-old woman from the New York area who is recovering from an eating disorder and asked not to be identified by name to protect her privacy. She is married and a full-time student, but has postponed having a baby. “A lot of my friends are going to work and support their husbands,” she continued, “but part of my recovery is to say that I can’t do everything — I’m not superwoman.”

Chief Rabbis Ask Jerusalem To Make Food Festival Exclusively Kosher

Between March 27 and 31, the “Thousand Tastes in the Old City” festival will introduce locals and tourists to eateries in the Jewish, Muslim and Christian quarters, only a few of which are kosher certified.

Haredim Demand Jerusalem Food Festival Be Canceled

If the festival won't be called off, Rabbi Avigdor Nebenzahl warned, he would turn to Lithuanian leader Rabbi Yosef Shalom Elyashiv and ask him to order haredi representatives at the City Council to quit the coalition as an act of protest.

Former Haredi Named Worst Cook In America Winner

Joshie Berger, a former hasid from Borough Park, wins the Food Network's Worst Cooks In America competition.

Haredim: Kosher Cooking In A Material World

Anyone fearful that the ultra-Orthodox will force their lifestyle on secular people should have paid a visit to the Balaboosta competition - the Haredi version of the Master Chef game show - which was held in Bnai Brak recently under the sponsorship of a mixer company.

European Jews Object To Law Mandating Labeling Kosher Meat As Slaughtered Without Stunning

Henry Grunwald QC, chairman of Shechita UK, wrote to every Member of the European Parliment this week urging them to vote against the “discriminatory and unfair” amendment.

Letter from Manhattan: Chicken Soup Or The Jewish Soul

New Zealand this week became the fourth country to ban kosher slaughter, after Norway, Sweden and Iceland. These are not exactly hotbeds of anti-Semitism, and their reasoning is not exactly unreasonable: Animals should be stunned before having their lives taken.

Israel Develops Tomato Worth More Than Its Weight In Gold–Literally

The seeds for the yellow cherry tomato, a fruit researchers feared might turn off consumers, now sell for $160,000 a pound.

Almost Half Of US Supermarket Products Kosher

New survey shows most retail stores in larger cities carry at least 20,000 kosher certified items.

Sharp Rise Expected In Israeli Meat Prices

Retailers estimate prices to rise by up to 20% due to global shortage, Argentina government's decision to halt exports of meat.

Haredi Rabbinic Leaders Ban Most Fish

Fish are infested with worms which cannot be seen without light boxes and, in many cases, magnification and ultraviolet light.

Jew Opens Restaurant Named "Traif" In Williamsburg

Restaurant features seafood and pork dishes, and owner says he hopes it will bring hasids and hipsters together.

US Senator Al Franken Hunts For Deli, Finds Jews

A US Senator has an unexpected kosher Shabbat lunch with Orthodox Jews.

Passover Profiteering: $5 Jelly, $24 Matzoh, 100% Rip Off?

Last week I saw a can of tuna for $16.99, a $5 jar of jelly, and a $6 box of cereal. I felt like I was in a foreign country with rampant hyperinflation

Streit's Machine Matzoh Easily Beats Chabad Shmurah Matzoh In Taste Test

"The more kosher it is, the worse it tastes!"

Who Bakes The Best Tasting Hand Shmurah Matzoh In Brooklyn?

Your taste buds – and your digestive tract – want to know.

Do Non-Normative Jewish Religious Beliefs Make Food Unkosher?

Should the religious beliefs of a food producer impact the kosher status of the food produced? 

Streit's and Whole Foods Team Up For New Kosher Hanukkah Product

Whole Foods partnered with Streit’s to bring the first ever sulfite-free potato pancake mix to market.

Is It Kosher? Scientists Grow Meat In Lab

The lab-grown meat could be on sale within five years.

Nepal Chabad House Kitchen Feared Source Of Israeli Typhoid Outbreak

Illness can be fatal if left untreated.

Empire Launches New Hasidic Brand Of Kosher Poultry

Chasidishe shechita will be under the supervision of Rabbi Binyumin Gruber of Monsey, NY.

Beef Prices Expected To Rise 40%

South American farmers switch to selling corn and soybeans for fuel rather than feed, causing a shortage of beef for export.

Empire Glatt Kosher Beef Now Available At Costco

Beef jointly under OU and Star-K supervision now sold at Costco in Brooklyn and the Five Towns.

Streit's Caves In, Gets 'National' Kosher Supervision For Matzo

“Obviously, we’re very delighted that they’re taking a national hashgacha…we’ll have to see how they proceed. That’s something that’s going to have to be left to our kashruth committee.”

How The Jews Invented Yogurt

Meant to cure digestive disorders, prolong life.

Birth of the Bagel

Where it came from, how it was named, and what it has in common with the croissant.