In Sao Paulo, Thousands Line Up for a Kosher Big Mac
S. PAULO, Brazil — They flipped 10,000 burgers at the local McDonald’s last Sunday, and Ronald McDonald was doing his usual thing. But this time, he was greeting kids in yarmulkas, and the beef was glatt kosher. No cheese.
In fact, the entire restaurant in S. Paulo’s Barra Funda neighborhood was strictly kosher for the day. 5,000 patrons curious to experience McDonald’s at its kosher best lined up for their own kosher big mac.
Following last year’s successful debut, organizers were inspired to repeat and enlarge on the local fast food franchise going kosher-for-a-day. The idea, hatched by a local Chabad-Lubavitch teacher determined to advance kosher awareness, would expose a good percent of Brazil’s 60,000 Jews to kosher awareness, especially with the massive advertising campaign sponsored by Jewish businesses in Brazil.
It took a team of rabbis and weeks of arranging for the 14-hour switch to kosher, with every ingredient from bread to spices, sauces and fries carefully selected from kosher sources. Saturday night, rabbinical supervisors koshered the entire kitchen.
Lines formed at McDonald’s even before opening time at 9 a.m. Many patrons were clearly kosher consumers who waited patiently in line as much for the kosher quarter pounder as for supporting the initiative. But many others new to kosher also got in line for a kosher McDonald’s burger, curious for the experience.
“There’s no doubt that this initiative is highly effective in raising awareness of kosher observance in this country,” said S. Paulo’s Chabad Rabbi Shammai Ende.
Fan!
GreatJOB!!!!!
suprized reader
that is soooooo cool! i wish they would do that here in brooklyn thow it would feel weird eatind somthing kosher when it’s not supposed to be lol
shira
yummy!!
Kop Doktar
Is this really a wise thing to do? McDollars is interested in getting new customers. How many of these patrons will now continue buying at McTreif?
What will they think of next – making a local church kosher for a day of services?!
The line we must draw in the sand: Would the Rebbe have been proud of this “peulah” or not?
In this case, clearly he wouldn’t have approved.
Pentax
Kop Doktar:
How the heck would you know?
I always hear people saying the Rebbe
would say this or that…
You don’t know so shut up.
Toshev HaShchunah
Who is this Kop Doktar? How dare he make shluchim into McShluchim? What he writes “sounds” emes” BUT SOMETHING IS OFF!!
Surely a kosher McDonald isn’t the same as a kosher church…
And there is no certainty that those who enjoy a McBurger on the kosher day will continue buying there.
Kretchmeh
Kop Doktar – you have a point! I don’t think they thought of that!
Kop Doktar
Pentax: It seems that when you can’t respond logically, you resort to telling anyone who disagrees with you to “shut up”.
There were such societies that silenced dissenting opinions (an example is the USSR), but they have not survived, because telling people to “shut up’ doesn’t work.
I understand that you are simply frustrated because you realize that you lack the intellectual capacity to engage in meaningful discussion.
This inferiority complex is compensated by the need to bully others.
With therapy I can help you overcome this feeling of mental impotence.
Gut Gezokt
Pentax wrote, “You don’t know so shut up.”
And Pentax, do you know?
So why don’t you take your own advice!
Besides, maybe Kop DOES know!
A Food Mayven
McDonald’s SmeckDonalds, what about Burger King or Wendy’s?
Emes
I am afraid that Kop Doktar is right. Rather than promoting kashrut, the event promoted McDonald’s.
Oy Vay
Toshev:
Listen to your own words: “there is no certainty that those who enjoy a McBurger on the kosher day will continue buying there”
Is that what kosher awareness accomplishes – that the damage is uncertain??
Rodef Sholom
Hey people relax. Most of the participants were frum people who wouldn’t be caught dead inside a McDonald’s. So, little to no damage was done.
Seven70
KOPDOCTOR YOU ARE 100 PERCENT RIGHT there’s a kosher subway in brklyn which Rabbonim (not snags mind you) have assured to go to bec. ppl. will start associating Subway as a kosher joint-when in fact 99.99% are NOT. How much more so over here is is a foolish thing! It’s any way not a question for the Rebbe, but a Rov.
Mendy
all u guys no nothing about shlichus clearly. to say such a thing u are farrrr from knowing non frum comunities and how much of a food affect it is doing this for the comunity !!! AND IM 100 % SURE THE REBBE WOULD BE- IS ACTUALLY ,VERY PROUD..BECOUSE THE REBBE SEES HOW IT DOES YES AFFECT THOUSAND OF PEOPLE AND THAT BY THIS THEY WILL START KEEPING ALLITLE MORE KOSHER.
u guys have no ideia the response from this..cuz u live in CH and sorry to say but u people are close mind.
Son of Kop Doktar
In response to mendy’s rant –
You claim that it effects “thousand of people… will start keeping kosher” – you have no facts that support this wild claim, in fact, the article states most of those who attended were frum people! Indeed, very few non-kosher observing people participated! Not the “thousand people” who started keeping kosher.
I don’t live in CH but I know what is McTreif, and I know the difference between frum and krum.
Some peulos that shluchim do are carefully thought through; some are brilliant. This one wasn’t.
Am I the REbbe?
I usually tend to disagree with Pentax, but in this case he’s right. We aren’t the Rebbe, so we don’t have the authority to say whether the Rebbe approves of something or not. That is a question every person, especially a shliach, needs to ask his/her personal mashpia.
One’s got to have a pretty big ego to say he knows what the Rebbe approves of and what the Rebbe doesn’t.
GO to a kop doktar
Kop Doktar:
In your response to Pentax, you’re revealing your own need for therapy.
That’s what people who get frustrated and defensive with what others thell them need, no? ;)
Nice vocabulary there. I see you’re very smart.
LOGIC
To Kop Doktar:
It’s true that McDonald’s wants more customers and money, and that’s what the Shliach used in order to convince them to do this peulah.
I don’t see your logic behind the question “How many of these patrons will now continue buying at McTreif?”
Most of the people that I know who keep the laws of kashrus won’t stop because one day they ate in a kashered non-kosher facility.
But many people who anyways don’t keep kosher now understand that to keep kosher doesn’t mean to totally restrict their diet, and they may just be more open to the idea of kashrus.
Um,church = treif??
(One may not turn a church into a shul, yet one MAY kasher a non-kosher kitchen…)
What did I miss?
To Gut Gezugt:
When did Pentax say he does know?
Crown Heightser
I agree with Mendy
Old Timer
To Logic, “One may not turn a church into a shul, yet one MAY kasher a non-kosher kitchen…”
Since when can’t a church be converted into a shul? As an example, remember Tomchei Tmimim in Newark (pre-Morristown days)?
And to What Did I Miss, you ask: When did Pentax say he does know?
Well, I think it’s because he said “if you don’t know – shut up” and yet he voices an opinion – so I guess it means he claims that HE DOES know.
Back on topic, I try to always defend what our brave shloochim do, but this one does not sit well with me. Maybe I’m too old.