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By Reuven Fenton for the New York Post

A group of ultra-Orthodox rabbis is waging a schmear campaign against a staple of the Jewish diet: lox.

Smoked salmon should no longer be considered kosher, they say, because the fish often contain parasitic worms.

Bagel Lovers Tell Rabbis: Don’t pick on our Lox

By Reuven Fenton for the New York Post

A group of ultra-Orthodox rabbis is waging a schmear campaign against a staple of the Jewish diet: lox.

Smoked salmon should no longer be considered kosher, they say, because the fish often contain parasitic worms.

But some Jewish New Yorkers aren’t taking the lox-down lightly.

“What is a bagel and cream cheese without the lox? It’s nothing,” kvetched Josh Loberfeld, 29, of Riverdale, a regular at the Mr. Bagel eatery near his Bronx home.

The ban was announced last month when a small group of rabbis decided that a tiny parasitic worm, called anisakis, rendered its host fish nonkosher.

Chevra Mehadrin, a group of hard- line Orthodox rabbis in Monsey, NY, released a list of newly forbidden fish.

But many Orthodox rabbis are blasting the group for hysterics.

“This issue has been resolved in Jewish law for hundreds of years already,” said Rabbi Moshe Elefant of the Orthodox Union.

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11 Comments

  • Bored Rabbi-s?

    This is what happens when Rabbi’s have too much time on their hands.

  • nos

    hallachically if its not visible to the naked eye it is kosher. obviously if it has not been noticed before it is not visible to the naked eye

  • Milhouse

    nos, why don’t you check your facts before posting? Did you think you had discovered some obscure halacha that the poskim who have assered fish are unaware of?! These worms clearly ARE visible to the naked eye, and you had no right to assume otherwise. NOTHING in this or any other article has in any way implied that they are invisible. Everyone knows that invisible creatures are not a problem. The question is whether these VISIBLE creatures are a problem or not.

    The basic problem (which nobody wants to admit) is that until the 19th century everyone assumed that some creatures were spontaneously generated in their environment. The gemoro and all the rishonim and achronim agree that the worms which are created from the fish’s flesh itself, that didn’t come from anywhere else and never left the fish’s flesh, are kosher. The problem is that we now know there is no such thing as spontaneous generation, and we know that these worms are NOT born inside the fish’s flesh. They are born in another fish, are expelled with its waste, enter their host fish with its food, and migrate from the stomach to the flesh.

    Now that we know this, does it change the halacha? Does it matter that when Chazal permitted us to eat these worms their understanding of their biology was wrong? Had Chazal known the truth, would they have forbidden these worms, and if so does that matter? These are tough questions, for poskim to answer. So far, the majority of poskim are saying it’s muttar. But it’s not a stupid question, and a significant minority of serious poskim are saying assur.

  • Esquire, Montreal

    Whereas halacha must be complied with,the ever increasing “religious” notions based on individualistic perceptions of Judaism must not. These epiphanic notions, together with their advocates are to be scrutinized; not the lox etc.

  • fan

    i take it that OK and OU are just being lenient – i wonder if i should rely on their hechsher all together?

  • arthur robins

    “KOSHER”? Kosher is defined in the TORAH- Scales and fins. That’s it.

  • Thank you Millhouse

    Thank you Millhouse as far as I am concerned the matter is now moot. Thanks to your information I have lost my appitite and desire to eat lox.

  • Esquire, Montreal

    If scientific information is going to be used to inform halacha, then it should cut both ways, l’chumra and l’hetura.