Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
The Schmooze

Secretary Clinton Urged To Press Israel To Remove Israel’s New Barrier — Against Foreign Gefilte Fish

As if Secretary of State Hillary Clinton doesn’t already have enough trouble with Israel, now this: Clinton is now expected to put some pressure on the Israelis once again, this time not because of the settlements, but because of gefilte fish.

Turns out that Israel has imposed a 120% import duty on processed gefilte fish — the famous Jewish Passover staple, and this decision made it to the floor of the House Foreign Affairs Committee on Thursday.

“I have [in my district] the world’s only fish processor of gefilte fish,” stated Illinois Republican Don Manzullo when his turn came to present Clinton with questions. As Manzullo described the origins of the fish (Asian carp caught in Lower Mississippi and the Great Lakes), Secretary Clinton began to chuckle as did some of the committee members.

“This is true,” Manzullo insisted and went on to speak of the problem: “There are nine containers of this that are locked up,” because of the Israeli duty and “Passover is getting closer.”

The Israeli embassy was already approached on this issue, but with the holiday approaching and tons of gefilte fish still waiting in Thompson, Ill., Manzullo felt he needed to take the issue higher up. “I just want to see if there is anything you can do to get the gefilte fish to Israel by Passover.”

Secretary Clinton seemed to be amused by this little-known international trade disput,e but promised she would “take on this mission.” However, Clinton added that she couldn’t promise the problem would be solved in time. “If not, we’ll have to figure out what to do with nine containers,” she added.

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse..

Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.