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The Schmooze

Smoked Salmon No Longer Kosher

It’s Karp vs. Salmon in the strange story of the Israeli rabbi who declared salmon non-kosher.

If you thought Rabbinic ruling which pronounced New York water treyf was not odd enough, in recent weeks Rabbi Moshe Karp of Modi’in Illit (Israel) damned salmon, halibut and flounder as no longer kosher due to Anisakis, a tiny roundworm, that lives inside them.

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Although explicitly allowed by the Gemara, Karp and some of his haredi colleagues claim that the worm has mutated and grown to proportions unprecedented by Talmud, and is therefore now prohibited. No more lox and bagels for Modi’in Illit folks, his Brooklyn audiences seemed unconvinced though.

Sources: MSNBC and The Jewish Star

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