Abu Dhabi hotels to serve kosher food

Our Correspondent

The UAE capital Abu Dhabi has asked all hotels in the emirate to start including kosher food on their menus. This is part of the friendly gesture shown by Abu Dhabi since the normalisation of relations between the UAE and Israel announced on August 13. The peace treaty — named Abraham Accord after the Biblical patriarch revered by Jews and Muslims alike — will be signed at a White House ceremony on September 15.

“All hotel establishments are advised to include kosher food options on room service menus and at all food and beverage outlets in their establishments,” the Department of Culture and Tourism (DCT) – Abu Dhabi said in a circular.

It further directed all hotel establishments to seek kosher certification for handling kosher meals; designate an area in all their kitchens for preparation of kosher food; and label kosher menu items with a clear and visible label/reference with a recognisable symbol that denotes ‘kosher’, as per acquired certification.

Kosher – derived from the Hebrew word meaning pure or fit for consumption – food refers to food that is prepared according to Jewish dietary laws and ritually slaughtered like halal food is to Muslims. To qualify as kosher, mammals must have split hooves, and chew their cud; fish must have fins and removable scales; and birds should be non-predatory. Hence pork, rabbit, shellfish, insects, reptiles or mixing meat and dairy products like in a cheeseburger are non-kosher.

 

Ross Kriel, president of the Jewish Council of the Emirates, welcomed the news as a “wonderful expression of welcome and hospitality” by Abu Dhabi, and saw it as a sign of an influx of Jewish visitors to the Arab country soon. “It is expected that annual number of visitors could be in the range of 150,000 to 300,000. The UAE is a wonderful destination and is quickly equipping itself to receive Jewish visitors,” he told an Israeli daily. His wife Elli runs Elli’s Kosher Kitchen in Dubai, which is the first kosher catering business in the country.

 

The US-based Orthodox Union (OU) announced that it will be the leading kosher certification agency in the UAE. The UAE government requested OU to take up the position after the organization supervised the kosher food served to the Israeli delegation to Abu Dhabi in early September.

 

It will be responsible for kosher food at hotels in the UAE, and at events, including Expo 2020 next year.