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Kneidlach & Chopsticks at Beijing Olympics


BeijingOlympics.jpgAhead of the Beijing Olympic Games, visitors and members of the Israeli Olympic team will now be able to enjoy kosher food at Dini’s Kosher Restaurant, China’s first mehadrin eatery which by the way offers kneidlach and chopsticks.

One may enjoy dim sum or Moroccan cigars, sweet & sour chicken or kugel, all under one roof, advertised as Shomer Shabbos and kashrus l’mehadrin.

An average meal is 120 yen (about NIS 60), reportedly not inexpensive on Chinese standards, but nonetheless, offering a needed service, one that is expected to attract many of the thousands of Israelis who visit or do business in China.

“The days are gone in which frum Jews must travel to China armed with cans of food,” stated Rav Shimon Freundlich, Chabad’s shaliach to Beijing. According to Ohad Tektiniski, the manager of Dini’s; many Chinese are also coming to the new eatery, interested in the kosher food, which they believe is cleaner. He added that despite their interest, “there are limits,” stating they are not touching the gefilte fish.

The restaurant will be operating 24/6 during the Olympics, supplying 400 daily meals for athletes, members of the Israeli delegation and many journalists covering the international sporting event.

Rav Freundlich, who recently was officially bestowed with the title Rav of the Beijing Olympic Games, explains 7.5 tons of beef and 9 tons of poultry products are anxiously waiting in the freezers for the start of the sporting event.

(Yechiel Spira – YWN Israel)



19 Responses

  1. Anywhere, where ever a Jew may need them, Chabad is there! Mi k’amcha yisroel who care for other Yidden with true self sacrifice and arvus. Yasher Koach, chazak u’baruch (or whatever other brocha Chabad Chassidim use)!

  2. Indeed. Anyone at the Olympics, as treif an event as you’ll ever find, surely should be kashering their soul in addition to their food.

    No Yid of good conscience will be at the 2008 Shmutz event in China.

  3. eli lev and ujm,

    keep your ignorant comments to yourselves.

    perhaps you should not be on the internet since.

    “no yid of good conscience” should be on it.

  4. ujm, While I agree that sporting events are G-d’s way of keeping the gentiles busy and away from anti-semitism, I don’t know if you can call the Olympics a “shmutz” event.

    How many Yidden “of good conscience” go to Yankee or Mets games? I know I see boys who go to cheder and have payos and no TV wear T-shirts with “Jeter” on them. (I’m waiting for the Re’uel and chovav shirts.)

    In short, please don’t generalize about what others Yetzer Tovs should or shouldn’t do, or condemn klal yisrael. We have enough people to do that.

  5. Yidden shouldn’t be at the Olympics…And Yidden shouldn’t live in places that there is no minyan and isn’t a mikom Torah…but they do!!! The Israeli Olympic team and hundreds (if not thousands) of our fellow Yidden WILL be at the Olympics. Maybe you and I don’t care if these wayward Neshomos eat treif, but the Chabadniks care. And for that, I for one, respect them.

  6. 2, you’re correct – sort of. The article states japanese yen, where it should show Chinese yuan, 120 of which do equal approximately 60 ILS, or about $17.50.

  7. BS”D

    No, none of us should be going to the tuma games unless we have business reasons and proper rabbinical guidance to go (ie if someone is involved with a firm that is providing services or sponsorship to the games).

    However, there are tayerer Yidden, spectators, journalists and even athletes, who may not be as fortunate as we are to know the ways of Torah, but who know that it is prohibited to eat treyf. And the availability of good quality kosher food at the games just might inspire a Yid or two to go kosher when they go back home.

    In addition, the athletes from E”Y are observing kashrus while participating and since it is very difficult to bring food from abroad into China, this service makes it possible for them to do so. They know no better regarding participation in such events but that does not mean they or any other Jews are potur from kashrus or any other mitzvah.

    Finally, the currency of China is the yuan, not the yen. Hence the exchange rate confusion.

  8. Please don’t judge people who are athletically inclined who have earned their way to perform at the Olympics. Yes, I understand your points about the Olympics, but don’t take cheap shots to say every Jewish athlete there is on a lower status in the eyes of Hashem in comparison to all other yidden.

    Keep in mind, the way you dress, language you speak, the way you make your living, if you do, to the melodies you hum, may not have their origin purely in the Jewish world. Even the language you study in may not be purely Loshon Kodesh or Hebrew….you get my point even if you don’t agree.

    Leave the judgement for the true Judge and worry about your own activities and thoughts.

  9. #13, You say “Leave the judgement for the true Judge and worry about your own activities and thoughts.”

    So if you see someone spitting on a Sefer Torah will you say leave the judgement for the true Judge and worry about your own activities and thoughts?

  10. Wow, this has blown out of control….
    The kosher food has nothing to do with the olympics. I was there last month, ate and enjoyed!

    Chabad is doing a service for thousands of frum business people all year. This article simply lets those coming to the games know that they too can enjoy kosher food.

  11. #15, chachom.

    Your dispute is not only that of an extreme example that would not necessarily be used to set a rule, but it is also outside the scope of the particulars of THIS story.

  12. #15, chachom.

    I forgot to add that your example means that you equate Israeli athletes with spitting on the Torah. How do you know they don’t learn Torah, observe Shabbos, eat kosher, and, yes, even to what degree. I say leave the status of these athletes up to Hashem.

    When you hear loshon hora or see a lack of derech eretz, from people right near you, do you offer the same harsh opinion that you want to impose on these athletes?

  13. The Chinese don’t like gefilte fish? Why not? They eat everything else! If you can eat scorpions and snakes and cockroaches, surely a bit of meat loaf made from fish is nothing to be afraid of. There’s a Chinese ger in my shul, who makes great gefilte fish!

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