How to Be a Kosher Housewife

In an era of labor-saving devices for the home, thousands of American women are voluntarily carrying out additional household chores. Despite rabbinical worries about secularization and the loss of religious identity, a surprising number of modern Jewish women--Orthodox, Conservative and even Reform--have decided to undertake the difficult but homely craft of maintaining a kosher home. "The Orthodox always stood for it," says Jewish Sociologist Marshall Sklare. "Today they stand for it more so. The Conservatives, in the past, stood for it rather passively. Now they stand for it actively. And Reform Judaism has a new sensitivity to the importance of the laws."

The basis for keeping a kosher household is the Halakah, Judaism's Scripture-based code of 613 religious laws that regulate every facet of life. Among the most detailed provisions of Halakah are its dietary laws. Jews, for example, are forbidden to eat meat and dairy food at the same meal, or from the same dishes. By tradition, an observant housewife must have four sets of dishes, silverware and kitchen accessories: one for meat, one for dairy products, and two sets used only during the season of Passover. To avoid the danger of contamination, meat and dairy dishes must be washed and dried separately.

Domestic Trauma. For women who have been raised in an Orthodox family, setting up a kosher household is no great problem. But Mrs. Frances Alpert of Highland Park, Ill., whose parents were nonobservant, found it created a domestic trauma. "At first it was a mess," she says. "We had to buy new pots and pans, new baking utensils, a second glass for the Osterizer, a second set of parts for the Mixmaster." Fortunately, her husband is in the housewares business. Even luckier was Mrs. Sharon Baris, a Radcliffe graduate married to a Harvard-educated corporate lawyer. When she and her husband bought a cooperative apartment in Manhattan, they were able to design their own kosher-style kitchen, with two sinks, two dishwashers--and enough storage space for all the equipment.

Keeping kosher can be a real test of a housewife's menu-planning. Certain foods, such as pork and shellfish, are absolutely prohibited. Kosher meat, which must be slaughtered under rabbinical supervision, has to be drained of all blood before being eaten--which means soaking it in cold water for half an hour and then salting it. In some urban areas, shopping at least is no longer difficult. Nearly 500 food companies produce more than 2,500 supermarket-stocked items that have been approved as kosher by the Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations--including milk substitutes made from soybeans that can be used with meat dishes. Says Mrs. Rachel Weiner, 29, of Chicago: "With all the substitute products today, there's nothing to keeping a kosher house."

Precious Jewel. The Sabbath, on which manual labor is forbidden, presents another challenge for the kosher housewife. Friday is usually a day of frenzied activity--cleaning, shopping, preparing meals in advance for the tranquility and family intimacy of Saturday. There are some personal satisfactions. At sundown, after the wife lights the candles preceding the traditional Sabbath-eve dinner (typical menu: gefilte fish, matzoh-ball soup, chicken or beef, potato kugel), the husband often chants an ancient song of praise for his wife. Drawn from Proverbs 31, it begins: "A good wife who can find? She is far more precious than jewels." Says Mrs. Baris: "I obviously don't need it for my ego, but I've rushed and worked hard all day, and it's nice to hear."

Many Jews are now finding that ritual observance gives them a sense of spiritual exhilaration and a new feeling of Jewish identity. Says Mrs. Alpert: "Let's face it--Jews are different. But today they aren't different as they were in the ghettos of Europe. Today it's a positive kind of difference that we ourselves can choose."

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