kosher travel
Jewish travelers work hard and they play hard and Jewish tourism has been on the rise for years.
What most working middle upper class want is fun for the whole family with an all inclusive kosher holiday. The kosher traveler knows feeding the family is easier in some cities than it is in others. Many Jewish traveling families prefer the glatt kosher catered route for anything more than a picnic to the beach. Getting away for a (Shabbos) Sabbath weekend can be a trick, yet there are many resorts, hotels and country side ins that offer (Shabbaton) Sabbath weekend packages that include room, board, meals and activities.When it comes to your own kitchen, each family holds by their own traditions and standards. Many of these standards have been handed down from generation to generation expressing the very character of who and what we are. The family Jewish traveler comes equipped for Jewish teen travel and that means kosher holiday rentals with youth oriented activities. At the same time family travel also means a kosher travel kitchen for preparing our families meals, or does it? If we rented a place with a kitchen, would it have retained its cleanliness and purity or were the counters, table, sink and utensils possibly no longer kosher. If it was koshered recently then by whom? How then do the Orthodox Jewish families retain their kosher observance while traveling?
The answer is quite simple, Jewish travelers depend on Rabbinical supervision of the food products and restaurants that they frequent. When they travel, they ask their friend and Rabbis about the various Jewish vacation tours available, and as to which ones are the most reputable. The most critical details looked at in the vacation packages are the kosher travel meals, no matter if it's a Disney cruise or an Orlando vacation. What concerns all of the Jewish travelers about the Disney vacation is the certainty of Glatt kosher status on their travel dining itinerary.
The extended vacation kosher standard becomes much more challenging when adding the element of High Holiday. Let's consider kosher Passover travel. What seems to be worrying about the food's kosher adherence can become the trickiest part of the trip, even able to become the thing that takes all the fun out of the trip itself. The best advice here is select a travel package that provides a supervising Rabbi that is reputable and that you can trust, after all, it's you that will be eating the food that he certifies kosher himself. With that said, the correct Rabbi supervising your kosher meals, will lead you to the best Glatt kosher holiday you've ever had.
Hats off to Rabbi Dubov the Chief Rabbi for Florida K, Kosher Services who puts on one of the most lavish Passover Seders around at the Contemporary Hotel in Disney World. As the most respected Orthodox Rabbi in town, Rabbi Shalom Dubov came to town as an emissary of the Lubavitcher Rebbe MHM, almost 20 years ago, He remains today the most reputed halachic authority in the area. Kids have a blast on the intermediary days jumping from the Magic Kingdom to Epcot and then to MGM and the Animal Kingdom. The gourmet kosher buffet showcases a different specialty every night with two full Seders and Seudas Moshiach on the last day. Some families are so big that they would need too many suites at the high dollar hotel.
To catch the larger family niche, Rabbi Konikov, Rabbi Dubov's brother in law and leader of the Southwest Orlando Chabad, has specialized in the exclusive villa market for Passover vacation rentals. With a villa, the kosher vacation takes on a whole other dimension. Extra refrigerators are brought in to supply the 200 villas expected during the 2008 season. Average family and friend occupancy exceeds 20 people per villa. The villas are spread over half a dozen locations so a HIgh Holiday Cantor is needed along with a couple Torah scrolls per location. Before his guests arrive, Rabbi Konikov brings in a dozen or more Yeshiva students and with their help koshers each villa using a fire torch when and where needed, for a strict Passover observance standard.