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Sue Fishkoff: Red, White, and Kosher

[Sue Fishkoff is the author of the forthcoming “Kosher Nation: Why More and More of America’s Food Answers to a Higher Authority.”]

IN 1972, a TV commercial changed the way Americans looked at kosher food. It showed Uncle Sam munching on a Hebrew National beef hot dog as a heavenly voice assures him it is free of the additives and byproducts present in lesser processed meats.

“We answer to a higher authority,” the voice proclaims. Trust us — we’re kosher....

The Hebrew National campaign also captured a pivotal moment in American Jewish history: a newly confident but still largely immigrant community, basking in Israel’s victory in the June 1967 war, was almost reflexively looking back over its shoulder, not quite sure of its position in the majority-Christian society....
Read entire article at NYT