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APRIL 5, 2024 | ADAR II 26, 5784 | VOLUME 76, NUMBER 15
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Takis, Oreos, Arizona legislators take a quick trip Skittles and more: to Israel ‘to make up their own minds’ OU experts respond to Arizona’s kosher E questions SHANNON LEVITT | STAFF WRITER
SHANNON LEVITT | STAFF WRITER
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rader Joe’s chili and lime-flavored rolled corn tortilla chips likely got a sales boost in 2022 after Jew-Tok (@.jewtok), a popular purveyor of young Orthodox Jewish culture on the social media site TikTok, released a video of college-aged influencer Avichai Cohen explaining why the chips are a good kosher substitute for Takis, a beloved campus snack that is not certified kosher. After reading the ingredient list on a Takis’ bag, which Cohen likes “because the smell is amazing,” the young influencer discovered that the Trader Joe’s chips had the same ingredients with the added benefit of being kosher. He took a chip from the bag and, after saying a blessing, took a bite and declared, “Wow! Those are good!” Cohen pointed to a symbol on the front of the bag, a capital letter “U” inside an “O,” which denotes the product is certified kosher by the Orthodox Union (OU). Below the video are several questions and back-and-forth discussions from followers about what is and isn’t kosher and why. That video has more than 200,000 likes, and while some people might chuckle at the idea of hordes of young people wandering into the weeds of kosher certification and its vicissitudes, it’s not at all surprising to more than a few Orthodox teens (and probably adults) in Greater Phoenix, as evidenced by the questions they had for OU Kosher rabbis who were in Arizona last month to provide kosher education to the local Jewish community. Laili Schnitzer, Phoenix director for Arizona NCSY (OU’s youth organization) and Jewish Student Union (its public school counterpart), took about a dozen enthusiastic teens
arlier this month, 17 Arizona state representatives, seven Democrats and 10 Republicans, went to Israel to meet with Israeli business, military and political leaders; learn about Israeli society; and speak with COURTESY OF ARIZONA HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES witnesses of the Oct. 7 A group of Arizona legislators went to Israel in March. Hamas attack on Israel, including family members of hostages still in Gaza. Rep. Alma Hernandez (D-20), Tucson’s outspoken Jewish Latina legislator and trip leader, saw the journey as a unique and important experience, one that allowed many of her colleagues a first glimpse of Israel and its people. “I wanted people with different points of view to come, see the country for themselves and be able to ask their own questions,” she told Jewish News. Hernandez has been involved in Israel advocacy since she was 14; even her car’s personalized license plate reads “Zionist” in all caps. She has never shied away from her activism on behalf of the State of Israel but was frustrated by some critics of the trip who accused her of using it as a chance for “propaganda or brainwashing.” “Everyone has the right to their own opinion,” she said. “At the end of the day, education was the purpose of the trip. If anything, we should be glad people want to learn about a topic they don’t know about and a lot of elected politicians don’t know that much about Israel.” Rep. Seth Blattman (D-23), who is Jewish and has been to Israel “twice before but never during a war,” saw the trip as “an opportunity to see the situation firsthand and educate myself on what’s happening on the ground,” he told Jewish News in a text. Daniel Hernandez, Alma’s brother and a former Arizona representative, proposed the March 5-11 trip, helped organize it and went along. Itrek, an organization that sends up-and-coming business SEE TRIP, PAGE 3
‘Fierce’ Phoenix senior Susan Brooks challenges others to be brave and embrace awe. See page 13. PHOTO COURTESY OF SUSAN BROOKS
SEE KOSHER, PAGE 2
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