OK Kosher Certification facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Hechsher of Organized Kashrut Laboratories |
|
|---|---|
 |
|
| Certifying agency | Organized Kashrut Laboratories |
| Founded | 1935 |
| Headquarters | 391 Troy Ave, Brooklyn, NY 11213 U.S. |
| Key People |
|
OK Kosher Certification is a big group that checks if food is "kosher." Kosher food follows special rules from Jewish law. This group is based in Brooklyn, New York. It is one of the five largest kosher checking groups in the United States. OK Kosher also works a lot in Asia.
How OK Kosher Started
In 1935, a person named Abraham Goldstein started Organized Kashrut Laboratories. People often called it OK Labs. He created it to help the Jewish community in America find Kosher food products.
In 1968, Rabbi Bernard Levy bought OK Labs. He had already been working with kosher certification for some years. At that time, the group checked only a few companies. But under Rabbi Levy's guidance, the organization grew a lot. It started checking companies all over the world.
Rabbi Levy made new and better ways to check if products were kosher. Before him, many ingredients were just thought to be kosher without visiting the factories. Rabbi Levy made it a rule to visit every company. He wanted to see how the food was made himself. This led him to check even more companies, as many ingredients were made of other smaller parts. As the group got bigger, Rabbi Levy's son, Rabbi Don Yoel Levy, joined to help expand the organization.
OK Kosher Today
After Rabbi Bernard Levy passed away in 1987, his son, Rabbi Don Yoel Levy, took over the leadership. When Rabbi Don Yoel Levy died in 2020, a group of rabbis called the Executive Rabbinical Council became responsible for OK Kosher.
More than 10 million people in the United States look for kosher products. Because of this, the kosher food business has grown very fast. Today, OK Kosher checks over 140,000 products. These products come from more than 1500 companies around the world. Big food companies like Kraft, Snapple, and ConAgra use OK Kosher. The organization employs over 350 rabbis worldwide to do this work.
Besides giving kosher approval, OK Kosher also teaches people about kosher laws. Many books have been written on the topic. Popular kosher-approved recipes are also shared.
The main office for OK Kosher is in Brooklyn, New York. They also have offices in Europe and Israel. Each year, OK Kosher holds a meeting for its mashgichim (kosher supervisors) at the Jewish Children's Museum. In 2014, OK Kosher won the rights to use the .kosher internet domain name. In 2015, another kosher group called Kehilla Kosher joined with OK Kosher. The agency often adds more restaurants to its supervision, especially in New York.
See also
