Yankee Stadium Goes Kosher – With 7-8 Mashgichim from the OK

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yankee-stadium [See note at end of article.] From a COLlive report: As the New York Yankees took their time winning an 8-6 victory against the Texas Rangers two weeks ago, Thelma Levy sat in the new Yankee stadium.The last time she watched a Yankees game was in 1934. The elder Levy vividly remembers watching the first baseman Lou Gehrig. “I went to Talmud Torah and they took us for an outing to the stadium,” Levy, 85, said flanked by her son, grandson and great-grandson who sported a Yankees cap. “Every morning I listen to the radio with my coffee to hear if the Yankees won or lost,” she told COLlive. “It never dawned on me that I would actually watch another game. And what is more amazing is the Kosher food.”

Yards away from her, one of the five blue concession stands was offering hot dogs, burgers, falafel, deli sandwiches and shwarma, all prepared according to strict kashrus laws. Ouri’s Sports Kosher Catering, the sole provider of Glatt Kosher food for the stadium, is supervised by OK Kosher Certification, led by Mrs. Levy’s son, Rabbi Don Yoel Levy.

“I was completely blown away by the kosher options they had,” said Evan Tuvia Galatz, 26, an accountant from Manchester, CT, who visited with a friend.

ok-food-yankees“For a real ballpark experience, they have kosher hot dogs. And no, not Hebrew National, real kosher hot dogs,” he said. “I went with their order of Chicken Fingers which cost $8 – same price as the regular ones around the stadium.”

An average game has a minimum of 7 to 8 mashgichim. OK’s Rabbi Naftali Marrus is credited with coordinating all the different elements of achieving the Kosher standard.

One of the backers of the Jewish makeover was Ike S. Franco, President and CEO of Franco Apparel Group, who is associated with the Yankees ownership.

“I still remember when I used to go to Prime Grill and miss half of the game, or go to Mr. Broadway and eat on the run,” he told COLlive.

Standing near Don Mosalsky, general manager of the Yankees’ VIP Legends, Franco commented: “This is like heaven. You sit in the lap of luxury, you have the best caterer around with 100 percent Kosher food and you watch your favorite team. This is not just a ball game but a vacation.”

Rabbi Don Yoel Levy (R) of the OK.
Rabbi Don Yoel Levy (R) of the OK.

Customers enjoy Executive Chef Mati Shitrit’s prime rib, American beef sliders and some Mediterranean and Israeli foods such as meat sambusak, hummus spread and mushroom kibbeh.

Back at the field, at the 227 section of the stadium, Uri Kirshner, a 37 year-old lawyer from Wesley Hills, just missed a Maariv minyan that had ended moments before.

Asked about Ouri’s hotdogs and potato knishes, Kirshner said he appreciated the kosher service, but “I wished for more – not just all the same junk food.”

For those delicacies, he would have to pay for the VIP lounge, or get lucky like Danny Koshanfar, a fan for some 20 years, whom we found sitting in an exclusive suite his friend’s father rented for the game.

“We’ve been to many games, but never have we had such gourmet Kosher food,” Koshanfar said. “I wouldn’t have believed it unless I saw it.”

Rabbi Chaim Fogelman, a rabbinic coordinator for OK Kosher Certification, sees it in the same way: “It’s history in the making that Yankees stadium should have a designated Kosher kitchen.”

“We’ve gone a long way to instill the high standards of the OK. Glatt Kosher Chassidishe Shechita, Pas Yisroel baked goods and sealed pre-ordered meals,” he said while touring the stadium in a kippah and tzitzis.

Fogelman said “the upper management of the Yankees have worked very hard to satisfy the most meticulous Kosher consumer.”

Ouri’s Israeli-born owner Ouri Nidam, who worked as a chef in the Israeli Knesset, offers clientele an array of options from a private family viewing to a bar mitzvah that can host 400 people.

Like many others, Mrs. Levy couldn’t thank him enough. The stadium just cannot get more Jewish than this.

Note: Matzav.com does not endorse or condone going to baseball games. Each person should follow the direction of his or her rov, rebbi, rebbe or morah hora’ah. The above report has been posted here as a human interest piece relating to the Jewish community. We thank COLlive.com for the information and photos contained in the report.

(COLlive.com/Matzav.com Newscenter}


16 COMMENTS

  1. devastated,blown apart, shaddered.The entire reason of a jewish frum yeshiva is because over there is pritus w/o a limit treif food and all teivos of olam haze.Then the ok goes ahead and brings in kosher food to make a bracha on food in a place that is so impure!!!and in middle of the article you mention “is not just a luxury , but a vacation” that means to say that once a bachur is in bein hazimanim mode its called a vacation.CHALILAH ,R”L TO SAY SUCH A COMMENT.The whole point of the summer is so that a bachur could repower his body not to go on vcation(but he may goto camp etc…)this that the stadium goes kosher is uprooting the tafkid of this wrld.its a place to prepare for the world to come. i feel disgraced undescribable in words.lets hope with the help of hakodosh baruch hu will prevent any bochrim to go to such games(since there is “KOSHER”),may this idea not start to spread to any other pople in the klal.

  2. to sdr,
    whats the thanks for exactly??do you know how much more agony this will cause parents trying there to tell there children not to go (but now there is “kosher” food)like what pry tell is the thank you in this case exactly???

  3. Soon they will start to put Kosher stands in Theatres, beach broadwalks,night clubs and worse. Shame on these “kashrus” organizations that have stooped to new lows to provide a reason for frum people to hang out in pritzusdige places. Everything today is built around money and these organizations dont give two hoots about whats right, they care about their bottom dollar.

  4. If you noticed the article on top of this?
    The yartzeit of the big Tzaddikim. How happy would they have been? Was this their vision for Klall Yisrooe? Is this what yiddishkeit has come to eating kosher at ball games?

  5. in the rogers center the home of the toronto blue jays they have akosher hot dog stand and they say kosher hot dogs are much better then treif ones i went to a jay game last year i tasted it it was amazing but there really expensive

  6. shmuly, i hate to tell u this but i happen to figure out who u are i cant exactly say how, but omg! i think that u made your point clear already and i think that u shouldve chapped already that sdr comment was not to take for real. and u know something, if u think about it, nebachon those bachurim that go to these games, but at least that they are able to eat kosher instead of treif, ya never know what they can eat there. so whatevet way u look at it, to each their own.
    now lets see if u can figure out who i am, haha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha….. good luck to you!!!!!!!!!!! p.s.- u spell shattered with 2 t’s not d’s -next time

  7. um so what should i say? i dont think that u want your name plastered all over! so um… all i will tell u is, i think that YOU are ging to need 4 seats on the way up to the mts, and…… i think that u know it by now no? have a good night!

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