Roger Horowitz, CHF Cain Fellow and Hagley Museum and Library
Chemical Heritage Foundation
Time: 12:00 - 1:00 p.m.
Place: 6th Floor Conference Room, Chemical Heritage Foundation
Information: 215-873-8289 or bbl@chemheritage.org
Free and open to the public.
The application of kosher law to modern food was a reciprocal process, forcing changes in both kosher law and in the foods that sought kosher status. The problem was that modern food undermined the strict principles of separation that made food kosher, as processing innovations and food chemistry blended together ingredients that were problematic to observant Jews. Yet establishing kosher standards for these new products was not obvious since kosher law contained a raft of exceptions to the strict principles of separation. This presentation will discuss several of the most controversial ingredients in modern food from the standpoint of kosher law and how the debate over their chemical composition determined, ultimately, their kosher status.
Roger Horowitz is associate director of the Center for the History of Business, Technology, and Society at the Hagley Museum and Library, as well as executive director of the Business History Conference. From September 2009 through May 2010 he is a Cain Fellow at the Chemical Heritage Foundation. He has published widely on the food industry, with Putting Meat on the American Table (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2005) his most recent contribution. His talk is part of a project on the modern history of kosher food in America.