Chock full of information about the latest Passover products, Jewish law guidelines, and interesting features, the annual OU Guide to Passover not only possesses a wealth of useful information but also offers varied reading material as a special issue of the Orthodox Union’s Jewish Action magazine. The Passover Guide for 5769/2009 is now available.
Passover is celebrated this year from April 8-16.
The Guide is no longer a mere gray and white compendium of which foods are and are not permitted for Passover. It has evolved into a full-feature, color magazine, an annual special of the renowned Jewish Action Magazine that is distributed to tens of thousands in the OU community each year.
David Olivestone, National Director of Planning and Communications, declared, “Since the annual OU Guide to Passover is one of the major ways in which we reach the public, even beyond the membership of our synagogues, we realized it offers a great opportunity to provide informative articles about how to observe Passover. There are a lot of important guidelines there that can help a family enhance their enjoyment of the holiday.”
The heart of the Guide features food and other products that are approved for Passover use. The OU has compiled two basic lists:
• Items that must have an OU P appear on the label, such as baking mixes, baked products, beverages, candy, condiments, dairy products, matzah products, meat and poultry, olive oil, snack food, wine and liqueurs;
• Items that do not require special Passover certification such as aluminum foil, candles, cleansers, and paper goods, as long as they still have the regular OU certification.
Rabbi Tzvi Hersh Weinreb, Executive Vice President of the OU, noted, “Once again, the Orthodox Union is bringing a vital service to the Jewish community and to the Jewish homemaker in particular. The preparations for Passover are complicated and sometimes onerous. The OU Guide to Passover provides real help and guidance for Passover preparation, and is an aid to both efficiency and kashrut observance. Many thanks to all the many contributors to this Directory, which has become an integral part of the Passover holiday for so many thousands of Jewish homes.”
Once again, this year’s edition includes guidelines concerning the use of medicines on Passover; Passover recipe substitutes; a koshering primer for preparing your home for Passover; and a brief guide to the Passover seder.
Interesting features in this year’s issue include “Getting to Know Your Matzah,” an account of the matzah-baking process and all the intricacies involved; “From Grapes to Kosher Wine,” on how wine is produced from grapes, and the Jewish laws involved; and “A Question of Kitniyot,” an in-depth look at kitniyot (loosely translated as legumes) another food category prohibited by those in the Ashkenazi community.
Additionally, the Guide contains essential information for observing the holiday and articles on making a kitchen kosher for Passover, as well as the counting of the Omer, the 49 days that lead to the Festival of Shavuot. Listed in the Guide are the latest possible times to eat leavened bread (chametz), and for burning chametz, as well as candle lighting times for Passover in major cities across the United States and Canada.
The Guide will be available at ShopRite at the customer service desk and at many smaller kosher supermarkets as well. OU synagogues and Yeshiva/day schools have also received copies of the Guide, and it will be directly available through the mail to all OU members and Jewish Action subscribers. It can be accessed on the OU website, https://oukosher.org/passover/. To order individual copies for $3 each, contact Roberta Levine at roberta@ou.org or 212-613-8125.