OU Passover Guide for 2010 Now Available

Those charged with cleaning the house for Passover, shopping for seders and eight days of bread-less meals and snacks, and cooking and baking those meals would be a lot more frantic and frazzled if not for the annual OU Guide to Passover A special issue of Jewish Action, the family magazine of the Orthodox Union, this year’s Guide, for 5770/2010, is now available to help facilitate Passover preparation and observance.

There are also many new and interesting features with beautiful photos accompanying them – and the heart of the Guide remains the same: listing food and other products that are certified kosher for Passover by the OU.

The Guide has two basic lists: one with 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; and one with items that do not need a special Passover certification, such as aluminum foil, candles, cleansers, and paper goods, where the regular OU symbol is sufficient for year-round use.

The Guide also discusses halachot (laws) of dealing with the sick, elderly, and small children; basic frequently asked questions on Passover; Passover recipe substitutes; and a primer on koshering common items around the house

Some of the new feature articles that appear in this year’s Guide are “Haggadah Insights,” an excerpt from OU Press’ new book, The Royal Table, an interpretation of the Passover Hagaddah based on Rabbi Norman Lamm’s teachings; “How Mechirat Chametz (selling your chametz) Works,” by Rabbi Dov Schreier; and “Gebrokts (matzah pieces mixed with water) – A Popular Minhag (tradition) Moves the Marketplace,” by Rabbi Nachum Rabinowitz. Rabbis Schreier and Rabinowitz are both rabbinic coordinators at OU Kosher.

Rabbi Rabinowitz declared, “This year’s OU Passover Guide is new and improved, with original articles appearing alongside the regular features that address Pesach- related topics: mechirat chametz, yashan (last year’s crop grains), and gebrokts. A graphically-enhanced and newly-indexed Passover Consumer Guide provides the list of Passover-approved and certified products. We are delighted to be a part of your Pesach preparation.”

The Guide, with a press run of close to 75,000 copies, will be available at ShopRite at the customer service desk and at many smaller kosher supermarkets as well. Yeshiva/day schools and OU synagogues have also received copies of the Guide, and it will be directly available through the mail to all OU members and Jewish Action subscribers. View online at http://wwwoukosher.org/pdf/Pesach_Guide2010.pdf. To order individual copies for $3 each, contact roberta@ouorg or 212-613-8125.