Some Kosher Authorities Declare Salmon and Other Fish Treif

This week The Jewish Star reported that some haredi rabbis in Israel (as well as some of their American counterparts) have deemed various types of fish treif because they possess a parasitic worm called anisakis. The article quoted a bulletin from "Chevra Mehadrun, the Kashrus Advocacy of Rockland," as advising that "wild salmon, hake, flounder, sol[e], halibut, sea bass, red perch, scrod, pollock, cod and butter fish are no longer considered kosher." It must be noted that many mainstream Orthodox authorities, including the Orthodox Union, do not take this position.

Although this new classification does not yet have a huge following, one must imagine that lox and various other common foods would cease to be staples in kosher cuisine. If a large number of kosher consumers adhered to the new standard, fish consumption among kosher-keeping Jews would likely decrease substantially. At this time, there is no reason to suspect that this will be the case. Considering that fish feel pain and suffer in much the same way that other vertebrate animals do, though, one can still hope that more and more people see that fish are friends, not food!

Frum Satire noted that seemingly outlandish rabbinical bans are not out of the ordinary. The blog offered some hilarious quips to explain the ban, including that fish "is untznius," that this is "[j]ust another way" for rabbis "to control their subjects," and that one of the rabbis mentioned in The Jewish Star's article "doesn’t like his wife’s gefilte fish and this is the only way he can get out of it without embarrassing her."