If you ask a group of Jews whether they keep kosher you'll probably get a lot of "nos." But if you continue by asking, so do you eat pork? Shellfish? Bread at Passover? Any food on Yom Kippur? You'll get a lot of people observe some of the laws of kashrut.
Many Jews define keeping kosher as something that only the Orthodox do properly, yet they hold fast to their own dietary choices.
Whatever you do, is fine. For you. Don't let someone else tell you that you are more or less Jewish based on the food you eat. You may be more or less observant but food doesn't terminate your Jewish identity.
I do believe that every Jew by choice should consider the dietary laws and take on the ones that are authentic to them. Pausing to think about what you eat is part of living mindfully. Much of Jewish law equips you to lead a life of thoughtfulness.
The way I started out is quite different from how I ended. Trying out some dietary practices, however minimally, to explore being Jewish is a good exercise for the new or pre convert. I did that myself, namely excluding pork products, which I previously ate regularly; therefore, it was an actual change. It sort of pained me to give up my daily sliced ham, but I enjoyed the sense that this was one of the things "making me a Jew."
During my first Passover after my (Reform) conversion I went out of my way to observe the laws 100% as much as possible, including details like having no candy bars because they contain corn syrup, for instance. That Passover experience had a radical anti-kashrut effect on me: far from bonding me to kashrut it made me decide that it was all hocus-pocus. It's inconsistent and dishonest to adopt what is effectively an Orthodox practice for one week of the year but ignore other such practices for the remaining 51 weeks of the year. While kashrut is a Jewish practice historically, it's not a Reform practice, historic or current. To me, adopting such dietary practices smacks of "play acting." It's a smoke and mirrors game which gives the illusion of Jewishness but doesn't actually mean or prove anything, certainly nothing Reform.
Far from it expressing insecurity, I think a Reform Jew who is against kashrut is being a tad more legitimate than those who claim to gain something from the relatively arbitrary choice not to eat certain things yet who don't follow the multitude of other "Jewish-making" practices, like not driving on Shabbat or turning on the lights. Reform takes its identity from other elements of religious life, not from relatively meaningless exercises which assume a "holiness" simply because they are done in the name of Judaism. However, this is a big Jewish tent we are all sitting under so a Reform Jew who follows kashrut isn't wrong in my eyes, just looking at it differently.
From CC, a Reform Male
Editor's Note: One clarification: the Reform movement, in the 1999 platform, called for a re-examination of traditional practices, like Kashrut. The movement encouraged Reform Jews to educate themselves in all the mitzvoth, to try doing them, and to make a conscious choice about which ones were meaningful to the individual. Consult your rabbi for a more detailed response to Reform observance.
Here's an entry from one of our readers:
Based on my personal experience, Kashrut is one of the markers that truly sets the Jewish people apart from other peoples. While what you eat is, to a certain extent, an expression of one's individuality, it also expresses how one relates to one's community, friends and family. I cannot stress this point enough. The concept of sharing a meal with one's coworkers, relatives and outer community changes when a person begins to observe some of the Mitzvot of Kashrut.
When I began the conversion process, I ate only hekhshered products both inside and outside the home, but after seeing the negative effects my actions were having with my non-Jewish family members as well as the members of my Jewish community who don't keep Kosher, I made the decision to eat unhekhshered hot dairy, meat and fish (from Kosher animals, and with waiting times between them observed as best I can) outside the home while keeping a Kosher kitchen within my home.
To some, it may be hypocrisy and to others it may be sacrilege, but I've found that it allows me to simultaneously maintain a hold on tradition while having the flexibility to honor the people I care about most by partaking of their hospitality.
By DL, Conservative male
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