Consider the evidence, Ladies and Gentlemen:
One, kosher candy corn changed color around Holloween, from the usual orange/yellow/white to purple/pink/white, so that it would not be thought that good Jewish children were eating candy on a non-Jewish holiday.
Two, the incident of the Ultra-Orthodox man who held up the bus to Jerusalem for more than a half hour and got hauled away by the police, because he insisted that a modestly-dressed woman sit in the back of the bus, and she refused. This event represents a continuation of the pattern, which could be seen for example when on Succot, women in the Mea Shearim neighborhood were forbidden to walk on the streeet at the same time as the men during certain parts of the holiday.
Three, the proposal this week by several memebers of the Israeli Cabinet that would give authority over the electrical usage to the Rabbinate, who are concerned that members of their flock are using electricity improperly over the Shabbat. This would allow Orthodox Rabbis to restrict the flow of energy to all Israeli citizens, religious and non-religious, Jewish and non-Jewish, so that they can control their own.
And now the final straw: since Chanukah and Christmas fall out during the same week and a half, the boxes of Chanukah candles do not contain the color green, thus avoiding a potential snafu of Christmas-like colors in a menorah. Meanwhile, in the States, the Star of David is the hottest selling Christmas tree ornament, go figure...
As a side note, anyone from my generation remember when they temporarily stopped making red M and M candies, because they claimed that the specific dye caused cancer?
3 comments:
I remember a warning going around that all Smarties (like M&Ms) were kohser except for the red ones because they used cochineal (spelling?) in the red dye - some sort of sea animal. Crazy.
YOu are one year younger than me and I never ever had kosher candy corn growing up in Chicago. Nor orange and not purple. I am totally jealous and feel deprived.
I remember the red M&M scandle.
I'm slightly younger than you, but I definitely remember the red M&M ban due to concerns over red lake 40. Red lake 40 supposedly is created from some kind of beetle shell. That specific red dye is used in everything from kool-aid to shampoo, so I never understood why it was just a ban on M&Ms. I actually had a food allergy to red food (natural and artificial) as a kid. The allergy still attacks every few years, but I've been pretty convinced that they changed the dye somehow back then. Very interesting conspiracy theories!
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