NEWS FEATURE: Ice Cream `Taster’ Gives Kosher Test

c. 2004 Religion News Service PALMER, Mass. _ There is something sweet about the Rondeau family’s connection with its Jewish neighbors. And it comes in 36 flavors. As the summer season for 50-year-old Camp Ramah, which has been at its Palmer location since the early 1960s, got under way, the camp mashgiach paid his annual […]

c. 2004 Religion News Service

PALMER, Mass. _ There is something sweet about the Rondeau family’s connection with its Jewish neighbors.

And it comes in 36 flavors.


As the summer season for 50-year-old Camp Ramah, which has been at its Palmer location since the early 1960s, got under way, the camp mashgiach paid his annual visit Rondeau’s Dairy Bar.

Chaim Marom, a resident of Modiin, Israel, comes to the dairy bar to make sure ice cream served to campers is kosher, prepared according to ancient Jewish law.

It’s a job that doesn’t actually require him to sample the ice cream, but Michael Rondeau, who prepares the ice cream, doesn’t resist the impulse to offer Marom a dollop fresh from the machine.

“That’s the way to eat it,” Rondeau said, smiling and brandishing a large mixing spoon.

Since Rondeau’s grandfather Alvin opened the ice cream stand in 1940, the Rondeau family has been preparing batches of kosher ice cream for the Jewish campers.

Before Ramah came to the Thorndike section of Palmer, the site was home to another Jewish camp, which dated back to the 1920s, said Richard Rondeau, Michael’s father and owner of the business.

“They’re our neighbors,” said the elder Rondeau. “We want to be good neighbors.”

As the camp, which is affiliated with the Conservative movement’s Jewish Theological Seminary, adheres to Jewish laws observing the Sabbath and preparation of kosher food, such a friendship requires an annual visit from the mashgiach.

Marom is not a rabbi _ the rest of the year he sells cars in Israel _ and rabbinical ordination is not a requirement for the job, said Sally G. Rosenfield, assistant director of the camp. The job does, however, require knowledge of the array of laws regulating forbidden foods, such as pork and shellfish, and the forbidden combination of milk and meat.


Marom learned the laws at school in Israel, and from 1996 to 1998 worked for Boston’s Vaad Rabbonim, the authority supervising kosher inspections.

Marom checks the bags and cans of sugar, milk and flavorings for a heksher symbol on each one, such as the circled “U” of the Orthodox Union, indicating that the products are certified as kosher. The ice cream mashgiach is done in minutes.

“We just try and make sure that we use the right ingredients for them,” said Michael Rondeau. For instance, in the past they have used Hydrox cookies in their cookies and cream flavor, because Oreos haven’t carried the heksher. But it’s a learning process: Oreos have been kosher for a few years, Rondeau discovers.

The camp, set on 75 wooded acres, is the summer home for 475 young people _ Jews from all over New England and other parts of the Northeast. While there, they enjoy recreation and learning Hebrew and Jewish history and culture.

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Mindy Blonder, who oversees the education of about 95 14-year-olds, came to the camp as a 5-year-old when it first moved to Palmer. She fondly remembers the excursions to the ice cream stand.

“Rondeau’s was tied in with the Ramah experience,” she said.

While the camp has not until recent years had any actual neighbors, they have maintained a good relationship with the locals, many of whom are employed at the camp, Rosenfield said. The non-Jewish staff have even taken to having their own kiddush, the wine-enhanced blessing welcoming the coming Sabbath on Friday night. The camp has inserted a special blessing of thanks for the kitchen staff in its grace after meals.


“It’s a culture they would otherwise not be exposed to,” said Rosenfield. “It’s nice thing for kids to see.”

DEA/JL END RNS

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