The world famous Hazzan (Cantor) of
the Anshe Emet Synagogue, Chicago, Illinois (in the centre)

Could you please tell us something more about yourself?

I am Alberto Mizrahi and I live in Chicago. I started as an opera singer and sang in nine languages but then, as sometimes happens in life, I followed a different career path, a more spiritual one and became a Hazzan (Cantor) of the Anshe Emet Synagogue, Chicago, Illinois. And I am happy with this place in my life.

We are interviewing people from Kraków about keeping kosher. Could you tell us something about keeping kosher in America?

It is much simpler in America than in Poland and a lot of people do. Lots of certified kosher foods are available in shops, even take-away places, there are reliable kosher restaurants - it has grown into a really great business. But this is connected with the much larger community of Jews living in America in comparison to Poland.

Of course, it is an individual decision whether you keep kosher and to what extent. I am kosher and from my point of view it is not really difficult to get what you need. Actually, keeping it is not particularly difficult in and of itself; what makes it difficult is the fact that the rest of the world does not do so (a laugh).

So how do you manage when you come to a place like Krakow where you don’t find kosher food so easily?

If you want you can keep it wherever you are. Of course, in some places it is more difficult than in others, especially if you want to keep it strictly. You see the standards of keeping kosher differ. You will find very strict people who eat only specially certified food products. They will not eat cooked food in a restaurant unless the restaurant has a reliable certification and they won’t accept an invitation to dinner from anyone who does not share their high standards. Other, more lenient people accept grocery store products containing non-kosher ingredients and will eat a non-kosher meal in a restaurant if it’s vegetarian or from non-kosher meat. Quite a few keep stricter standards in their homes than outside.

I personally keep kosher strictly and even just now, while I’m talking to you, a bunch of people is working hard back at the hotel checking every single bean and crumb of food I’m going to get. For me, it is a question of being truthful to my religion and myself. Of course, it requires a lot of self-discipline but it helps me to control my life as well. The thing is that it’s important for everybody to have control over what they do and don’t do in their lives.

So is that what your personal concept of kosher philosophy is like?

Basically, I would say yes but not only mine. It refers to every kosher person. It is a philosophy with certain restrictions but they have a deeper meaning. Man needs limitations in his life to get more human and eventually to get closer to God, which is our ultimate aim, in the end.

Thank you very much

Notes

·         For another point of view, read the interview with Henryk Halkowski

·         To find out more about Alberto Mizrahi see www.opusmagica.com/graphalberto.html

·         For discussion of how the interview was made - see An interviewer’s story and for general guidelines - see How to … conduct a successful interview

Teacher’s note: What did the interviewees actually say? is an activity based on this interview while to test your students’ knowledge of Jewish vocabulary try the matching exercise and follow it up with the crossword

Note: These are authentic ‘live’ interviews therefore you will find some small slips of language

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