First woman to lead kosher agency feels like ‘Abraham as the first Jew’

The first woman to be appointed to lead a kosher agency has said she feels “as privileged and honoured as Abraham must have felt as the first Jew”. 

Belorussian Jewish educator Miriam Jochelman Peled was speaking after becoming President of Kosh 9009, a leading kosher certification programme in the United States.

I definitely feel very honoured, as Abraham leading future generations from idle worship to the belief in one G-d,” she said. 

Peled, 67, said that it was “not only important for women to be the b’alaboste (the family house leader) in the household, raising children and providing an environment complimentary to worship,” but also to take on other roles.

“What you do in the household as a woman should be emulated outside the household for the community at large,” she said. “I hope as a Jewish woman and the President of Kosh 9009, a precedent is being set.”