Keepin’ it Kosher at the Jewish Children’s Museum

What if your family could learn everything you need to know about kosher without ever opening a book? What if your children could command their own shopping experience, and become experts in identifying kosher food? What if learning about kosher was actually fun?

Well, with the Jewish Children’s Museum’s one-of-a-kind, hands-on kosher experience, all this (and more!) is a reality.

One of the most favored exhibits at the JCM is the Kosher Supermarket, a child friendly journey through the ins-and-outs of keeping kosher. The permanent exhibit is sponsored by the OK, which recognized the unique and vital role a museum exhibit would have in spreading kosher awareness.

Chaim Benjaminson, the Marketing Director at the JCM, says, “The OK realized the importance of this project. The theme of this exhibit is getting kosher out there in a practical and fun way. Together with the other kosher companies, the OK is making this happen!”

Thanks to the OK’s generous involvement, children and families from all over the world are not only learning about kosher, they’re experiencing it firsthand.

At the JCM Kosher Supermarket, children get to take the reigns of their own shopping experience. The JCM Supermarket is the busiest shop in town! Children love filling their personal shopping carts and making their own food choices. Set up just like a real grocery store – filled with baked goods, “fresh” produce, and shelf items – everything about the supermarket is kid-friendly. Replicas of real kosher products make the experience true to life. Kids delight in an educational experience, scanning their products for kosher information, and learning about the various kosher symbols. A video called “What is kosher?” answers questions on animals, symbols, and everything a person needs to know about keeping kosher. After choosing all their products, children take them to the check-out counter where a touch screen prompts questions about the product, the appropriate blessings, and more.

After an exciting and informative shopping adventure, it’s time to visit the Kosher Kitchen! So now we know there’s something called kosher food, but what’s a kosher kitchen?! In this kitchen, children learn all about what goes into maintaining a kitchen where milk and meat must always be separated. With a kitchen divider, actual pots and pans, and meat and milk labels, children get a real up-close picture of how to implement kosher laws. The kitchen is stocked with two sets of dishes; red for meat, and green for milk. See what happens when you try to put them together! No matter how hard you try, you can’t get these magnetic dishes to touch!

Seated at the kitchen table, children can watch a real cooking show. Join Eli and his Grandmother in their kitchen and get recipes to traditional Jewish foods.

The JCM’s detailed and hands-on supermarket and kitchen are shaping the way today’s children learn about and relate to keeping kosher. After visiting the JCM, children can confidently walk into a store and determine what’s kosher and what’s not. Moreover, they know the valuable background behind the symbols.

It’s not only children that are reaping the benefits of the JCM Supermarket. Because of the real-life product replicas, many kosher companies are using the JCM Supermarket as an opportunity to promote kosher awareness while getting their products seen. Companies such as Kraft, Tropicana, Sabra, Shoprite, Streits, Manischewitz and more have their products displayed on the JCM Supermarket shelf, giving their products a unique hands-on exposure to an audience showing increased interest in expanding their kosher involvement.

All around, children, families and companies are getting more involved in kosher awareness. One mother reported, “Ever since going to the Museum, my children love helping pick out kosher products when we go to the supermarket!”

Indeed, there’s no other place to get such hands-on fun learning. So get your shopping list ready and plan a visit to the JCM to learn what it really means to keep it kosher!