Jews & Cheese

Is Cheese Kosher?

Cheese can be kosher!


Cheese is made from milk, so as long as the cheese was made from the milk of a Kosher animal, it was made with kosher equipment, and the cheese was produced under rabbinical supervision.


The cheese, as a product of milk, cannot be eaten with meat - so no cheeseburgers!


The cheese must also be made with microbial (synthetic) rennet rather than with calf rennet, and cannot be mixed with meat.

Cheese in the Hebrew Bible

"[Avraham] took curds and milk and the calf that had been prepared and set these before them; and he waited on them under the tree as they ate." 


"Take these ten cheeses to the captain of their thousand. Find out how your brothers are and bring some token from them.” 


"You poured me out like milk, Congealed me like cheese;"

Cheese on Shavuot

There are only a handful of Jewish holidays that are considered "dairy" holidays - when meat is not traditionally part of the meal.


One explanation for why it is traditional to eat dairy on Shavuot is that once the Israelites received the Torah and learned about the kosher laws, they could not eat any of their meat, which would not have been butchered properly. So they simply ate dairy until they were able to follow the laws for the consumption of meat. There are other explanations too, such as that eating dairy symbolizes how the Israelites were promised a “land of milk and honey.”

Cheese on Hanukkah

There are only a handful of Jewish holidays that are considered "dairy" holidays - when meat is not traditionally part of the meal.


The Shulhan Arukh (a book of Halakhah - Jewish Law) tells us:

“Some say that cheese should be eaten on Hanukkah, because the miracle was done with milk, which Judith fed to the enemy” 

Jews & Cheese Today

Today, cheese has come to be associated with some Jewish foods - such as schmear (cream cheese) on bagels or cheese blitzes - and cottage cheese is an Israeli staple. 

Sources