Fairfield County, CT – The sale of rainbow color cookies following the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to legalize same-sex marriage throughout the nation has unleashed a torrent of criticism against one local bakery.
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Connecticut-based Challah Connection bills itself as a kosher bakery offering confectionery treats and challahs for Jewish holidays, birthdays, and even shiva visits. But owner Jane Moritz, who was raised in a Conservative home with Orthodox leanings, says she was the recipient of what she describes as “hate e-mails” for posting a picture of rainbow cookies with a message on her homepage that read, “Never have these treasured cookies had such meaning” after the Court’s ruling. Her website also featured a “BUY NOW” button inside a rainbow heart.
Kosher consumers were offended by Moritz’s website, and told her so. “People [were] saying what was wrong with me, how could I be a Jew, how could I be supporting gay marriage, saying that they were never going to order from my company again and they were going to make sure that no one else ordered from my company again,” Moritz told the Jewish Week (http://bit.ly/1NMi9ZD).
This is not the first time Moritz has fielded criticism for her political or religious views. Ten years ago, her bakery advertised and sold black and orange cookies in celebration of Halloween, much to the dismay of her kosher consumers.
The rainbow cookie controversy even spilled over to the OnlySimchas.com website which condemned Challah Connection for its “endorsement and support of a lifestyle and activity that is unequivocally condemned and forbidden by Jewish Law.”
In response, Moritz said, “If that’s the case, so be it. We stand firm in the Jewish values that implore upon us to show compassion and kindness to all beings. We believe in freedom. We believe in love, and compassion – for all people, of every faith, everywhere. We are here to help all people gain more access to wonderful items that have sprung from our Jewish faith. Our customers include Jews and non-Jews alike, and that’s one of the things we love about Challah Connection. We are a conduit to Jewish customs, cultural practices, and of course specialty Jewish foods. But anyone can enjoy the special items we sell, regardless of their religious belief. . . .”
Moritz continued, “This is a big kerfuffle over a cookie. A fabulously delicious cookie. A cookie which is kosher – just like all of the other products at Challah Connection, which are kosher. If we want to have a big Jewish-style debate about rainbow cookies, let’s have it about where their stripes originated, or whether they are more delicious than rugelach. Not about what they mean, or could mean, to people symbolically. Because that is up to each individual person to decipher. We do not pass judgment on anyone’s lifestyle. We are here because we love our religion, and the many values it teaches: education, compassion, and even questioning our own beliefs among them. No one movement, group or sect “owns” Judaism. It belongs to us all and holds a unique place in history as one of the world’s oldest religions. It is not up to us to determine what moves people’s spirit, nor judge the direction in which it moves them.”
but those cookies look so delicious! I just ordered two dozen.
There are some very sick yidden of the Yehuda Levin mindset who have such a sad life and low self-esteem that they strike out against a very successful and ehrliche Jewish entrepreur.
Every Kosher bakery in Brooklyn sells rainbow cookies.
Will the make a rainbow wedding cake?
Im open to anything. Even haloween cookkies, but rainbow color on a day of victoty of toieva makes me vomit
And they’re keeping their hechsher? What if they bake cross cookies? Even then?
This person is extolling actions that are among the most despised in the Torah.
Why should a hashgacha continue for such a store?
Next up: black-and-white cookies pulled for improper support of multiculturalism.
Absolutely hilarious. The most ultra Orthodox shuls and simchas serve these multi color style cakes, thanks for the good laugh!
I recall seeing sugar canes with stripes and all kinds of colors, commonly sold to hang on trees during a certain holiday in December. I have seen a star-K hechsher on the box of 10 packs. Nobody made a fuss about that.
Is that because people are more upset about this aveira than the other? If so what’s behind that???
Sombodey looking for kosher will not buy from them they cannot be trusted,
Whoever wants to proof a point a buy trif go ahead there is lots of yidin eating trif r’l
We live in a country that the majority may rule, however, the minority must be protected also
.Those who protest such things as rainbow cookies that have a label to promote a minority’s stand being sold in a shop should be ostracized is ridiculous. Just wait for” the chickens come home to roost”When one of the protestors children will have the same”problem”
They can sell any kind of cookie they want. You can either buy them or not. I also agree with # 15.
Zomicks, a fabulous bakery with a top hashgacha, sells “gingerbread houses” at Chanukah. And so? We loved them, I bought one every year for a treat for my children, & we are Chassidish. So the woman wants to promote her rainbow cookies (which don’t look particularly enticing)? Good business strategy. Quite honestly, I think she is right in her sentiments. She bakes the stupid things year round, who cares? As for the “buy now” heart – I don’t see anything wrong with that either. I didn’t get it until it was posted. She never says in the add that she supports gay marriage. Leave her alone & worry more about what goes on in YOUR homes.
This is such a bad sample of what religious thuggery does.
This is not against the jewish faith to sell the cookie. She wants to make a funny to market it on that occasion? So what. She is not a rabbi. She is not endorsing gay marriage among yidden and she is just making note of the experience in the general public of American culture.
I can not think that Hashem did not give us judges to make the world a mockery of human design. Gay marriage is not for yidden but the slavery mentality of the gentile has its rights. After all, we do not care if they eat pork either.
But really, I think Hashem likes the verdict. I got up that day, my mother came home and she had a “gay” doormat that has a multicolored rainbow motif with sandals for the beach. We put it outside. I found it coincidental as she has no major political leaning and rationalize that G-d is very funny and maybe he thinks this is a new era. Either way, I did not feel G-d was going to turn my home into Sodom and Gamorreh (cv’s!!!).
But this is a new era in America. Keep your kids in true traditional roles and tell them that the children wanted a different experience. There will be less discrimination.
Hey guys, the problem isn’t the cookie, it’s the apparently frei bakery owner’s support of toeiva marriage, as exemplified by the rainbow heart in her ad. (The comments’ misplaced emphases on the cookie may in part be attributed to the article’s misleading headline, which misplaces the blame on the cookie.)
cookies did not make the gay marriage law. get real!
Let this menuveles sell her cookies to all the perverts!
Because our country got few judges that went so law together with our “great” president – I have a right not to support them!
What a bunch of moronic posters.
The new sauce was not that they are selling rainbow cake.
Nor is is just that it said buy now in a rainbow heart. It is because it said ” Never had these cookies had such treasured meaning” just after the Supreme Court misdicesion.
And that statement was clearly supportive of acts which are forbidden by the Torah. How would all these so called enlightened posters react if a store started marketing something as being supportive of thievery? What a “kerfuffle” would there be. Well this is more strongly condemned in the Torah and it’s telling that if a so called enterprise is marketing themselves as kosher yet publicly laud something which is called an abomination by the Torah.
So, if a kosher wine company sells a few cases to a priest for a church dinner, that would be a problem with kosher status? I seriously doubt that the wine manufacturer would have a problem selling a few more cases. If a kosher establishment also caters to non-kosher clientele and offers products that meet the tastes of non-kosher customers, why would they no longer be kosher? I see this as good business. Cash is green no matter who spends it. The bakery owner is not saying believe in something because of my cookie; rather she is offering a product someone may want to buy. If you don’t like rainbow cookies, buy a black and white? If you think black and whites make a statement, buy a sugar cookie. Or better yet, cut back on calories and have a checked piece of fruit.
I don’t understand what’s so unexpected here? It’s a non-kosher bakery, owned by liberal non-religious Jews, and JINO’s like that usually support gays, as they usually support everything that goes against Jewish values and morality. Of course, I would rather them not, but surprised I am not.
With our Torah viewpoint we know the rainbow is a sign from Hashem that even when people do abominable things that make Him angry, He will never again destroy the world. They didn’t realize why they chose this sign for their group, but it is fitting in our eyes.