Scientists at Hebrew University are helping to raise Israel’s first sturgeon population at Dan in the Upper Galilee. Female sturgeon produce caviar, and the average fish can produce $3,000 worth of caviar a year. The kibbutz is now raising 40,000 sturgeon in outdoor pools.
The only problem? Most scholars agree that sturgeon isn’t . Sturgeon don’t have visible scales, and it doesn’t make most lists of kosher fish.
However, Professors Berta Levavi-Sivan, the woman behind the project, disagrees.
“If you ask me, it’s kosher! I can even prove it has scales,” she says, insisting that the sturgeon does in fact have tiny scales that can be viewed with a stereoscope.Â A number of Jewish sages – including the 12th century Jewish rabbi and scholar Maimonides – approved the of a fish called the “esturgeon.” However, it has yet to be determined whether this is the same fish as the sturgeon. (MORE)
Now if only I could get a researcher to look at a chicken Caesar salad with stereoscope to prove that chicken and cheese can’t possibly come from the same animal.
Pronounced: kahsh-ROOT, Origin: Hebrew, the Jewish dietary laws.
Pronounced: ki (short i)-BOOTZ (oo as in book), Origin: Hebrew, a collectively owned and run community in Israel.
Pronounced: KOH-sher, Origin: Hebrew, adhering to kashrut, the traditional Jewish dietary laws.