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[[File:Śmietanka migdałowa.jpg|thumb|Almond creamer marked as neutral (''parve'') and kosher for Passover (and, therefore, also year round). The letter U inscribed inside an O is a symbol of the Orthodox Union, the largest Orthodox Jewish organization in the United States, which has issued a kosher certificate for this product.]]
As I'v ve mentioned in my previous post, there are special organization organizations whose job is to certify foodstuffs, restaurants, hotels, etc. , as kosher. They employ rabbis who carefully inspect the scales on fish, check the lungs of a ritually slaughtered cow cows for any lesions, verify that a food-processing plant sells all of its "leaven" before Passover or that a restaurant uses separate vessels and utensils for dairy and meat. If everything checks out, then they issue an appropriate kosher certificate.
Sometimes you may find a kosher certification symbol even on those products whose kosherness would seem obvious. Gentiles may find it funny or even suspect some kind of rip-off when they see, let's say, a bottle of kosher mineral water. Is there unkosher water? Some folks imagine a rabbi makes kosher water like a Catholic priest makes holy water: taking regular water, saying a short prayer over it, getting his paycheck and there, you've got kosher water! In fact, a rabbi doesn't make water kosher, but only certifies that it already is kosher. To this end he ascertains, for example, that on the way to the bottle the water wasn't pumped through the same pipes that had previously carried something unkosher. When all is said and done, whether something is kosher depends a lot on one's interpretation of the rules. Most of what I wrote above may be easily challenged by someone who will say they rabbi has a different view on this detail or another. There's more than one kosher certifying agency and their criteria aren't exactly the same. There's even more discrepancy among ordinary Jews, both in theory (defining what is or isn't kosher) and in practice (deciding to what extent one is willing to actually follow the rules). There are Jews whose lips will never touch anything they aren't 100% sure to be koshertreif.
When all is said and done, whether something is kosher depends a lot on one's interpretation of the rules. Most of what I wrote above may be easily challenged by someone who will say they rabbi has a different view on this detail or another. There's more than one kosher certifying agency and their criteria aren't exactly the same. There's even more discrepancy among ordinary Jews, both in theory (defining what is or isn't kosher) and in practice (deciding to what extent one is willing to actually follow the rules).
[[File:Katz's Deli - Lunch.jpg|thumb|left|A Reuben sandwich contains meat and cheese, so it isn't kosher, but it is Jewish.]]
There are Jews whose lips will never touch anything they aren't 100% sure to be kosher. On the other hand, there are many Jews who consider the kosher dietary laws ancient superstition and break them with full premeditation. Jewish delicatessens in the United States often sell a snack called Reuben sandwich composed of corned beef and Emmentaler cheese grilled between slices of wheat-and-rye bread. While obviously unkosher, it is nonetheless part of Jewish culinary culture. In Kazimierz, the former Jewish quarter of Cracow, you will find a lot restaurants serving dishes which may look and taste just like traditional kosher delicacies, such as Jewish caviar, cholent or geflite fish. But as long as these establishments use ingredients with no kosher certification, use the same equipment for both meat and dairy and don't sell their "leaven" before Passover, then they're may be "kosher style", but certainly not kosher. Again, there are Jews who will never patronize such places, but there are also plenty of those who wouldn't mind.
And then, there are Jews who try to find the middle ground by following the rules of ''kashrut'', but rather liberally. So, for instance, they keep kosher at home (often treating it more as part of their ethnic heritage than a religious requirement), but then they go to unkosher restaurants. Some employ a kind of presumption of kosherness: if you can't see with your naked eye that something is evidently unkosher, then it's probably safe to eat. There's a custom among the moderately religious part of American Jews to frequent Chinese restaurants (especially on Christmas, when Christian restaurants tended to be closed). Chinese cuisine isn't kosher, but the low amount of dairy ingredients, along with the fact that pork and prawns are finely chopped and hidden inside dumplings or spring rolls, makes it acceptable for those Jews who wish to keep kosher, but not too tightly.<ref> {{Cyt
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